Ranking the current SoCon men’s basketball coaches

Bob Richey is averaging better than 22 wins a year in eight seasons leading Furman. | Jay Biggerstaff-Imagn Images

In the offseason, it’s always fun to come up with content and different rankings. For the past few years, I have been meaning to write this article, but have never gotten around to it. Now is the time, however, and it’s time to rank the SoCon’s 10 basketball coaches.

The list is based a little on longevity in the league but also based some on success or lack thereof at previous stops in their respective careers. I have argued more than once that the SoCon has been a hotbed for developing young coaching

talent to make the jump to the power conference level. I put a big emphasis on NCAA Tournaments that a current coach has led either his current team to, or the one he coached previously.

During the offseason, the SoCon had just one coaching change, with Bucky McMillan having moved on to Texas A&M to become the head coach of the Aggies. He becomes the latest of the league’s head coaches to make the jump to the power conference level of college basketball. The 2025-26 season of basketball will mark the 106th season of college basketball in the SoCon.

1. Bob Richey (Furman 2017-present)

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Having won 181 games over nine seasons at Furman, Richey has led the Paladins to some pretty incredible heights. Of the many milestones he has had, Richey’s most cherished accomplishment at the charter SoCon member was leading the Paladins back to the NCAA Tournament for the first time in 43 years in 2023.

After helping the Paladins to an 88-79 win over Chattanooga in the championship game, he led Furman to a memorable 68-67 win over Virginia in an opening round NCAA Tournament game in Orlando, as the Paladins became just the third SoCon team to win an NCAA Tournament game in the 21st century, joining both Davidson (2008) and Wofford (2019).

IT'S OVER

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The 28 games won by the 2022-23 team were the most in program history, and putting the cherry on top of all of it was developing Jalen Slawson into a player good enough to draw the attention of the NBA, as he became the 54th overall pick in the second round by Sacramento Kings in the 2023 NBA Draft.

Richey’s motion offense with Princeton concepts mixed in is some of the prettiest offensive basketball you’ll find at the mid-major level. An offensive mastermind, Richey was the lone coach kept on staff by Niko Medved when he took over as the head coach in the spring of 2013. The Paladins have become known as one of the best perimeter shooting teams in mid-major basketball during Richey’s time as the head coach, as well as being routinely ranked in KenPom’s Top 50 when it comes to offensive efficiency.

Over the past eight seasons under Richey, the Paladins have connected on 2,690 of 7,285 shots from 3-point range, which converts to 36.9%. The Paladins connected on 380 3-point field goals during the 2024-25 season, connecting at a 36.6% clip from long-range, which was good enough for second overall in the SoCon this season.

Richey did arguably his best job coaching in the 2024-25 season, leading the Paladins to a 25-win season and an appearance in the 2025 SoCon Tournament title game against Wofford, as the Paladins would come up just short against a hot-shooting Terriers squad that shot over 60% for the game and hit 14 threes to come up with a thrilling 92-85 win in the championship game.

Richey and staff did a masterful job in replacing 70.8% of his scoring from a year earlier, turning those lemons into some pretty sweet lemonade in Greenville. The Paladins posted their 14^th 20-win season, including their seventh since 2016-17 and sixth under the direction of Richey.

Though having never won SoCon Coach of the Year, Richey has more wins than any SoCon coach in the past eight seasons (181-81) and is averaging 22.6 wins-per-season over that span, which ranks sixth (two-season minimum) in average wins per season in the tradition-rich history of the SoCon.

The 22.6 wins-per-season by Richey in eight seasons at Furman ranks just behind some legends of ancient and recent past in the league, including Everett Case (26.7 in seven seasons at NC State), Steve Forbes (26.0 over five seasons at ETSU), and John Kresse (23.8 during four seasons at CofC). Richey ranks just ahead of legendary Mocs head coach Murray Arnold (22.5 in six seasons at UTC).

Richey also led the Paladins to their first-ever AP Top 25 national ranking (2018-19), and wins over several power six programs, including No. 8 and reigning national champion Villanova (2018-19), Louisville (2021-22), South Carolina (2022-23), Virginia (2022-23). Though Richey was courted by South Carolina prior to the 2022-23, he ultimately returned to Furman and ended up leading the Paladins back to the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 1980. Since then, however, though his name has been mentioned, and he has interviewed for several major job openings, but he has remained firm at Furman.

In addition to leading the Paladins back to the NCAA Tournament, Richey has also led Furman to a pair of NIT appearances (2019 and 2025). Prior to his arrival at Furman in 2011 as an assistant coach for the Paladins under former head coach Jeff Jackson, Richey spent five years under the leadership Barclay Radebaugh from 2006-11, helping bring in five of the program’s top 11 scorers all time, including Saah Nimley, who is the current head coach at Charleston Southern.

The Paladins are slated to open the $40-million renovated Timmons Arena in 2025-26, which is loosely referred to as “The house that Bob Richey built.”

