College basketball coaching carousel grades, four years later: The best and worst from the 2022 hiring cycle
The fairest way to grade is to let time do its thing. Matt Norlander looks back at the hirings from four years ago and hands out appraisals
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Matt Norlander
Apr 28, 2026
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10:18 am ET
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15 min read
In 2017, I went to my editors and made the pitch: Let’s resist vapid clickbait fodder and stop “grading” hirings before these coaches have even led one practice with their new teams, let alone been on the sideline for a single game. You can’t properly grade something if you have no results from which to judge.
We can, instead, exhibit patience and actually grade athletic directors on their hirings a full four years after the coaches got those jobs. Sure it’s antithetical to the entire premise of the sports internet’s news consumption cycle, but I’m happy to say this is now the 10th edition of my Grade the Coaches Four Years Later exercise. Scroll below and you’ll notice a few template updates, including naming the ADs responsible for making the hirings.
With it being 2026, we’re looking back at the 2022 cycle, which in retrospect started a run on high-major coaching turnover that hasn’t really stopped in the years since. Every March/April since 2022 has been especially crowded and highlighted by top-10 job openings. In ’22, Mike Krzyzewski’s one-of-a-kind career came to an end. Louisville opened, as did Florida. In total, 14 power-conference jobs changed, the most in one cycle ever (a record tied with other carousels in the 2020s).
I’m a notoriously fair but picky grader. Every job is different; there is no universal standard. For previous years, my report cards for 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020 and 2021‘s hiring cycles are linked therein. For the updated template below, all ADs with an asterisk next to their name are no longer at that school. Let’s hand out some letters.
MORE FROM NORLANDER: The best 2025-26 quick-impact college basketball hirings
Grading 2022’s high-major hires
Dennis Gates, Missouri
Overall record: 75-59 (.560) NCAA Tournament record: 1-3 Average KenPom finish: 69th AD responsible: Desireé Reed–Francois* Grade: B-
The Tigers have had three solid seasons and one bizarre bottom-out under Gates. In 2023-24, Mizzou finished 8-24 and didn’t win a game in the SEC, a disastrous sophomore season that fortunately did not doom Gates’ situation. In all other seasons, he’s guided the Tigers to the NCAA Tournament: No. 7 seed in 2022, No. 6 in 2025, No. 10 in 2026. Just one March Madness win since he got there, but in those three tourney-level seasons, Missouri was also above .500 in conference play and twice had a top-10 per-possession offense. The best KenPom finish was the 2024-25 team that was upset in the first round of the tournament by Drake and finished 19th. Next season’s team has a chance to be Gates’ best yet, thanks to a bucket-getter/top-five 2026 prospect Jason Crowe Jr.
Meet Jason Crowe Jr., the most prolific scorer in high school hoops, who could change Missouri’s fortunes
Cameron Salerno
Todd Golden, Florida
Overall record: 103-41 (.715) NCAA Tournament record: 7-2 Average KenPom finish: 27th AD responsible: Scott Stricklin Grade: A-
A national championship, an outstanding overall record and a return to prominence for Florida since bringing on Golden. UF has moved back into that space it occupied for the better part of a decade in the back half of Billy Donovan’s career: It is one of the 10 best programs in the game. Golden, 40, has done so well so quickly that he’s in the midst of his third contract negotiation with Stricklin. (Don’t worry, Gators fans: He’s not going anywhere anytime soon.)
Two factors stopped me from going with an A grade here. No. 1, I grade all four years equally. Florida was a forgettable 16-17 in Golden’s first season, so he hasn’t made the tournament every year since arriving. No. 2: The infamous Title IX investigation — in which Golden was cleared — was nonetheless a major negative mark against his name and the university as that probe played out for more than half of Golden’s third season with the program. Nevertheless, the Gators are set to ascend again. Golden should have the preseason No. 1 team (just the second time in school history; 2006 being the other year) thanks to the returns of Thomas Haugh, Alex Condon, Boogie Fland and Rueben Chinyelu (who is going through the pre-draft process but will be back, barring a shocker).
Golden’s Gators won a natty, had two No. 1 seeds and could be preseason No. 1 in October.
