Last year, I named Bryan Hodgson, Lennie Acuff and Eric Olen as the three best mid-major hires. I don’t have quite as strong of a conviction on three of them this year – there are a bunch that I really like – but what I did like about that group was how all three had different backgrounds. They illustrated how you can find good coaches in a lot of different ways. Sure, all three of them were already in a Division-I head coaching job, but they got there differently.
But I’ll do my best to single out
three head coaching hires that I really like – all coming from different avenues – and then add a few more.
Kahil Fennell to Western Michigan
In two years, Kahil Fennell revitalized the UTRGV program. In year one, he finished 70+ spots better than KenPom preseason expectation, with the program’s second-highest KenPom finish in 20 years. Then, in his second season, he finished 130 spots above preseason expectation, and 50 spots higher than any team in the last 30 years.
Sure, the drop from the WAC to the Southland made it easier to compete, but he put together better overall teams in a worse overall conference. Fennell’s teams have done a good job preventing rim attempts and threes despite not having a ton of size, and they emphasize catch-and-shoot offense and efficiency at the rim.
If Western Michigan – which recently won the MAC in football and won a men’s hockey national championship – can put investment into basketball, Fennell will have them knocking on the door of the MAC’s upper class soon. He’s been an assistant at a lot of different places, having success in different ways.
The Broncos made a hire that wasn’t based on any sort of regional ties or connection to the school. While there’s nothing wrong with doing that, and there’s a name later on this list that would’ve fit the regional criteria and would’ve also been a home run hire, AD’s shouldn’t be afraid of the out-of-the-box hire. It’ll work for WMU with Fennell.
Tobin Anderson to Tennessee Tech
We don’t need to relitigate the circumstances by which Tobin Anderson was fired from Iona, but we can look at his career as a whole, and the upward trajectory that he had Iona on, to say that Tennessee Tech made a very strong hire.
Anderson won 80% of his conference games over nine years in Division-II at St. Thomas Aquinas after winning over 65% of his games at Division-III Hamilton. He then led FDU to a 17-win improvement in year one, and the famed upset over Purdue in the NCAA Tournament, paving the way for him to land the Iona job. He underperformed program expectations at Iona, no doubt, but Tennessee Tech doesn’t have the expectation to consistently win the SoCon – Tenn Tech’s new conference – the way Iona expects to win the MAAC. He’s not immediately walking into a pressure cooker and will have more time to build.
His style, marked by frenetic full-court pressure defense and forcing turnovers, has played well in the SoCon recently, as Bucky McMillan won with the press at Samford.
Matt Majkrzak to Northern Illinois
When Matt Majkrzak took over as Northern Michigan’s head coach in 2019-20, the program hadn’t won 20 games since 1999-2000. After seven seasons at the helm, he did it four years in a row. He took Northern Michigan to the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2000 and won the program’s first NCAA Tournament game since 1999.
With a patient attack that hardly ever turns the ball over, Majkrzak led the Wildcats to the second-best offensive efficiency in Division II this past season and three top 25 offenses in the last four years. Majkrzak’s offensive prowess and ability to recruit and develop players helped flip the Northern Michigan program. While his defenses haven’t been great, I don’t think they’re bad enough to offset the strength of the offense at a level like the Horizon.
He’s also a sharp evaluator, especially in his home state of Wisconsin, where his four leading scorers at NMU last season hailed from. At just 36 years old and with over 161 college head coaching wins to his name, Northern Illinois brought in a program builder to guide the Huskies into the new era in the Horizon League after decades in the MAC.
Others I like
Brett MacConnell (Dartmouth): A key piece of Princeton’s success under Mitch Henderson, MacConnell gets the opportunity to be a head coach at what is the hardest job in the Ivy League.
Evan Bradds (Belmont): Not only is Bradds a continuation of the Rick Byrd lineage, but he also brings NBA coaching experience under Brad Stevens and college coaching experience under Jon Scheyer to the Bruins.
Jordan Fee (Lamar): Fee has only been a head coach for one season, but it might’ve been the single most transformative season for a program in the 2020s. The former right-hand man to Jim Crutchfield at Nova Southeastern took Gannon from three wins to 32 in one year and then left to be an assistant at Florida Atlantic. The turnaround he started led to Gannon’s first national championship two years later.
Justin Joyner (Oregon State): Joyner comes off of both the Randy Bennett and Dusty May trees and is hoping to build the Beavers in the image that molded Michigan’s success.
Griff Aldrich (Pepperdine): Aldrich led Longwood to two NCAA Tournament appearances and thre straight 20 win seasons before taking a spot on Ryan Odom’s staff last year.
Wes Miller (Charlotte): Some guys are just better suited to be mid-major coaches than high-major coaches, and Miller – who had great success at UNC Greensboro – is another example.
Ben Jacobson (Utah State): I never expected Ben Jacobson to leave Northern Iowa. He’d been the head coach there for 20 years and only had three losing seasons. He was the dean of the Missouri Valley. Utah State made yet another sharp hire.