2. Dan Earl (Chattanooga 2022-present/VMI 2016-22)

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Earl was on top of the mid-major basketball world this past April when he led the Mocs to heights no Southern Conference program had ever reached, which is a National Invitational Tournament (NIT) title and did that on the back of dropping a heartbreaking 80-77 overtime loss in the Southern Conference Tournament semifinal, as the Mocs were relegated to the NIT, and they ended up winning the whole thing. The Mocs won at Middle Tennessee State (W, 109-103 3OT), vs. Dayton (W, 87-72), at Bradley (W, 67-65), vs. Loyola-Chicago (W, 80-73), and vs. UC Irvine (W, 85-84 OT) in the championship game.

Earl let the Mocs to their first nationally-recognized title as an NCAA Division I program, and it is also the SoCon’s first NCAA sanctioned national title on the college basketball hardwood. No SoCon team had gone past the semifinal round of the tournament prior to UTC’s breakthrough during the 2024-25 season.

Earl is part of a class of coaches in the SoCon that are proven winners. The Mocs head coach will head into his fourth season at the helm of the Chattanooga basketball program, having compiled a 68-38 mark in three seasons as the head coach in the Scenic City. He led the Mocs to a school-record 29 wins this past season, as Chattanooga completed the 2024-25 season with a 29-9 mark, winning 17 out of their final 18 games of the season, with the only loss coming in the SoCon semifinals.

The Mocs put together an impressive 15-3 Southern Conference regular-season mark to claim the regular-season title, which was the first the Mocs have claimed under Earl. He also led the Mocs to the SoCon title game in his first season at the helm in 2022-23, as he did so despite some injury issues, including to his best player, Jake Stephens, who missed a large portion of regular-season Southern Conference play with a hand injury. Heading to Asheville as the No. 7 overall seed, he helped the Mocs make a run all the way to the title game, playing four games in four days only to come up just short of the ultimate goal, as top-seeded Furman went on to the 88-79 win in the championship tilt.

Earl proved even more how good of a coach he really is in his time prior to arriving in Chattanooga, where he was coach of VMI for seven seasons, compiling a record of 73-139 mark, including leading the Keydets to a sixth-place finish in the regular-season SoCon standings in his final season as the head coach in Lexington and an 18-17 overall record to end the season. He helped lead VMI to consecutive .500 or better seasons in his final two campaigns as the head coach in Lexington, marking the first time that had happened since 2010-12. If you know anything about mid-major college basketball, then you know that VMI is one of the toughest jobs in all of college basketball—maybe the absolute toughest.

Like Richey at Furman, Earl’s teams at both VMI and Chattanooga have run great offensive sets out of a motion offense, and it focuses on cutting and having skilled big men that can pass. There’s no better coach in the league at developing skilled big men, especially ones that can pass out of the post like UTC’s Earl. It led to some big 3-point field goal shooting numbers during his time as the head coach at both Chattanooga and VMI.

In his final season as the head coach at VMI, Earl’s Keydets knocked down 401 3-pointers, which was second-most in the country that season, while his 2022-23 UTC squad set a Southern Conference Tournament record with 43 triples in four games in the Mocs’ run to the title in that particular season. Earl also picked up one of the biggest wins of his coaching career during the 2023-24 season at UTC, where he led the Mocs to an 81-71 win at Louisville en route to a 21-12 season and a third-place finish in the Southern Conference standings last season.

The only thing that has eluded Earl in his time coaching in the Southern Conference is a tournament title and a trip to the NCAA Tournament. He has led the Mocs to at least the semifinals of the tournament in each of his three seasons as the head coach and was named the SoCon’s “Coach of the Year” by both the media and his peers following the 2024-25 regular-season title.

Prior to becoming a head coach at VMI in 2015-16, Earl spent time learning his craft as an assistant coach at both his alma mater Penn State (2006-11) and Navy (2011-15) where he served under former SoCon title-winning coach Ed DeChellis. Earl was given the reins at Navy as the offensive coordinator, as he was associate head coach during his time in Annapolis with the Midshipmen.

Finally, Earl has been able to build both continuity and quality within his staff during his 10 seasons as a head coach in the SoCon, building one of the best staffs in the league at both VMI and UTC. Anders Galfsky is Earl’s top assistant and associate head coach, and he’s developed into one of the top assistants in mid-major basketball in his time spent under Earl at both VMI and now at Chattanooga.

All told at both VMI and Chattanooga, Earl has compiled an overall record of 141-177, which includes a mark of 68-108 in SoCon play. He’s already reached 34 wins in league play in three seasons at UTC, and it took him six seasons at VMI to accomplish the identical win total.

Earl is not only one of the best coaches in the SoCon, he’s also one of the best in mid-major basketball overall, proving that last March in the NIT. In addition to being named SoCon Coach of the Year, Earl was also the Tennessee Sports Writers Association Coach of the Year. He had his contract extended in mid-May to a new six-year deal, making him one of the highest paid coaches in the SoCon.

3. Lennie Acuff (Samford 2025-present/Lipscomb 2018-25/Alabama-Huntsville)

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In many circles and depending on who you talk to, Lennie Acuff is considered a basketball savant by many, and has served as a mentor for some pretty outstanding head basketball coaches, including Furman’s Richey. Acuff will now get a chance to coach against his pupil in the SoCon, as Acuff was a home run hire for Samford during the offseason following Bucky McMillan’s departure to become the head coach at Texas A&M.

