Even though it is midseason and the hardwood is heating up with competition in conference play, it is never too early to start thinking ahead as many coaching changes are made at the end of each season. The following are seven basketball coaches who should be in a head coaching position next fall. This list includes former head coaches, as well as current assistant coaches that are rising stars.
1) Donnie Tyndall – Unfortunately Tyndall was let go by Tennessee AD Dave Hart for alleged violations at Southern Miss, however with Tyndall’s coaching acumen and success (21 wins per season), he should be back in a head coach’s chair as soon as the situation is cleared up. Nothing has been proven against Tyndall in a myriad of supposed violations that were actually alleged by a former rogue assistant. He won 56 games in two years at USM with RPI numbers of 29 and 31, so the NCAA had no love for the Golden Eagles to begin with. Tyndall was recruiting a caliber of athlete that had never been seen on the hardwood in Hattiesburg. This came on the heels of a six-year run at Morehead State, a perennially tough place to win, where Tyndall took the Eagles to two NCAA tournaments and pulled an upset of Louisville in the first round in 2011. In Tyndall’s first nine years as a head coach, he had more wins than Rick Pitino and Bill Self in the same period of time. As soon as the NCAA troubles are behind him, there should be a long list of athletic directors with Tyndall on speed dial.
2) Rick Stansbury – MSU firing Stansbury was a head-scratcher in the first place. He had 293 wins, five regular seasons SEC titles and won two SEC tournaments. Possibly the reasoning had to so with the Bulldogs not pushing past the NCAA Tournament’s first weekend in the Stansbury-era. He joined his friend, Billy Kennedy, at Texas A&M, last season and was elevated to associate head coach this spring. A great recruiter, Stansbury is a major reason the Aggies had a Top 5 recruiting class for 2015 in College Station. Now, as the 2015-16 season has unfolded, Stansbury is a huge reason that Texas A&M is one of the favorites to win the SEC.
3) Tim Jankovich – The former Illinois State coach joined Hall of Famer Larry Brown at SMU and the Mustangs wasted little time getting to the NCAA Tournament in the third year of Brown’s tenure. Jankovich was given the coach-in-waiting title upon joining Brown and coached the Mustangs this season while Brown was given a nine-game suspension by the NCAA. He has also a major part of the Ponies’ recruiting success with Nic Moore, Markus Kennedy, Shake Milton and the pursuit of Emmanuel Mudiay, just to name a few. As he won 20.5 games per season with the Redbirds, Jankovich climbed the ladder on the list of “coaches to watch,” in being a noted assistant to Bill Self at Kansas, as well.
4) Robert Kirby – Here is a situation where a very talented coach is long overdue to run his own program. Kirby has been an assistant at Houston, Mississippi State, Georgetown, LSU and now Memphis. He is a stellar recruiter who has an excellent depth of knowledge and is a fixture during games in offering ideas. Kirby is a Memphis native, but to be able to have a head coaching job, he most assuredly would listen to offers. With his experience, he probably can be selective until the right position for him is offered.
5) Bob Cantu – Tim Floyd’s right hand man at UTEP is long overdue for a head coaching gig that doesn’t have “interim” in front of “head coach.” The southern California native spent 12 seasons prior to coming to El Paso as a USC Trojans assistant, associate head coach, and of course interim head coach in 2012-13 when Kevin O’Neill was fired in the midseason. The Trojans finished 9-9 under his tenure and beat five teams that either went to the NCAA Tournament or NIT. Cantu is noted as an excellent recruiter and knows the California recruiting trails as well as anyone in the game.
6) Joe Pasternack – The Arizona assistant is a hot commodity who is close to becoming a head coach in the near future. He actually was on the Cal Bears’ short list when Cuonzo Martin was hired in the spring of 2014. He had some bad luck a few years ago when he was the head coach at the University of New Orleans and in 2009, the Privateers dropped in playing level from the Sun Belt to Division III. UNO made it back to D-1 as an independent and he was able to put a team together and get 16 wins in that first season. This definitely speaks to his creativity and ability to get players to work for common goals within their chemistry.
7) Dane Fife – The former IPFW Mastadons coach is in his fourth year with Tom Izzo at Michigan State and should be on his way to a head coaching job very soon. As the coach at IPFW, he took the job at age 25 and was the youngest coach in the nation. After playing on Indiana’s NCAA Final Four team which lost to Maryland in 2002, Fife coached with Mike Davis with the Hoosiers for two years. With Fife’s credentials at a young age, he should be elevated into a head coaching job soon.
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