With the first round of the NCAA tournament tipping off Thursday, a fun storyline to track this March is a number of former college basketball stars coaching in this year’s Big Dance. There are several coaches taking their teams to the NCAA tournament for the first time, and a couple seasoned veterans returning their programs to March Madness as well.
Here’s a list of eight former college basketball legends coaching in this year’s men’s NCAA tournament.
Johnny Dawkins, UCF Knights
This list begins with Dawkins, who remains one of the best players in the storied history of Duke men’s basketball. Dawkins, a two-time consensus first-team All-American, starred for the Blue Devils from 1982-’86. For years, Dawkins was the school’s all-time leading scorer with 2,556 points—a record that was eventually broken by JJ Redick.
Dawkins never won a national championship as a player, but boy was he close. Dawkins was a member of the ‘85-’86 Blue Devils team that lost by three in the national championship to Louisville. He averaged 20.2 points per game that season.
After a nine-year NBA career with the 76ers, Spurs and Pistons, Dawkins transitioned to coaching, serving as an assistant coach under Mike Krzyzewski at Duke for a decade before taking over as Stanford’s head coach. After eight years with the Cardinal, Dawkins took over as UCF’s coach, where he is in his 10th season and may have his best team yet. UCF takes on UCLA in the first round of the NCAA tournament this year, which marks the second time that Dawkins has taken the Knights to the Big Dance.
Jon Scheyer, Duke Blue Devils
Speaking of Duke, Scheyer starred for the Blue Devils from 2006-’10, where he was a consensus second-team All-American in his senior season and led the Blue Devils to a national championship. He was one of the best players on Duke’s national title team, leading the Blue Devils in scoring with 18.2 points per game, and in assists with 4.9 per game.
After a short international playing career, Scheyer, like Dawkins, joined Coach K’s bench as an assistant in 2014, and has taken over admirably as Krzyzewski’s successor, leading the Blue Devils to two ACC regular season crowns, three ACC tournament titles, and a Final Four a year ago.
This year’s Duke team might be his best, especially when it's at full health. The Blue Devils have a great chance to make another deep run, and perhaps cut down the nets in early April.
Nolan Smith, Tennessee State Tigers
Scheyer’s backcourt mate, Nolan Smith, has also followed a familiar path to other Duke basketball legends under Krzyzewski in transitioning into coaching. Smith scored 17.4 points per game as a junior in the 2009-’10 season when the Blue Devils won a national championship, forming a three-headed monster offensively with Scheyer and former Duke star Kyle Singler. Smith was a first-team All-American in his senior season, which ended with a Sweet 16 loss in the 2011 NCAA tournament.
Following his college career, Smith enjoyed a brief pro career both in the NBA and abroad before also joining Krzyzewski’s staff—a familiar trend—in 2016. Smith would go on to serve as an assistant at Louisville and Memphis before taking over as the head coach at Tennessee State this season. In his first year at the helm, the Tigers went 23–9, capturing the OVC regular season title and the conference tournament title to advance to the Big Dance. The No. 15 seed Tigers take on No. 2 seed Iowa State in the first round of the NCAA tournament.
Gerry McNamara, Siena Saints
McNamara started every single game of his four-year career with the Orange, with the highlight being the lead guard on Syracuse’s 2003 national championship team alongside Carmelo Anthony. McNamara started 35 games that season as a freshman, averaging 13.3 points per game on 40.1% shooting from the floor and a 35.7% mark from three. McNamara, who was known for his strong perimeter shooting, went on to play three more seasons for the Orange, where he averaged 15.5 points per game over his career on 37.5% shooting overall which included a 35.4% mark from deep.
McNamara spent time overseas and in the NBA Developmental League (now known as the G League) before eventually transitioning into coaching in 2009. He served on Jim Boeheim’s bench to kickoff his coaching career, first as a graduate assistant and later as an assistant. He took over as the head coach at Siena in 2024, and in just two short seasons has gotten the Saints in the NCAA tournament. McNamara led Siena to a 23–11 season and a MAAC tournament championship this season, and is in play for Syracuse’s head coaching opening this offseason.
Siena will face No. 1 Duke as a 16-seed on Thursday as McNamara coaches in his first NCAA tournament.
Rod Strickland, Long Island Sharks
While Strickland may be best known for his near-two decade NBA career, he starred at DePaul for three seasons, where he was named to two All-American teams and led the Blue Demons to three NCAA tournament appearances and two Sweet 16s in 1986 and ‘87. In 87 career games, Strickland averaged 16.6 points per game, 6.4 assists and 3.4 rebounds on 53.4% shooting. He remains one of the best players in school history, with his No. 10 jersey retired by the DePaul program.