Some might even consider Acuff a slight upgrade from McMillan, given his track record of success at both the NCAA Division I and II levels. Acuff is a proven winner and he’s been able to do it both at the NCAA Division-II level as the longtime head coach of Alabama-Huntsville, and now, he’s proven at the NCAA Division-I level at Lipscomb, taking the Bisons to the NCAA Tournament.

While McMillan was the “hometown boy” given a chance to start his collegiate coaching career in front of friends and family, which could help further launch him into even greater success now at the power six level, Lennie Acufff, who is now 68, will have the chance to close out the twilight of his stellar coaching career in his home state and now too far from friends and family to see him coach his final few years so should they choose to do so. It’s not often that a program gets a chance to experience both ends of the career coaching spectrum, however, that’s exactly what Samford and its basketball-excited faithful will now get to do with Acuff taking the helm.

During Acuff’s six years as the head coach at Lipscomb, the Bisons compiled a 110-82 overall record, which of course included getting the Nashville-based school back to the NCAA Tournament for the first time since the 2018 NCAA Tournament, which represents the only other NCAA Tournament appearance for the program. He led the Bisons to three-straight 20-win seasons as the head coach, including the Atlantic Sun regular-season and tournament titles in 2024-25.

He also coached what ended up being the A-Sun’s Player of the Year, in Jacob Ognacevic, as well as the tournament MVP, in former Furman guard Joe Anderson. Acuff’s strong reputation as a head coach was built long before he arrived in Nashville in 2019, as he established himself as a proven winner on the hardwood during his time at NCAA Division II Alabama-Huntsville. He spent 22 seasons as the head coach, compiling an impressive record of 437-214, which included winning seasons in 20 out of the 22 he spent in charge of the Chargers.

He led UAH to eight Gulf South Conference regular-season crowns and three Gulf South Conference Tournament titles in his 22 seasons and left as the program’s all-time winningest head coach. His job won’t be as much about rebuilding Samford, as it will be sustaining its perch as a new mid-major power and perennial SoCon title contender. In the age of NIL and the transfer portal, that will now be increasingly difficult, even for coaches as good as Acuff.

4. Mike Jones (UNC Greensboro 2021-present/Radford 2011-21)

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This will be an unpopular selection at No. 4 for some, as Mike Jones has yet to win when it matters in his four seasons at the helm of the UNC Greensboro basketball program, which means he hasn’t made it past the first day in the Southern Conference Tournament at the Harrah’s Cherokee Center in Asheville.

Conventional wisdom, however, is that he will be able to figure that eventually. After all, he’s led the Spartans to three-straight 20-win seasons and has finished no lower than third in any of the three previous campaigns. He also established himself as a proven winner during his time at Radford, where he spent the previous decade building the Highlanders into a Big South power, taking over that program when it was struggling during a probation period under NCAA sanctions.

All told in his time as the head coach of the Highlanders, Jones won 174 games and led Radford to a remarkable run in the 2017-18 season, which would eventually see the Highlanders win the Big South Tournament to qualify for the Big Dance for just the third time in program history. Jones also won a First Four game against Long Island in the 2018 NCAA Tournament, leading the Highlanders to a 71-61 win in Dayton before eventually getting knocked out of the tournament by Villanova.

Jones has won at every stop along the way, and it hasn’t really mattered where he has been the head coach, as he won 20 or more games in five different seasons at Radford and has already accomplished the feat three times in four seasons at UNCG. However, fans are getting a little bit restless with his inability to win the first game of the Southern Conference Tournament in Asheville, with the latest team he took to the Altitude City coming away with a 64-57 loss to No. 7 seed VMI.

So far during his time at UNCG, Jones has posted a record of 78-50 as the head coach and has a combined record of 252-200 at both UNCG and Radford as a head coach. During his time coaching both, Jones has some rather big wins under his belt, having taken down Notre Dame, Texas and Northwestern during his time as the head coach of Radford, while having posted a 78-72 win in the 2023-24 season in arguably his biggest win non-conference as a head coach at No. 14 Arkansas.

Jones and the Spartans will have the opportunity to be “giant slayers” once again this season, as the Spartans will travel to take on Will Wade’s North Carolina State team in the upcoming 2025-26 season.

Jones cites some important coaching mentors in his career as an assistant, which actually started at Furman in 1997, where he spent three seasons from 1997-2000. He cites former Georgia head coach Dennis Felton and former VCU head coach Shaka Smart as shaping and mentoring him as a young coach. Jones certainly had some tough shoes to fill after succeeding such a successful coach like Wes Miller as a predecessor, but he’s done a pretty good job thus far. Now it’s about taking that next step in the postseason and figuring out that championship puzzle.

5. Brooks Savage (East Tennessee State 2023-present)

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In just two seasons as the head coach of East Tennessee State, Brooks Savage has won 38 games and has already changed the complexion of ETSU basketball and its fan base into being believers for big things on the college basketball hardwood once again. In his first season as the head coach in 2023-24, Savage helped the Bucs to 19 wins and a run all the way to the SoCon title game as the No. 7 seed, where ETSU would come up just short of the title, with a 76-69 loss to Samford in the championship tilt.

