With just a month to go in men’s college basketball’s regular season, it’s a good time to take stock of the national coach of the year race. There are plenty of strong contenders, from coaches who’ve pulled off near-miraculous rebuilds to others who’ve impressively built and retained elite teams. It’s a difficult award to give out, partially because it is judged differently by different people. The Sports Illustrated qualifications are less about exceeding preseason expectations or “doing more with less” but instead about managing all facets of the program at an elite level, from recruiting and roster management to in-game coaching decisions. Here’s a look at our top 10, plus a few top names who just missed the cut. 

Pearl has built the best team in college basketball a year after getting bounced in the first round of the NCAA tournament by Yale. Much of this group’s success has been based on retention, with national player of the year candidate Johni Broome headlining a strong group of players who came back for another season after the Yale debacle. Still, Pearl has made shrewd moves like moving Broome to power forward at times and has gotten a ton of mileage from freshman point guard Tahaad Pettiford.

Kelsey inherited an all-time dumpster fire from Kenny Payne and has a very proud Louisville program well on its way to the Big Dance in his first season. That alone would be enough to put him in the conversation for NCOY, but add in that Louisville has dealt with season-ending injuries to a pair of massive pieces in Kasean Pryor and Koren Johnson and this year looks even more impressive. 

It hasn’t taken long for Pitino to awaken a dormant St. John’s program, with the Red Storm leading the Big East at 21–3 and 12–1 in league play. They’ve done it in classic Pitino fashion, with extremely disruptive defense and elite effort on the boards. The player development with the likes of RJ Luis Jr. and Zuby Ejiofor has been remarkable, with both blossoming from role players to All-Big East players in their second years in the system.

Golden has the Gators program on a rapid upward trajectory, looking like a legitimate national title contender in just his third year on the job. Saturday’s win at Auburn is arguably the best victory of the season for any team, and the Gators did that without star wing Alijah Martin, an elite portal evaluation by Golden’s staff. He has gotten the most out of overlooked adds like Martin, Alex Condon and Thomas Haugh, all while helping star guard Walter Clayton Jr. transfer seamlessly to the point guard spot from his off-ball role a year ago. 

No one in the country has turned things around better than Gates, who has Mizzou well on its way to the NCAA tournament a year after a miserable 8–24 campaign that featured a winless mark in SEC play. Portal adds Mark Mitchell and Tony Perkins have helped, but much of the Tigers’ resurgence has been built on growth from returners. Sophomore point guard Anthony Robinson II clearly benefited from plenty of game reps a year ago, and veteran Caleb Grill has been one of the most efficient shotmakers in the country. Wins over Kansas, Florida and Ole Miss have set up the Tigers for a strong seed come Selection Sunday.

That Purdue sits in first place in the Big Ten in the year after losing a generational player in Zach Edey (and with six freshmen on the roster, no less) is remarkably impressive. The cupboard wasn’t bare thanks to the return of star point guard Braden Smith, but there’s no doubt Painter has gotten the most out of this group. Midseason defensive tweaks have allowed a team with average-at-best personnel athletically to be the Big Ten’s second-best defense in league play. A No. 1 seed is within reach, which few, if anyone, would have predicted preseason. 

Coaching a freshmen-centric team in the portal era is no easy task, and Scheyer has done a terrific job pushing the right buttons. Having a player like Cooper Flagg widens the margin of error a good deal, but Scheyer did a great job early of pouring confidence into his star and getting him on-ball reps that have paid off as the season has worn on. Plus, the pickup of Tulane transfer Sion James (and inserting him into the starting lineup midseason) has made this one of the most feared defenses in the sport.

Barnes has become something of an expert navigating the transfer portal. Last year, Dalton Knecht transformed the Volunteers into one of the best teams in the sport. This time around, Barnes snagged elite scorer Chaz Lanier and key cogs like Igor Milicic Jr. and Felix Okpara,  allowing the Vols to stay in the sport’s upper echelon despite losing four starters from a year ago.  

Many expected this to be something of a transition year for Michigan State with a younger roster following the departures of four starters from a year ago. Instead, the Spartans are in the thick of the Big Ten title hunt, owning just two losses since Thanksgiving. Izzo has navigated a lack of traditional star power brilliantly, instead leaning on his group’s impressive depth to wear opponents down and winning with dominance on the glass and in transition. Plus, this roster he has built has a number of key cogs who should be back next season, meaning this might only be the start of a championship window in East Lansing, Mich. 

Consider this your annual reminder not to overlook Wisconsin in the preseason, no matter what the roster may look like on paper. The Badgers were picked 12th in the Big Ten after losing Chucky Hepburn and AJ Storr in the portal. Instead, Gard’s team is arguably a top-12 team nationally, lifted by a breakout year from John Blackwell and an elite portal acquisition in John Tonje, who arrived with little fanfare after an injury-prone season in 2023–24 at MIssouri. The Badgers have modernized some things offensively and gotten a ton of mileage out of veteran role players like Kamari McGee and Carter Gilmore.