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Shaheen Holloway, Seton Hall
Overall record: 70-65 (.519) NCAA Tournament record: 0-0 Average KenPom finish: 91st AD responsible: Bryan Felt Grade: C
I tend to grade on a curve depending on how tough the spot is. Holloway’s at probably the second-toughest job in the Big East (to DePaul). He hasn’t made an NCAA Tournament yet, but remember that Seton Hall narrowly missed the Big Dance in 2024 due to numerous bid thieves. That team won the NIT, finishing with 25 wins. This past season, SHU was the fourth-best team in a down year for the Big East. The Pirates went 21-12 after comfortably being picked to finish last in the preseason. Locally, Holloway’s gone 36-49 against Big East foes and has been one-and-done in the league tournament three times. It hasn’t been as good as they’d hoped it would be through four seasons, but believe me when I tell you the Hall could be in a much worse place with a different guy in charge.
Chris Jans, Mississippi State
Overall record: 76-59 (.563) NCAA Tournament record: 0-3 Average KenPom finish: 56th AD responsible: John Cohen* Grade: C+
Jans was considered among the best fits in the 2022 cycle when he arrived in Starkville after coaching New Mexico State to four seasons of 25 or more wins in a five-year span. The Bulldogs were reliably decent in Jans’ first three runs: NCAA Tournament bids and 21 wins apiece in all of those three seasons. Year 4 was a big fall-off, though. MSU is emerging out of a dour 13-19 season that witnessed the school land outside the KenPom top 100 for the first time in 11 years. This is considered the least desirable job in the SEC, so for Jans to have won 56% of his games and made the Big Dance three out of four times, it’s a win of a hire even if last season dropped his grade into the C+ category.
Thad Matta, Butler
Overall record: 87-77 (.530) NCAA Tournament record: 0-0 Average KenPom finish: 85th AD responsible: Barry Collier* Grade: D+
I never endorsed the hire from the outset. Matta had the credibility, but there were real concerns about his ability in the 2020s to keep up with an increasingly evolving industry. Matta lasted four seasons, never had Butler in the mix in the Big East and didn’t stoke the flames in Indianapolis. His second stint at his alma mater was notable only for getting him to 500 career wins. (He left last month with his total sitting at 502.) Remember, Butler is only in the Big East because of what the school accomplished when Brad Stevens was the coach. It will likely never be an upper-echelon program in that conference, but it can consistently be in the 4-7 range if it has the right guy in charge. With Matta out, Stevens’ former BU point guard, Ronald Nored, will try to be the guy to get Butler back to the NCAA Tournament. The Bulldogs last played in one in 2018.
Matt McMahon, LSU
Overall record: 60-70 (.462) NCAA Tournament record: 0-0 Average KenPom finish: 99th AD responsible: Scott Woodward* Grade: D
A sensible hire in 2022, McMahon arrived from Murray State, where he coached three NCAA Tournament teams in a five-year span and also recruited/developed Ja Morant into a top-two pick. At LSU, McMahon never got it going. The Tigers were mostly bottom feeders in the cutthroat SEC. The Bayou Bengals’ best season under McMahon was the 17-16 run in 2023-24, and even then, it was only good enough for a 9-9 finish in that league. In the NIL era, McMahon wasn’t given a lot of favors. LSU ranked near the bottom in basketball financial commitment over the past three years. LSU’s leadership could have done more, but that lack of support was embarrassingly reinforced by his poorly handled firing in mid-March. Instead of cutting him loose immediately at the end of the season, LSU brass waited and lured Will Wade. Then McMahon was sent packing. At least he’s rich like every other former LSU coach. McMahon was paid a little more than $8 million in additional compensation for the early termination.
Sean Miller, Xavier
Overall record: 65-40 (.619) NCAA Tournament record: 3-2 Average KenPom finish: 38th AD responsible: Greg Christopher Grade: C+
Miller is no longer in Cincinnati, and although things are looking really good for him heading into Year 2 at Texas, I docked him from a B- to a C+ for how he handled a turbulent and furtive exit out of Xavier in March of 2025. He’s essentially persona non grata in that city from here on out, particularly because he chose to return to Xavier after his firing at Arizona, only to say “see ya” when things seemed to be trending in the right direction. Prior to his leave, Miller, at the very least, had Xavier in a better spot than it was in the four years prior under Travis Steele. In Year 1, the team was a 3-seed that made the Sweet 16 and finished with 27 wins. Year 2 was a duff at 16-18, but then the 2024-25 campaign saw Xavier squeak into the NCAAs in the First Four. I can’t help but wonder if Miller would still be there had the second season been a lot better.
