Transitions after Great (or very good) Head Coaches

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UNC after Dean Smith 1961-1997 (879-254) 2 NCAA Championships & 11 Final Fours
Bill Guthridge 1997-2000 (80-28) 2 Final Fours
Matt Doherty 2000-2003 (53-43) only 1 NCAA Tournament appearance
Roy Williams 2003-present (453-133) 3 National Championships

Indiana after Bob Knight 1971-2000 (662-239) 3 NCAA Championships & 5 Final Fours
Mike Davis 2000-2012 (122-73) 1 Final Four
Kelvin Sampson 2006-2008 (43-15) only 1 NCAA Tournament appearance, fired for recruiting violations
Tom Crean 2008-2017 (166-135) only 4 NCAA Tournament appearances
Archie Miller 2017-2019 (173-94) Zero NCAA Tournament appearances

Kentucky after Rick Pitino 1989-1997 (219-50) 1 NCAA Championship & 3 Final Fours
Tubby Smith 1997-2007 (263-83) 1 NCAA Championship & 1 Final Four
Billy Gillispie 2007-2009 (40-27) only 1 NCAA Tournament appearance
John Calipari 2009-present (305-70) 1 NCAA Championship & 4 Final Fours

Georgetown after John Thompson Jr. 1972-1999 (596-239) 1 NCAA Championship & 3 Final Fours
Craig Esherick 1999-2004 (103-74) only 1 NCAA Tournament appearance
John Thompson III 2004-2017 (278-151) 1 Final Four
Patrick Ewing 2017-present (34-29) Zero NCAA Tournament appearances

UConn after Jim Calhoun 1986-2012 (625-243) 3 NCAA Championships & 4 Final Fours
Kevin Ollie 2012-2018 (127-79) 1 NCAA Championship
Danny Hurley 2018-present (16-17) Zero NCAA Tournament appearances

Kansas after Larry Brown 1983-1988 (135-44) 1 NCAA Championship & 2 Final Fours
Roy Williams 1988-2003 (418-101) 4 Final Fours
Bill Self 2003-present (447-96) 1 NCAA Championship & 2 Final Fours

UCLA after John Wooden 1948-1975 (620-147) 10 NCAA Championships & 12 Final Fours
Gene Bartow 1975-1977 (52-9) Hired from outside UCLA program
Gary Cunningham 1977-1979 (50-8) Long time Wooden assistant
Larry Brown 1979-1981 (37-16) only Final Four was vacated and he left for an NBA job
Larry Farmer 1981-1984 (61-23) only 1 NCAA Tournament appearance
Walt Hazzard 1984-1998 (74-47) only 1 NCAA Tournament appearance
Jim Harrick 1988-1996 (192-62) 1 NCAA Championship, fired for recruiting violations
Steve Lavin 1996-2003 (145-78) only reached Elite Eight once
Ben Howland 2003-2013 (233-107) 3 Final Fours
Steve Alford 2013-2018 (124-63) only 4 NCAA Tournament appearances

 

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I have been giving a lot of thought to Boeheim's successor when he finally decides to retire. I am a huge supporter of the HOF coach and would like him to stay as long as he wants. I looked at transitions from other successful coaches to see if there has been more success with promoting from within the program or outside hires. I am working under the assumption that Boeheim will likely retire following the 2021-2022 season. Autry is the only current member of the staff that could take over as head coach. Murphy could take over and would likely join JB's staff in his final season for a smooth transition. Hopkins seems to be doing very well out in Washington and his return to Syracuse seems unlikely. The history of the programs I looked at points toward more success with outside hires rather than promoting assistants or long-time program guys.