In the 2024-25 season, Savage and the Bucs had some pretty lofty expectations after that run from a year earlier, with some, including myself, predicting the Bucs to win it all in Asheville, and while that didn’t happen, the Bucs finished the regular-season in impressive fashion, posting a third-place finish in the league standings with a 12-6 mark, which included sweeping defending champion Samford.

Savage is a big believer in getting his teams to play hard-nosed basketball and to play within themselves. In an era of do-everything in a hurry, that’s not the style for Savage even though he wants to have a basketball team that is exciting to watch and has fun while doing it. In fact, he’s a coach that is against the “play fast now, ask questions later” mentality that many coaches in this era not only embrace, but endorse as part of their culture. Savage is more of a coach that would like his team to play fast when they need to, but prefers to play smart and to be hard-nosed on the defensive end as being part of his team’s primary DNA.

One of the things that ETSU has done exceptionally well in Savage’s first couple of seasons as the head coach in Johnson City is rebound the basketball exceptionally well. The Bucs led the league in offensive rebounds per game two years ago (13.9 ORB per game) and ranked third (12.6 ORB per game) this past season.

In Asheville this past March, the Bucs saw their season come to an end much earlier than expected, with a 72-60 loss to eventual champion and No. 6 seed Wofford in what was the second really major upset of the tournament following up VMI’s win over UNCG. However, by the time the Bucs had reached March, they were struggling with injury issues, which had caused them to have some depth issues by the time they arrived for the tournament.

Savage helped procure the services of Quimari Peterson from the JUCO ranks. In two seasons with the Bucs, he became SoCon Player of the Year this past March. In two seasons as the head coach, Savage and his staff also helped transform Jaden Seymour into a pro talent, which saw Seymour go from a player that was averaging 8.7 PPG prior to Savage’s arrival to averaging 14.7 PPG and becoming one of the top players in the Southern Conference by the end of his first season as the head coach. This past season was Seymour’s best of all, as he posted a 15.4 PPG scoring average as well as 6.6 RPG. He also posted just the program’s third all-time triple-double along the way, doing so in ETSU’s SoCon-opening win over VMI at Freedom Hall on New Year’s Day 2025. The head man also brought in Karon Boyd from USC Aiken, and in two years with the Bucs, he would become the SoCon’s Defensive Player of the Year this past March and become maybe the SoCon’s top “glue guy” and a fan favorite.

Though he was the offensive coordinator at Wake Forest in his final two years there, he has helped ETSU be one of the top defensive units in the SoCon in his first two seasons as the head coach of the Bucs, helping the Bucs rank second in scoring defense in each of his first two campaigns as the head coach of the Bucs. In conference games only, the Bucs ranked better than anyone during the 2024-25 season, with a 101.4 defensive efficiency according to KenPom, ranking second in the league in turnover percentage (19.1) and second in both effective field goal percentage defense (49.6%) and 2-pt field goal percentage defense (47.5%).

Savage built up quite the resume in his 12 years as an assistant coach. He’s been prepared by some of the best, which of course includes Forbes. This season will mark the seventh time he’s been a part of a first-year staff. Savage knows Southern Conference basketball, having been a part of the league’s two most decorated programs. He served as an assistant coach at Chattanooga from 2013-15 under the direction of Will Wade and as an assistant with ETSU from 2015-2020 under Forbes, who Savage considers as his primary mentor in coaching and also a good friend.

All told at both ETSU and Wake Forest, Savage spent a total of eight years coaching under Forbes at the Division-I level, and that doesn’t include the 2011-12 season, which he spent coaching as one of Forbes’ assistant at Northwest Florida State, helping the program to a school-record 32 wins and a NJCAA national runner-up finish that particular season.

Savage and his current staff have already been hard at work in the portal and have put together what I think is the best incoming transfer portal class heading into the 2025-26 season. Through two seasons as the head coach in Johnson City, Savage has posted a 38-29 overall record.

6. Tim Craft (Western Carolina 2024-present/Gardner-Webb 2013-24)

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Craft’s coaching ability was blatantly clear last season, and what he did to improve Western Carolina during the season was almost as remarkable as what Andrew Wilson was able to do at VMI. Craft spent his first season in Cullowhee trying to figure out the right mix among the players he had. Over the final month-and-a-half of the 2024-25 season, things finally started to click for the Catamounts and they would be competitive in nearly every game down the stretch. They posted maybe the biggest win of the season in a 74-67 win over East Tennessee State in the middle of February. The Bucs might have been a little short-handed playing with Jaden Seymour, but that didn’t matter to Craft and the Catamounts, who posted a win that was something to be able to hang their proverbial hat on for the rest of the season and something to build on moving forward.

As fate would have it, the Catamounts ended up facing off against the other team with a brand-new head coach in the opening game of the 2025 Southern Conference Tournament, as No. 9 Western Carolina took on No. 8 Mercer in Asheville. The Bears were being led by the other first-year head coach in the SoCon, in Ryan Ridder, and what would play out over the course of 40 minutes at the Harrah’s Cherokee Center was one of the top games of the 2025 tournament. The Bears held on for the 67-66 win to move on to play top-seeded Chattanooga in the opening quarterfinal matchup of quarterfinal Saturday at the tournament.

