These coaches hired last year paid immediate dividends to their new teams in 2020-21
3 min read
The 2020 college basketball coaching carousel was one of the calmest rides in recent memory, as only a handful of programs opted for coaching changes with the COVID-19 pandemic in its early stages and the financial ramifications unclear for athletic departments. Only one major conference program, Wake Forest, made a coaching change in relatively short order after the 2019-20 season and even that move came over a month after the season.
While Penn State and Wichita State followed suit in the coming months, those changes resulted from off-court controversies after the carousel slowed. But despite the relatively quiet offseason of 2020, some first-year coaches still managed to make a strong impression last season even while taking over programs amid the complications of a pandemic.
This time next year, a reflection on the new first-year coaches will be far beefier as big-name programs such as North Carolina, Texas, Arizona, Indiana and others transition. But for now, these are the five first-year coaches whose success stood out most last season.
2021’s most immediately successful hires
