Candid Coaches: Which school made the best college basketball coaching hire in 2025?

Once again CBS Sports presents our Candid Coaches series, which spotlights relevant topics and issues in men’s college basketball. Gary Parrish and Matt Norlander polled nearly 100 coaches in recent weeks on a variety of subjects. Coaches spoke on background and were provided anonymity to offer unfiltered opinions. Today, we look at the variety of new faces in new places.

Changes in the NIL landscape, and the frenetic nature of the transfer portal, has accelerated the rate of turnover in college coaching.

To wit: 18% of the power-conference head-coaching structure flipped back in the spring. That’s 14 out of 79 jobs. That’s a good chunk, and in fact college hoops had 14 ACC/Big East/Big Ten/Big 12/SEC flips for the second straight year. As far as I can tell, 28 high-major coaching changes in a two-year period is a college basketball record. 

In 2025, we had makeovers at Maryland, Miami, Indiana Iowa, Villanova, Virginia, Texas and Texas A&M and still six more in the big-boy leagues. Some of these hirings will flame out by 2030. Others will prove to be home runs, with perhaps one, two or three of the coaches in new perches this year fated to thrive for well over a decade at their new schools.

Candid Coaches: Who is the best X’s and O’s coach in college basketball right now?

Gary Parrish

Which school made the best decision in moving forward with its men’s hoops program over the next five-plus years? This was our question to nearly 100 coaches and here are the results of our survey.

Who was the best hire of the 2025 hiring cycle?

Ben McCollum, Iowa25%Will Wade, NC State22%Sean Miller, Texas21%Ryan Odom, Virginia9%Buzz Williams, Maryland7%Niko Medved, Minnesota5%

Others receiving multiple votes: Kevin Willard (Villanova), Ross Hodge (West Virginia), Alex Jensen (Utah)

Quotes that stood out

About McCollum

• “I didn’t know much about him before he went to Drake. Just heard there was this high-level D-II coach, but I started studying his stuff this past year. They played a coach I worked with … I watched one game, locked in, and it’s just incredible what he does. I studied him more and more as the season went along. Then they beat Missouri in the NCAA Tournament. There’s more than just success in Year 1 (at Iowa). Longevity at that place. That feels like a really good fit for him and he’s bringing a couple of his good players. I’d be surprised if he doesn’t have immediate success there.”
• “It should’ve never taken Ben this long to get a power-conference job. Look at his career record and accomplishments. Great coach. He’ll win consistently as long as his administration supports him.”
• “McCollum I don’t know anything about, but seems like he’s a controlling tempo and defensive guy, so that will translate no matter what personnel they have. Also it seems like a perfect personality location fit for a new head coach. And his track record is super impressive.”
• “Ben McCollum because of fit. From the region, winning at an insane clip and has shown now he can recruit and coach in the current landscape of D-I. Iowa fans will love his demeanor and style of play.”

About Wade

• “He will thrive in this new era of college basketball. Someone was going to take a chance and NC State beat everyone to it.”
• “I think it’s the gangster, Will Wade (laughing). Fits NC State perfectly. I think that’s a match made in heaven.”
• “Always has been a really good coach and recruiter. This job fits him and his personality, but also what is needed there too. Someone who doesn’t give a shit about the blue bloods around him.”
• “Perfect marriage with program. Passionate fanbase with deep pockets. Talent-rich region. Plays a fun style. Very good chance to win early and consistently in the weakest [Power Five] league.”
• “What he was fired for the rules are different — look at Houston with Kelvin Sampson. He is the perfect fit to achieve at a high ceiling type of job. He is going to recruit, coach, and sell that program.”

About Miller

• “He didn’t lose his job at an elite program like Arizona for not performing. He has the experience and the skill to be a perfect fit at Texas.” 
• “It’s not really close. He has proven he can win at an elite school (Arizona) and he is at Texas. It’s a place you are going to win at. And: Sean wins.”
• “Perfect fit and has won big [at that level] already. Very smart hire. Ensures they will continue to be good after the worst four-year period in history. Went from multiple Elite Eights at a hoops-only school to not making tourney for four years. Major slide. [Texas] will be back.”

About Odom

• “Some coaches get hired, it makes sense and is the perfect the place. For me, Odom is an easy choice because the program he went to is the most synergistic fit of all the guys. I’ve gotten to know Ryan and know UVa well based on having worked in that area. I know what UVa is about academically and non-athletically. When Ryan Odom was at UMBC, he invited me to his practice and I got to know him there. How he is as a coach, who he is, what he values and the university, it’s a perfect fit.”

• “He has a personal connection to the university and he’s won everywhere he’s been: UMBC, Utah State, VCU.” 

