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Move aside transfer portal, the coaching carousel is still in full swing

With the way college sports currently operate, the transfer portal will take all the headlines when it comes to offseason news, especially in college basketball. With the transfer portal opening up on Monday, the flow of entries has been nonstop, and for good reason with the amount of money available to all of these talented players.

The coaches of the sport deserve some time in the spotlight too though, and with an exciting past few days in the coaching carousel, it seems like a great time to recap the coaching moves so far this offseason.

Richard Pitino is a guy that had plenty of buzz to make a move this offseason after leading New Mexico to a second straight NCAA Tournament, and it was announced late Tuesday night that Pitino would become the new head coach at Xavier. This will be Pitino’s second high major stint, after an up-and-down tenure at Minnesota that resulted in two NCAA Tournament appearances but fell apart after two below .500 seasons with February and March collapses in 2019-20 and 2020-21.

Pitino redeemed himself quickly after landing the job at New Mexico, giving the school its first NCAA Tournament appearance in ten seasons and winning 22 or more games in three of four seasons.

Another hot name on the carousel was Drake head coach Ben McCollum, who landed in Des Moines just last offseason after leading Division II school Northwest Missouri State to four national championships. McCollum quickly found himself moving up the ladder, landing the job at Iowa after Fran McCaffery was forced out of town.

A guy who operates with the slowest pace in the country may be tough for Iowa fans to get used to after years of McCaffery ball, but the Hawkeyes will no doubt be happy they’ve found themselves a proven winner.

After cementing himself as one of the best basketball minds in the country at the Division II level, McCollum made a seamless transition to Drake, leading the Bulldogs to a 31-4 record, the Missouri Valley tournament and regular season titles, and a round of 32 appearance in the NCAA Tournament.

Another former Drake coach, Darian DeVries, found himself on the move for the second straight offseason as well, this time jumping from West Virginia to Indiana after Mike Woodson stepped away from the job. While there’s been plenty of speculation and conspiracies from West Virginia fans about DeVries’ departure, there’s no doubt that DeVries has proven himself ready to perform in the Big Ten.

DeVries led Drake to 20 or more wins in each of his six seasons at the school, including three NCAA Tournament berths over the time frame. In one season at West Virginia, DeVries led the Mountaineers to a 19-13 record, ultimately missing the NCAA Tournament due to a questionable selection process from the selection committee.

His son Tucker, a two-time Missouri Valley Conference Player of the Year, should be following him to Bloomington, meaning Indiana has an all-B1G level player to start the DeVries era off with already.

If you thought two former Drake coaches heading to Big Ten schools this offseason was crazy, you’ll be delighted to know that Niko Medved, who was announced at Minnesota earlier this week, also coached at Drake in 2017-18. Medved rebuilt Furman in the early 2010’s before kickstarting the Drake rebuild with a 17-17 record in his lone season.

From there it was off to Colorado State, where Medved won 20 or more games in five seasons, made three NCAA Tournaments, and most notably reached the round of 32 in 2025 before the heartbreaking loss to Maryland this past Sunday.

A former Minnesota student manager and assistant coach, Medved brings the hometown hero image to Minnesota, where he’ll hope to lead the Golden Gophers to their first NCAA Tournament since 2019.

Heading into the ACC, NC State hired Will Wade, fresh off of two NCAA Tournament appearances with McNeese. Even after a miracle run to the Final Four in 2024, Kevin Keatts was let go of by NC State following a disappointing 2024-25, leaving the job open for Wade to jump back to the power conference level.

Wade has seen success everywhere he’s been, engineering a rebuild at Chattanooga, leading VCU to back-to-back NCAA Tournaments, taking LSU to the Sweet 16 in 2019, all before his recent success with McNeese.

It was only a matter of time before Wade made it back to the high major world, and with enough NIL support, he should have NC State back to competing for the NCAA Tournament within a year or two.

Speaking of NCAA Tournaments, Virginia’s new head coach Ryan Odom knows a thing or two about the event they call March Madness. Odom led each of VCU and Utah State to an NCAA Tournament in the past three seasons but will always be best known for the upset of Virginia he orchestrated in 2018.

Then at UMBC, Odom led the Retrievers to the first-ever 16-over-1 upset in the NCAA Tournament against Virginia and now comes full circle as he takes over the job opening in Charlottesville.

Everything is bigger in Texas, and Sean Miller will attest to that, jumping away from Xavier for a second time in his career, this time after a three-year stint that included two NCAA Tournament appearances.

Miller takes the opening at Texas after Rodney Terry was let go, hoping to engineer the success he saw the first time around at Xavier and during his 12-year run at Arizona that included five runs into the second weekend of the NCAA Tournament.

One final (for now) recent coaching carousel move came on Wednesday morning, when West Virginia hired North Texas head coach Ross Hodge. In two seasons at North Texas, Hodge led the Mean Green to an overall record of 46-23, with the possibility of two more games being added to that record as North Texas continues its run in the 2025 NIT.

Hodge will stay with the Mean Green through the end of the tournament, hoping to give the school its second NIT title in three seasons. It’s safe to say Grant McCasland has been successful through two seasons in the Big 12 at Texas Tech after coming over from North Texas, so the vision is there for West Virginia to once again become a power in the Big 12.

As drama prolongs with Kevin Willard, Maryland, and Villanova, it’s safe to say the carousel isn’t over yet, but these eight guys above are all inked in at new programs as of Wednesday.

Other Things to Note:

• The NCAA Tournament continues with the Sweet 16 on Thursday at 7:09 ET on CBS