Strickland played 17 years in the NBA for nine different franchises, with his best season coming in the 1997-’98 season with the Wizards, where he averaged 17.8 points and 10.5 assists en route to being named second-team All-NBA.
Strickland’s playing career ended with the Rockets in 2005 and a few years later, he served as the director of basketball operations at Memphis under John Calipari in 2008, and followed him to Kentucky, where he served first as an assistant and later in an administrative role until ‘14, when he joined South Florida’s bench as an assistant.
Strickland earned his first head coaching opportunity in 2022 at Long Island, where he has rebuilt the Sharks’ basketball program. After winning just 10 games in his first two seasons, Long Island went 24–10 in the NEC this season, capturing the regular season title and conference tournament championship for his first NCAA tournament bid with the program. The team has increased its win total each year of Strickland’s tenure, and he could be in play for high-major openings in short order for the turnaround he’s engineered at Long Island.
For now, the Sharks will try to pull off the improbable by taking down No. 1 seed Arizona in Strickland’s first NCAA tournament appearance as a head coach.
Speedy Claxton, Hofstra Pride
Hofstra legend Speedy Claxton was a four-year starter for the Pride from 1996-’00, where he averaged 16.9 points, 5.5 assists and 4.8 rebounds and was a first-team All-Conference selection three different times in the American East conference, and a two-time Conference Player of the Year. In his senior season, Claxton led Hofstra to the American East title over Delaware, and the school’s first NCAA tournament appearance since ‘76.
Claxton was a nine-year professional in the NBA, and was a member of the Spurs’ NBA title team in the ‘02-’03 season. He joined Hofstra as an assistant in ‘13, and took over as the program’s head coach in ‘21. He has led the Pride to four 20-plus win seasons, including 24 this season and added a CAA tournament crown that earned the program an auto-bid to the NCAA tournament for the first time under his leadership.
No. 13 Hofstra will take on No. 4 Alabama in the first round.
Mark Pope, Kentucky Wildcats
Mark Pope began his college career at Washington before transferring to Kentucky in 1994. Pope served as a key reserve for Big Blue during the ‘95-’96 season under Rick Pitino, when the Wildcats captured the national title.
In his senior season, Pope served as a team captain and came off the bench to average 7.6 and 5.2 rebounds.
Pope would go on to play overseas and later for five seasons in the NBA before getting into coaching. After serving as an assistant at Georgia, Wake Forest and BYU, Pope got his first head coaching job at Utah Valley in 2015. He went 77–56 in four seasons before returning to BYU to take over as head coach. Pope went 110–52 with the Cougars in five seasons, with two NCAA tournament appearances. When John Calipari took the Arkansas job two years ago, Pope returned to his alma mater and has now made the NCAA tournament in back-to-back seasons with the Wildcats.
Kentucky is a seven-seed, and will take on Santa Clara out of the WCC in the round of 64.
Hubert Davis, North Carolina Tar Heels
Davis spent four seasons playing for the Tar Heels from 1988-’92 across 137 career games, averaging 11.8 points per game while shooting a blistering 43.5% from three. Davis remains among the program’s best three-point shooters ever, and was a key member of the school’s ‘92 Final Four team.
Davis played in the NBA for 12 years for six different franchises before retiring in 2004. Following his playing career, Davis got into television as a college basketball analyst for ESPN before joining North Carolina as an assistant under Roy Williams in 2012. When Williams retired after the 2021 season, Davis took over and immediately guided North Carolina to a national championship appearance in the ‘21-’22 season. Including this year, Davis has taken the Tar Heels to the tournament in four out of his five seasons, and won an ACC regular season title in the ‘23-’24 campaign.
North Carolina is without its best player in Caleb Wilson heading into this year’s NCAA tournament, and faces a dangerous 11-seed in VCU in the first round.
More March Madness from Sports Illustrated
Listen to SI’s college sports podcast, Others Receiving Votes, below or on Apple and Spotify. Watch the show on SI’s YouTube channel.
- Road to the Final Four: March Madness Predictions, Picks for 1st-Round Games
- SMU’s March Madness Berth Raises Questions After B.J. Edwards Injury Controversy
- March Madness Rankings: Every Men’s NCAA Tournament Team From No. 1 to 68
- 40 Top NBA Draft Prospects to Watch During March Madness
- Gerry McNamara Leads Siena Into March Madness Amid Syracuse Coaching Buzz
This article was originally published on www.si.com as Eight College Basketball Legends Now Coaching in the Men’s NCAA Tournament.
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