About others

• Medved: “How can anyone discount what Niko Medved has done at each stop in his career? He inherited a disaster at Furman and in three years he won. Drake, he won. And what he did at CSU is beyond impressive.”
• Jensen: “I had a chance to spend a year with Alex when I was [younger]. He has a way about him. Humble, exceptionally smart, obviously very knowledgeable about the game but doesn’t try to outsmart himself. He has a feel for people.”

The takeaway

With our “who’s the best player?” and “who’s the best team?” survey questions this year, I’ve been pulling out data from the archives to show who won those Qs in years past. Let’s do the same for today’s study, as it’s a question we’ve asked dating back to 2014.

Recent winners of this question — with links to go back and see how the coaches voted each year — are … 

2024: John Calipari to Arkansas. Way too soon to tell, but he was objectively not the best hire in Year 1. 
2023: Rick Pitino to St. John’s. An easy choice not so long ago and it’s certainly looking like the right pick as of today.
2022: Shaheen Holloway to Seton Hall. A tight vote that year, but a miss, as Holloway was hired in the same year as Jon Scheyer, Todd Golden, Dennis Gates and Chris Jans.
2021: Chris Beard to Texas. It ended disastrously. Shaka Smart finished second, and that tracks. Tommy Lloyd to Arizona wasn’t even top-five!
2019: Fred Hoiberg to Nebraska. He finished well ahead of guys who proved to be better their schools: Nate Oats, Mick Cronin, TJ Otzelberger and Eric Musselman.
2018: Chris Mack to Louisville. Mack beat out the Correct Answer by one percentage point that year: Dan Hurley to UConn.
2017: Archie Miller to Indiana. An obvious miss. Brad Underwood to Illinois is the clear best hire from 2017; he took second to Miller that year.
2016: Brad Underwood to Oklahoma State. Yes, Underwood had two power-conference jobs in two years. Beard to Texas Tech or Greg Gard at Wisconsin wound up as the most fruitful hires, though.
2015: Shaka Smart to Texas. He comfortably won, with Ben Howland to Mississippi State being second. The Correct Answer came in third that year with 12% of the vote: Tennessee hiring Rick Barnes.
2014: Buzz Williams to Virginia Tech. Identical to 2018, the top vote-getter that year beat out the leading vote-getter by 1%: Bruce Pearl to Auburn came in second. 

I love asking this question every year to get a read of coaches’ opinions on their contemporaries. That said bear in mind the winner is far from guaranteed to be the best in their hiring class. In the 10 previous iterations of this question, it’s fair to say coaches got it right with the No. 1 pick maybe two times.

That doesn’t mean McCollum won’t prove to be excellent. After winning 395 games (and four national titles) in 15 seasons at Division II Northwest Missouri State, the Iowa native walked into D-I at Drake and went 31-4. The fit with the Hawkeyes seems like it could change the dynamic in the Big Ten in the next decade if McCollum’s philosophies are adaptable at the high-major level. 

I expected Wade to finish top-three when we presented this question, and in fact he took the 2-slot. His confidence and personality profile matched with NC State’s position in the Triangle pecking order has a lot of coaches eager to see if the Wolfpack can be a national factor in the next two years. That is going to be a fun one to watch.

And with Miller, he’s been up for voting in this question before, just a few years ago when he went to Xavier. He has more wins than any coach in this year’s cycle. He goes to Texas, with the idea that he can do more than he did at Xavier. With the new revenue sharing rules in place, we’ll see if that winds up being the case. Miller has long been referred to as one of the best coaches without a Final Four to his name. He’d love to shed that label as quickly as possible in what should be his final stop in college coaching. 

Big picture, I look at McCollum to Iowa, Wade to State, Medved to Minnesota, Odom to Virginia, Alex Jensen to Utah, Luke Loucks to Florida State, etc. … and I don’t think there’s been a carousel cycle in the past decade where there have been more “fits” that align with coaching style, school, background, geographical ties than what we have in 2025. It’s why, even though coaches had to settle on one answer, a number of guys I spoke with gave their second-choice votes to the likes of Medved and Odom. 

Even Jai Lucas and Bucky McMillan — neither of whom has been a high-major coach until this year — each received a vote. This is a promising, relatively young class of coaches stepping into new gigs. It’s not just about who they were when they won the job, it’s about how they can adapt in the next few years. College sports is in either Stage 3 or 4 of probably a five-stage mega-shift, and only the coaches who understand the terrain and how to map-read, pivot and adjust will still be holding on to these jobs, or better ones, five years from now. 

Previous 2025 Candid Coaches questions