Mercer also held the distinction of being WCU’s first Southern Conference win under Craft’s leadership, as WCU knocked off the Bears, 85-82, in an overtime thriller at the Ramsey Center in a game that was delayed by one day due to the effects of snowstorm Cora. The Catamounts were beaten by double digits in six out of their first nine SoCon games in the month of January, however, in six of their final nine losses, which includes the SoCon Tournament loss to Mercer, the Catamounts lost by 10 points or less. Only Samford (W, 92-73), Wofford (W, 90-67) and Mercer (W, 81-69) were able to post double-digit wins over the Catamounts.

As mentioned in the portal update on Western Carolina, nowhere could Craft’s coaching more be visibly understood better than the transformation in the play and confidence of Marcus Kell, who went from an afterthought under Justin Gray to an all-conference caliber performer under Craft. It could be argued there was no better player in the SoCon over the final month of the season.

With Kell and Pelote leading the way, the Catamounts became a problem—even for the league’s top teams like Chattanooga and Furman, with the Paladins needing overtime to knock off the Catamounts in Greenville, surviving to get an 84-75 win after trailing much of the night. The Paladins had won by 29 at WCU on New Year’s Day. That same narrative would be true for Chattanooga, which had beaten the Catamounts 84-60 in Cullowhee in January. In a late-season clash between the two, the Mocs survived to get a 91-86 win at the Roundhouse. Though the Catamounts were just 8-22 overall and only 4-14 in Southern Conference play, many can attest how much the team improved from early January until the end of the season.

Craft is no stranger to success nor is he a stranger to building teams in small towns in North Carolina into being winners. One need look no further than what he was able to do in Boiling Springs, N.C., in his time prior to arriving in Cullowhee as the head coach at Gardner-Webb. He led the Runnin’ Bulldogs to the 2019 NCAA Tournament, as Gardner-Webb won 23 games and even put a first-half scare into eventual national champion Virginia in the NCAA Tournament before the Cavaliers used their experience and talent advantage to eventually overcome Gardner-Webb in the second half.

He had a pair of 20-win seasons during his time as Gardner-Webb’s head coach and led the Runnin’ Bulldogs to nine.500 or better seasons in his 11 as the head coach. In addition to leading the Bulldogs to the 2019 NCAA Tournament, Craft was also responsible for helping the Bulldogs to the 2014-15 CBI.

Craft spent time as an assistant under Jeff Lebo at both East Carolina (2010-13) and Auburn (2008-10), as well as serving as an assistant at Gardner-Webb (2004-07) and Pensacola JC (2002-04). Craft started his coaching career at Robert F. Munroe high school as an assistant in 2000-01 before serving for one season as the head coach a year later (2001-02). In his time as a head coach at both Western Carolina and Gardner-Webb over 12 seasons, Craft has a record of 196-188. I expect Craft will ascend this list quickly, and if I update this list in two or three years, he will not be in eighth any longer and could very well break into the top four of this list by that time.

7. Dwight Perry (Wofford 2022-Present)

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In just his third season as the head coach of Wofford, Dwight Perry had the Terriers dancing as a part of March Madness. He led the Terriers to a Cinderella-like run through the Southern Conference Tournament this past March, as the Terriers took down No. 3 seed East Tennessee State (W, 72-60), No. 7 VMI (W, 85-65) and arch-rival Furman (W, 92-85) en route to leading Wofford to its sixth appearance in the Big Dance overall.

In 2022, Perry was named the interim head coach at Wofford after an investigation into then-head coach Jay McAuley ended up eventually leading to his firing amid allegations of mistreatment of players in the program. Despite having a start that involved some crisis management skills as much as coaching acumen, Perry didn’t flinch and the moment wasn’t too big for him even though it was his first time leading a program as a head coach.

His audition for the part ended up yielding a permanent status, with his installation as being officially named the head coach of Wofford’s basketball program shortly after the 2022-23 season. Perry’s interim season would see him lead the Terriers basketball program in an important moment, as the program was in a spot of thin ice so-to-speak, with a mass exodus out of the program having already taken place in the offseason between the 2021-22 and the 2022-23 seasons.

After Perry’s first interim season, even more players exited the program — like BJ Mack, who would go on to play his final season at South Carolina for Lamont Paris in 2023-24. Shortly after taking over, Perry and the Terriers went to College Station and took down Texas A&M, with a 67-62 win over an Aggies team coached by Buzz Williams, which went to finish second in the SEC that season, posting a 15-3 mark and finishing with a 25-10 record and ranked No. 17 in the country. Perry’s interim season saw the Terriers finish out the campaign with a 17-16 overall record, including an 8-10 mark in Southern Conference play. The Terriers were the No. 6 seed in Asheville, and ended up getting a thrilling, buzzer-beating effort from BJ Mack to hold off No. 3 seed UNC Greensboro for a 67-66 win.

After he was named the official head coach shortly after the season, the 2023-24 campaign would see Perry’s Terriers finish the season with a nearly identical 17-15 record, which included finishing better in Southern Conference play, as Wofford went on to post a 10-8 mark. That record was good enough for another sixth-place finish in the league standings. Unfortunately for Perry and the Terriers, the time spent in Asheville would ultimately be short-lived, as Chattanooga ended the Terriers’ SoCon Tournament run abruptly, capturing a 75-57 win over the Terriers. After winning the tournament this past March, Wofford made its sixth NCAA Tournament since 2010 and was a No. 15 seed and fell 77-62 to the No. 2 Tennessee Volunteers.

