Coach of the year battles

[Halldan1]

Sizing up the coach of the year races in all 32 Division I college basketball conferences

Predicting the best coaches before the season even begins.

www.espn.com

Myron Medcalf
ESPN Staff Writer

We're accustomed to projecting the college basketball players we expect to excel each season via our preseason honors lists. Coaches usually have to wait until their season is over, however, to get the same accolades.

Until now.

Here, we've predicted the top 2022-23 men's college basketball coach in each league based on the following criteria: the talent they've retained or added to their roster -- critical in the transfer portal and NIL eras -- their history of exceeding expectations and their ability to help their squad reach its highest potential. We've also looked at the coaches who could give our candidates their stiffest competition.

Yes, some of this is subjective. Most of the coaches are at this level because they've proved they're good at what they do.

Send all complaints to my fellow ESPN experts Jeff Borzello and John Gasaway. Kidding.

Navigate to each league:

American | America East | ACC | Atlantic Sun | A-10| Big 12 | Big East | Big Sky | Big South | Big Ten | Big West | CAA | C-USA | Horizon | Ivy | MAAC | MAC | MEAC | MVC | MW | NEC | OVC | Pac-12 | Patriot | SEC | SoCon | Southland | SWAC | Summit | Sun Belt | WCC | WAC​

 

[jack 1970]

Way too early for this stuff.Kyle Neptune needs to prove his worth.Not easy to follow a legend.

 

[JRSlim2284]

It's pre-season time. This is the time for all the reckless speculation.

Would Sha have to finish top 3 to be considered for this?

 

[HallX2]

Way too early for this stuff.Kyle Neptune needs to prove his worth.Not easy to follow a legend.

Maybe win a game first

 

[hallstorm]

This is the silliest of all predictions. The whole reward of coach of the year is usually expectations vs results. Injuries also factor in.

If it were all about wins, Jay Wright would have won COY every year except two since with NBE was formed.