In recent years, I have dedicated multiple columns to an emerging, two-pronged reality in men’s college basketball:
1.) The elite coaches who have long stood atop NCAA hoops are aged and aging;
2.) There are no obvious rising stars — a la Brad Stevens and Shaka Smart at the start of the past decade — in college coaching who have clearly stamped themselves as “next.”
This spring, we have seen the “prestige gap” in the college basketball coaching carousel move front-and-center. First, North Carolina’s Roy Williams and, now, Duke’s Mike Krzyzewski have announced their departures from two of the marquee head-coaching jobs in the college sports industry.
As replacements, UNC and Duke have each looked in-house to assistants with no head-coaching experience.
Former Tar Heels star player Hubert Davis, 51, will make his head-coaching debut at UNC in the coming season. Jon Scheyer, 33, one of the leaders of Duke’s 2010 NCAA title team, will move up from Blue Devils associate head coach to replace Krzyzewski in 2022-23 after Coach K takes a farewell tour this winter.
At North Carolina, the former coach had 903 career wins, three NCAA titles and nine Final Fours (five at Carolina, four at Kansas).
The new coach has zip, zilch, zero career victories outside of North Carolina’s JV program.
At Duke, the soon-to-be-former coach has 1,170 career wins, five NCAA championships and 12 Final Fours.
The new coach has zip, zilch, zero career victories of any kind.
Krzyzewski, 74, and Williams, 70, are only the front guard in what must soon be an exodus of men’s hoops coaching legends. Syracuse’s Jim Boeheim is 76, Michigan State’s Tom Izzo 66 and Kentucky’s John Calipari 62. On Christmas Eve, Villanova’s Jay Wright will turn 60. Two days after Christmas, Bill Self of Kansas will be 59.
It is interesting to ponder if, in promoting assistants, Duke and North Carolina have lowered the hiring standard across the board in college hoops — including for Kentucky’s next coaching search, whenever that may be.
Under a very “coach-friendly” contract, Calipari is slated to lead the Kentucky program through the 2028-29 season. Starting at the conclusion of the 2023-24 season, Calipari has the option to opt out of coaching and become a university goodwill ambassador/fundraiser for almost $1 million a year.
Kentucky’s next search will be shaped by when Calipari chooses to stand down as top Cat.
The dynamics that govern coaching searches are unique to individual schools.
North Carolina has a long history of keeping its head-coaching job “within the family” — which, obviously, limits its pool of candidates.
In replacing Krzyzewski with a former player off the Blue Devils’ current coaching staff, Duke replicated the manner in which Kentucky replaced its own coaching icon, Adolph Rupp, in 1972.
Then, UK went with former Wildcats player and Rupp’s top assistant, Joe B. Hall (though Hall did have prior college head coaching experience from “down the food chain” at Regis College and Central Missouri).
Hall then proved that Kentucky was a program larger than one great coach by leading the Wildcats to one NCAA title, three Final Fours and six Elite Eights in 13 seasons.
Scheyer’s task will be to do for Duke after Coach K what Hall did for UK following Rupp.
It appeared from the outside that Williams and Krzyzewski each essentially named their successors.
Will Calipari have similar sway in the selection of the next UK coach? After this past season’s competitive collapse (9-16 record), that may depend on whether he can get the Kentucky program back on top by the time of his exit.
In comparison to UNC and Duke elevating assistants, if UK could lure Jessamine County native Chris Holtmann, 49, to leave one of the best head-coaching jobs in the Big Ten at Ohio State to return to his home state, it would be a slam-dunk hire.
(For those Kentucky fans infatuated with Alabama Coach Nate Oats, 46, and his free-wheeling offensive system, you likely want to root for Calipari to remain as UK head coach for three-to-four more seasons.
After leading Alabama (26-7) to the SEC regular-season and league tournament titles and a berth in the NCAA Tournament round of 16, Oats was awarded a three-year contract extension through the 2026-27 season.
Oats’ pact in Tuscaloosa comes with a descending buyout. If he left after next season, Oats would owe Bama $12.57 million. However, by the end of the 2024-25 season, that buyout would be down to a manageable $2.41 million — and there would be no buyout at all after the following two seasons).
The hires at North Carolina and Duke would seem to make current New York Knicks and former longtime UK assistant Kenny Payne, 54, a more viable candidate for a potential Kentucky vacancy even though he has no head-coaching experience.
They also likely make former UK player and current BYU Coach Mark Pope, 48, a more realistic option even though Pope’s head-coaching experience level (four seasons at Utah Valley, two so far at BYU) is currently fairly light.
Bottom line: What has happened at Carolina and Duke, at the very least, alters how one now looks at potential Kentucky head-coaching prospects.