Prior to becoming the head coach of the Terriers, Perry spent three seasons as an assistant coach with the Terriers before being named the interim head coach and eventually the full-time head coach. Prior to his arrival as part of Jay McAualey’s staff at Wofford in 2019-20, Perry spent five seasons as an assistant at Furman, with three spent under Niko Medved and two under Bob Richey. He was a big part of helping the Paladins to an impressive 91-68 record over that span, which included three 20-win seasons, while being instrumental in helping coach and recruit 17 all-conference and all-freshman selections, which included a pair of SoCon Players of the Year and a SoCon Freshman of the Year.

Prior to coming to Furman, Perry got his career started in coaching at VCU under former head coach Shaka Smart, where he was the Rams’ video coordinator. Perry, a native of Durham, N.C., is a 2010 graduate of the University of Kentucky where he played from 2007-10 and earned a degree in business management. In three seasons as the Wofford men’s basketball coach, Perry has compiled an overall record of 48-43.

8. Andrew Wilson (VMI 2022-Present)

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At the beginning of last year, I’m not sure where I would have had VMI head coach Andrew Wilson on this list, and this year, I am still not sure whether or not No. 8 is too low or not, but what I can tell you is the guy can flat out coach, and the second thing is, what he did by helping VMI to a 15-19 record in his third season at the helm in Lexington was nothing short of being absolutely remarkable in so many ways. The challenge now will be sustaining the success and building on what he had from this past season.

He led VMI to a 7-11 record in the Southern Conference this past season, and in March at the Southern Conference Tournament at the Harrah’s Cherokee Center in Asheville, he guided the Keydets to a 64-57 upset win over UNCG in the quarterfinals. That was preceded by a 73-62 tournament-opening win over The Citadel, which completed a three-game sweep of the Keydets’ bitter rival.

Though he has just a 26-72 record in three seasons as VMI’s head coach, the adversity and ability to overcome and persevere despite it are two of the most impressive attributes about Wilson as a head basketball coach. When he helped VMI to the SoCon semifinals last March, he did so with not only one of the youngest teams in the Southern Conference, but also one of the youngest teams in college basketball. VMI ranked 336th out of 364 Division-I teams in average age this past season.

Youth is something Wilson has had to had to deal with in each of his three seasons as the head coach of the Keydets, due primarily to players leaving on account of either VMI not having a graduate program, but more often than not just leaving due to the fact that they weren’t about the military lifestyle. The good news is, for the first time since taking over as the head coach, Wilson was able to keep most of his top players around, as the Keydets lost only one real key piece (Augustinas Kiudulas) to the transfer portal from last year’s team.

The group saw an 11-win improvement, which marked VMI’s greatest single-season turnaround since 1908, as only 14 schools in the country improved by 10 or more wins from the 2023-24 season. The 15 wins in a single-season marked just the 12th time in program history that the Keydets were able to achieve that win total and only the seventh time in VMI’s 89-year history in two different stints as a SoCon hoops member.

It’s almost hard to put into writing how good and refreshing it was to see VMI’s turnaround last season as compared to Wilson’s first two seasons in charge. In his very first season, the Keydets were ravaged by injuries so much that he didn’t even have enough players to play a 5-on-5 scrimmage in practice for the entire season! The Keydets won three straight SoCon road games for the first time since 1998 and knocked off both The Citadel and UNCG for the first-time ever in the Southern Conference Tournament. The Keydets’ two wins in the tournament in Asheville were the most in the conference tourney since 2002-03 and just the second time in 37 years. VMI’s two most-impressive wins in SoCon play were a 91-82 home triumph over Furman, marking the program’s first over the Paladins since the 2021-22 season, as well as knocking off eventual SoCon champion Wofford, 74-67, in Spartanburg near the end of January.

So, what’s Wilson’s specialty? It’s defense.

A former player at Florida State, Wilson cites the outstanding former Seminoles head coach Leonard Hamilton as being one of his biggest mentors and being most influential in his coaching philosophy. Wilson’s ability to change defenses mid-possession reminds me a little of some of the stuff Duggar Baucom did at The Citadel when he coached there. Wilson’s team this past season played outstanding in the matchup zone. It also was a little reminiscent of some of the things that Dan Earl did during his time as the head coach of VMI before moving on to Chattanooga after the 2021-22 season. With players like point guard Tan Yildizoglu, top defender AJ Clark and leading scoring and shooting guard Rickey Bradley returning, a top-half or even a top-3 or 4 finish and a dark horse as a SoCon title contender in 2025-26 are real possibilities for VMI next season. With that said, it was enough to get Wilson a nice pay raise and extend his contract through the 2029-30 season during the off-season.