Xavier gave Miller another shot a year after his firing at Arizona. He left X in 2025 for Texas.
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Lamont Paris, South Carolina
Overall record: 62-68 (.477) NCAA Tournament record: 0-1 Average KenPom finish: 110th AD responsible: Ray Tanner* Grade: D+
Paris is still coaching in Columbia but is clearly on the hot seat heading into Year 5. The Gamecocks had one quality season in Paris’ first four years; the other three were bad-bad, averaging out to 12 wins per season. The one good season was 2023-24, when the Gamecocks got a No. 6 seed after winning 26 times. That team had Collin Murray-Boyles as a freshman alongside senior BJ Mack in the frontcourt. Unfortunately for Sakerlina, it was knocked out immediately in that NCAA tourney, losing by 14 to Oregon in the first round. Paris’ contract made him hard/impossible to fire after last season’s 13-19 go of it. An average KenPom finish outside the top 100 after four years is harrowing. The Gamecocks need to make the 2027 NCAA Tournament, or else.
Kyle Neptune, Villanova
Overall record: 54-47 (.535) NCAA Tournament record: 0-0 Average KenPom finish: 48th AD responsible: Mark Jackson* Grade: C-
If you were expecting a lower grade, you weren’t really paying attention to the big picture. Neptune was a disappointment; there’s no getting around that. Following Jay Wright — while Wright was both a prominent national TV analyst and an on-campus presence — was a huge ask. But check that overall record and average KenPom finish. It speaks to Villanova’s stature and standards that Neptune had to go after three seasons … while not being an outright failure. The team never finished below .500 in overall record or in the conference ledger under Neptune. It took some awful losses (Portland, Penn, Drexel, Columbia), but there was no true crash-out season. A C- is proper. Neptune is now an assistant with the Charlotte Hornets and Nova is back on track. It hired Kevin Willard and promptly returned to the NCAA Tournament this year.
Kenny Payne, Louisville
Overall record: 12-52 (.188) NCAA Tournament record: 0-0 Average KenPom finish: 238th AD responsible: Josh Heird Grade: F
We can be quick, everyone knows the deal here. One of the worst hirings in the history of college basketball. Payne took over after an underwhelming Chris Mack regime that didn’t last four full seasons. This was also a Louisville athletic department prone — for the better part of a decade — to swerve into a negative headline on an almost monthly basis. Even still, to take one of the 10 best programs in the history of the sport and submarine it to the darkest spots imaginable was petrifying. Payne built up a terrific reputation over the years as a right-hand man to John Calipari … and all of that was torched so quickly. This is a man who once publicly admitted to being tricked by Mike Woodson. Louisville’s 2022-24 nadir ranks among the most notorious nosedives in college sports history. Payne’s tenure is the rare outright failure that forces me to hand down an F.
Jon Scheyer, Duke
Overall record: 124-25 (.832) NCAA Tournament record: 11-4 Average KenPom finish: 7th AD responsible: Nina King Grade: B+
Scheyer has arguably done a better job than any coach in history who inherited a big-time job. He’s the only hire from 2022 to make every NCAA Tournament since. His 124 wins are the most by any first-time coach in their first four seasons. His 11 NCAAT wins are the second-most by a first-time coach in their first four seasons. (Steve Fisher had 12.) He’s coming off back-to-back seasons of 35-plus wins, something no other coach in history has done. Scheyer has boasted the No. 1 or No. 2 recruiting class in all four seasons. He is the rare coach to have back-to-back national players of the year (Cooper Flagg, Cameron Boozer). His starting five in 2024-25 all got drafted and was one of the best teams in modern college basketball history. In 2025-26, he had the No. 1 overall seed and the most dominant player in the sport. And despite all these achievements, Scheyer has coached in just one Final Four game.
I can’t give him an A or even an A- because the context of his past three NCAA Tournament exits have also defined a significant part of his reputation to this point. In 2024, his superior Blue Devils were knocked out of the NCAAs by none other than 11th-seeded NC State after giving up a nine-point lead. In the 2025 Final Four, Duke had an all-time seize-up against Houston that included just one made field goal in the final 10-plus minutes and featured a 14-point blown lead. In 2026, a 19-point blown lead against UConn in the Elite Eight, the largest ever by any 1-seed in any game. If just ONE of those losses were flipped to a win, I’d have gone A-. Four years in, Scheyer is already easily one of the 10 best coaches in college basketball, but even he would grade himself harshly based on the agonizing ways his teams have failed to close out in such pivotal March Madness games. It’s the only negative mark against what has otherwise been a stellar start to what may well turn into a Hall of Fame career.
