Best, worst men’s college basketball hires of 2024

As we near the end of the 2024 college basketball coaching carousel, let’s highlight the best and worst hires:

Best

1. John Calipari (Arkansas)

Both Calipari and Kentucky needed a fresh start. Cal is walking into a situation where he will have ‘at least’ 5 million a year in NIL money to recruit with and to rebuild the roster immediately. 

The overall talent is about to be upgraded in a massive way at Arkansas and the fanbase already can’t wait for next season to arrive. 

Mike DeCourcy of The Sporting News wrote, “How many times do
you get the opportunity to land a Hall of Famer at any age?” 

Previous stop: 410–123 in 15 seasons at Kentucky

2. Darian DeVries (West Virginia)

DeVries was overdue for a move to power conference. He turned Drake into a consistent winner with limited resources and he will have to do the same thing in Morgantown. With NIL money that ranks in the bottom half of the Big 12, West Virginia found the perfect guy to “do
more with less.”

Previous stop: 150–55 in six seasons at Drake

3. Kyle Smith (Stanford)  

He won at
Washington State. That’s all you need to know. In a place that is almost impossible
to be successful at, he found a way to finish second in the Pac 12. 

Stanford
moves to the ACC next season, so it needed to make a move that should have them competing sooner rather than later.

Previous stop: 94-71 in five seasons at Stanford 

Worst

1. Jake Diebler (Ohio State) 

What
Diebler did as an interim coach was nothing short of amazing. 

Ohio State’s season
was basically over when Chris Holtmann got fired and Diebler took over the head-coaching position. But once Diebler took over, Ohio State couldn’t stop winning. 

The fact that the Buckeyes were squarely on the bubble in mid-March shocked everyone. That being said, this is THE Ohio State, a Big Ten school that has played in 10 Final Fours and has tremendous NIL resources and facilities. 

Hiring someone who has never been a full-time head coach before seems like a massive reach
and a risky gamble.

Kevin Sweeney of Sports Illustrated nailed it when he said “Bestowing this massive job on a 37-year-old with no other head coaching experience who has been on two straight fired staffs (Holtmann at Ohio State, Bryce Drew at Vanderbilt Commodores) is nothing short of a massive gamble.”

Previous stop: 8-3 as interim head coach at Ohio State

2. Dusty May (Michigan) 

He underperformed
with the roster he had this past season at Florida Atlantic (first-round NCAA Tournament exit), and
his 2022 Final Four team benefited from an extremely lucky draw in the bracket — not having to face a team seeded higher than a No. 3 all tournament. Without that Final
Four run, it’s fair to question if his name would be such a hot commodity.  

Previous stop: 126-69 in six seasons at FAU

3. Andy Enfield (SMU) 

File this hire
under “strange.” Yes, SMU is moving into the ACC, but to move from USC to SMU
seems like Enfield was giving up on his time in Southern California. SMU has a
ton of NIL money and many believe they could have attracted a sexier name.

Previous stop: 220-147 in 11 seasons at USC.