Prior to coming to VMI, Wilson spent time learning under current Vanderbilt head coach Mark Byington at both James Madison (2 seasons) and Georgia Southern (7 seasons) and spent six seasons coaching with Byington at College of Charleston under the leadership of the coaching legend Bobby Cremins (2006-12), as he coached the Cougars in the Southern Conference. After Cremins stepped down in the middle of the season in 2011-12, Mark Byington became the interim head coach, but CofC didn’t extend the offer to Byington, who eventually moved on to Georgia Southern to become the head coach of the Eagles. Interestingly, the three top assistants at College of Charleston under Cremins are all now head coaches, with Wilson (VMI), Byington (Vanderbilt) and Kyle Perry (Converse). They helped CofC average 22 wins a season from 2006-11 and four 20-win seasons overall. Also, Wilson was part of a staff that helped lure one of the greatest players ever to CofC, in Andrew Goudelock, who was eventually drafted in 2011 NBA Draft by the Los Angeles Lakers.

Wilson served one season as an assistant at Binghamton before returning to coach at Georgia Southern under Byington. Though battling injuries throughout his career, Wilson received two medical redshirts and played six years (2000-06) under Leonard Hamilton for the Florida State Seminoles. He has an exciting future, and he is a great person. I look forward to covering Wilson’s VMI teams as he continues to build a successful program in Lexington.

9. Ryan Ridder (Mercer 2024-present/UT Martin 2021-24/Bethune-Cookman (2017-20/Dayton State 2013-17)

Jeff Blake-Imagn Images

Ryan Ridder is another of mid-major basketball’s young and upcoming head coaches, and the Southern Conference seems to be the place to find those these days. In his first season as head coach at Mercer, Ridder spent time figuring out his team and his players, as well as trying to mend the culture.

This program has had some incredible high moments, such as some 11 years ago in Mercer’s final season as a member of the Atlantic Sun, it won that league and then beat Duke in one of the most historic NCAA Tournament victories in the great history of the Big Dance. Ridder’s job is to figure out the difficult road back to sustained success for a Mercer program that hasn’t been quite the same since Jibri Bryan was murdered at Breakers convenience store less than a mile from campus back in February 2016.

But if we learned anything of Ridder last season, we saw a humble coach trying to get a finger on the pulse of what makes the program tick and how to revive a program that has proven it can win. Ridder made a shrewd move by bringing in assistant coach Langston Hall during the off-season, as he is a direct link to Mercer’s most successful days as a winning program. If nothing else, he will be able to relay the vibe of what it was like when Mercer really had it rolling in its latter days as an A-Sun member.

Like Craft, it’s hard to believe that someone as successful as Ridder would be considered ninth of 10 coaches in any league, but after one season, it’s hard to evaluate a coach fully so that’s where he ended up in the rankings. That said, I doubt he remains in this spot, having already shown the ability to transform programs with much greater challenges, such as Bethune-Cookman and UT-Martin. Ridder racked up 48 wins in three seasons as the Skyhawks’ head coach, and that included a 21-11 mark in the 2023-24 season. In his 10 seasons as a head coach at Mercer (2024-present), UT Martin (2021-24), Bethune Cookman (2017-20) and JUCO Daytona State (2013-17), Ridder sports an overall mark of 205-139.

During the 2023-24 season, Ridder would help lead the Skyhawks to 21 wins and a co-regular-season title in the Ohio Valley Conference. In 2022-23, Ridder helped the Skyhawks to 19 wins, which marked the fifth-most wins in a season in school history. That was part of a nine-game turnaround from his first season in charge of the program.

In Mercer’s 70-67 win at VMI this past season, Ridder reached a milestone with his 200th game as a head coach. Ridder has an eye for talent, and like others who have coached in and have been successful in this league — former and current ETSU coaches Steve Forbes and Brooks Savage — Ridder has a unique background of being able to not only find and evaluate talent from the JUCO ranks, but also develop them. That will definitely be something to watch as his career moves forward in Macon. In his first season, he led the Bears to a decent 14-19 season, which included a 6-12 mark and seventh-place finish in league play.

10. Ed Conroy (The Citadel 2022-Present/Tulane 2011-22/The Citadel 2006-10)

Matt Cashore-Imagn Images

Ed Conroy might be the top Xs and Os coach in the Southern Conference, so when The Citadel struggled on the hardwood during the 2024-25 season, it wasn’t necessarily a complete reflection Conroy as a head basketball coach. What it did reveal in some respects was the fact that there was a breakdown in talent assessment overall somewhere in regards to The Citadel’s first real major transfer portal haul. The fact is that The Citadel might in fact be the most difficult basketball job in all of the country, even having overtaken its league rival in that respect.

The Bulldogs endured what was an incredibly difficult 2024-25 season, as for the second time in program history, and for the second time in the past decade, the Bulldogs went winless in Southern Conference play. They took Furman and Western Carolina to overtime and even thought they had won at the buzzer in the Scenic City over eventual SoCon regular-season champion Chattanooga until it was waved off, as the shot came just after the buzzer. It was that kind of season in Charleston.

The good news is Conroy isn’t the type of coach to get down on himself or the program, and is the essence of “The Citadel man” for his persevering attitude. He’s also the best coach the school has had since the great Les Robinson was patrolling the sidelines of McAlister Field House and the mid-1970s and early 80s before he left to take over at league rival East Tennessee State in 1985. In Conroy’s second season as the head coach in the 2007-08 season, the Bulldogs won just one game in league play (1-19) and were just 6-24 overall. Year two saw big improvements, as the Bulldogs finished with 14 more wins overall (20-13) and improved by a whopping 14 wins in conference play (15-5). It was one of the biggest turnarounds in The Citadel basketball history. His selection as the 2008-09 SoCon Coach of the Year was pretty much a “no-brainer.”