Scheyer hasn’t let Duke drop off one iota in the transition from Coach K.
Emilee Chinn / Getty Images
Jerome Tang, Kansas State
Overall record: 71-57 (.555) NCAA Tournament record: 3-1 Average KenPom finish: 64th AD responsible: Gene Taylor Grade: C-
After a beautiful debut season, everything went wrong for Tang and the Wildcats. In 2022-23, Tang — along with Markquis Nowell, Keyontae Johnson and Nae’Qwan Tomlin — helped guide K-State to an Elite Eight run as a 3-seed. That team was two possessions away from beating FAU to make the Final Four. If K-State had made that Final Four, I believe Tang would still be the coach at K-State. After 2023, nothing panned out. Tang operated, without a shadow of a doubt, with a top-10 NIL budget across 2023, 2024 and 2025 … and Kansas State failed to make the NCAA Tournament in all of those ensuing seasons. He didn’t even get to finish out Year 4, with a firing “for cause” that’s still up to legal dispute. But that first season was so good, and Nowell was so fun, that I can’t go lower than a C-. It was just the third Elite Eight run for the program in the past 38 years.
Mike White, Georgia
Overall record: 78-57 (.578) NCAA Tournament record: 0-2 Average KenPom finish: 78th AD responsible: Josh Brooks Grade: B-
The Dawgs had gone 24 years between back-to-back NCAA Tournament appearances, but White got that done in 2026. Unfortunately for UGA, the past two years saw the team get to the Big Dance … and then immediately pratfall. Two straight years in the 8/9 game that ended with a combined margin of defeat of 46 points to teams outside the Power Five structure (Gonzaga last year, Saint Louis this year). That’s a ding, but at least Georgia has comfortably made the field two years running. White has also avoided a sub-.500 season since ducking out on Florida and getting ahead of the posse in 2022. The program also appears to be trending up still. KenPom rankings at the end of each season: 154, 84, 38, 35. Can Georgia win a tournament game in 2027?
Kevin Willard, Maryland
Overall record: 65-39 (.625) NCAA Tournament record: 3-2 Average KenPom finish: 32nd AD responsible: Damon Evans* Grade: C+
Just like Miller at Xavier, I had to dock Willard for how he publicly handled leaving one school for another. The dip out of College Park for Villanova will not be remembered kindly by the locals. But in his three seasons with the Terrapins, Willard undeniably upped the program’s stature after the winding and sporadic pops under Mark Turgeon. The Crab Five team, led by one-and-done big man Derik Queen, marked the first time Maryland made the Sweet 16 AND had a 4-seed or better since the 2001-02 national championship team. Willard had a good first year, down second season, then a big Year 3. He ultimately didn’t love the situation with the athletic department and where Maryland was headed with NIL resources, so he bounced for Villanova and got pilloried. We need another two or three seasons to see if Willard’s instinct to flee up I-95 will prove to be the right move. I’ll grade out that hiring, and Buzz Williams’ at Maryland, come 2028 ✍️
Best mid-majors hirings of 2022
In a turn from what’s typical, the mid-major cycle from 2022 did not yield a lot of success in the seasons since. Only a few coaches made an NCAA Tournament in the past four years, Tobin Anderson at FDU being the noisiest of all. His 16th-seeded Knights’ upset of Purdue in 2023 ranks among the all-time outcomes in March Madness history. Chris Crutchfield got his Omaha team to the NCAAs in the years since, as did Tony Madlock at Alabama State. But there’s just one coach of the 35-plus mid-major hirings who is both still at their school and has objectively overshot expectations since 2022: Travis Steele at Miami (Ohio).
Steele guided the RedHawks to a history-making 32-2 ending in 2025-26, including a 31-0 regular season that was punctuated with a 110-108 home win over rival Ohio in one of the best games of the year. Prior to the reputation-altering campaign, Steele had two sub-.500 rebuilds followed by a 25-9 Year 3 that had Miami one basket away from winning the MAC title over Akron. Will we ever see a mid-major run the regular-season table again? It’s easy to say no, but I refuse to believe Miami will be the last mid-major to EVER do it. Maybe it takes 20 or more years before something this remarkable happens again, but if there’s one sport where you never say never, this is it.