Not only has Conroy coached in two different stints for the Bulldogs, but he was also a player at The Citadel from 1985-89 and was a tremendous shooter. He still ranks among the top-10 in program history in career free throw percentage (81.5%) and career 3-point field percentage (39.5%). In his first stint as the Bulldogs head basketball coach from 2006-10, Conroy helped turn a program around that had struggled mightily in the final few seasons under Pat Dennis—the longest tenured coach in The Citadel’s basketball history (14 seasons from 1993-2006).

Among his accomplishments in his first stint as head coach, Conroy guided the Bulldogs to a win over a Stephen Curry-led Davidson team, the program’s first 20-win season in 30 years, and a first-ever postseason berth in a non-conference basketball tournament, when the Bulldogs were selected to be part of the 2009 CollegeInsider.com Tournament. The Bulldogs’ signature season under Conroy the first time around came in the 2008-09 season. They finished the season with an impressive 20-13 record, which included a 15-5 record in the SoCon’s South Division, which was good enough to tie for second place in the league standings with cross-town rival program College of Charleston. Conroy and the Bulldogs swept their cross-town rivals during the season, downing the Cougars 72-58 at Kresse Arena and posted a 72-63 win at McAlister Field House.

Conroy led the Bulldogs to a 16-16 mark overall and 9-9 conference record in 2009-10. Over the course of two seasons, the Bulldogs’ 36 wins were the most in school history, eclipsing the 34 won by Les Robinson in 1977-78 and 1978-79. All that winning by Conroy in two seasons at a program that didn’t normally win was enough to draw attention from other, bigger programs. After just four seasons, Conroy accepted a job offer at Tulane and was head coach of the Green Wave from 2010-16. He helped lead the Green Wave to two postseason berths and its first 20-win season in 13 years.

Conroy ultimately found out about his firing from a media member. Conroy posted a 92-103 record at Tulane in six years as the head coach, leading the program to appearances in the CBI and CIT. He also led the team during its transition into the American Conference.

He would then serve in stints as an assistant coach at Vanderbilt (2021-22) and Minnesota (2016-21) prior to returning to The Citadel to take the head coaching position prior to the 2022-23 season. The Bulldogs would post a 10-22 mark overall and a ninth-place finish in the 10-team league with a 5-13 record in his first season back as head coach. The season would be highlighted by a 69-65 win over eventual league champion Furman in mid-February. The 2023-24 season would see a one-game improvement in the overall record, as the Bulldogs finished 11-21 overall, however, the Bulldogs won two fewer games in league, finishing just 3-15 and in ninth place for a second-straight season.

In addition to being the head coach of Francis Marion, The Citadel and Tulane, Conroy has also spent time as an assistant at Coastal Carolina (2005-06), Tennessee (2001-05), Tulsa (2000-01), Furman (1994-97), VMI (1993-94) and NC State (1990-93). All told, Conroy has posted an overall record of 208-286 as a head coach at three different places in his career, which spans a total over 16 seasons, and he’s 75-143 over the course of seven seasons in two different stints as the Bulldogs’ head coach.

Postseason Berths and Other Notable Achievements as Head Coaches

Bob Richey (1 NCAA Tournament at Furman; led Furman to 2019 and 2025 NITs; has wins over Villanova, Louisville, Loyola-Chicago (2) and South Carolina in his tenure as Furman’s head coach)

Dan Earl (no NCAA Tournaments as a head coach at VMI or Chattanooga, but won SoCon’s only ever NIT title)

Lennie Acuff (1 NCAA Tournament at Lipscomb; has over 400 wins as head coach at Alabama-Huntsville and Lipscomb)

Mike Jones (1 NCAA Tournament at Radford; has led UNCG to 20-win seasons in each of the past three seasons)

Brooks Savage (No NCAA Tournaments as head coach in only two seasons at ETSU; led the Bucs to a title game appearance in 2024 and third place finish last season; back-to-back 19-win campaigns)

Tim Craft (1 NCAA Tournament at Gardner-Webb in 2019; transformed Marcus Kell into one of the best players in the SoCon this past season)

Dwight Perry (1 NCAA Tournament at Wofford in 2025; has managed adversity and been able to overcome so big losses in his short time at Wofford; led the Terriers to wins over Texas A&M in Dec. 2022 and notched a huge non-conference win at Saint Louis in Dec. 2024)

Andrew Wilson (No NCAA Tournaments at VMI, but is coming off an 11-win improvement, which was one of the best in all of college hoops last season)

Ryan Ridder (No NCAA Tournaments as head coach so far, but has led remarkable turnarounds at places without tremendous tradition like UT Martin and Bethune Cookman; Led Bethune Cookman to a share of the 2017-18 MEAC Title; Led UT-Martin to a share of the 2023-24 regular-season OVC title)

Ed Conroy (No NCAA Tournaments as a head coach; Led The Citadel to the 2009 CIT; Led Tulane to the CIT and CBI tournaments in 2013 and ‘14, respectively)

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