Basketball Coaches We Hope Never Leave the College Ranks

For basketball fans who prefer the college game to the NBA, it's bad enough that every year we have to say goodbye to a heap of stars as they move on to the next level. Watching some top college coaches depart for the pro game only adds to the pain.

This season's NBA playoffs features two coaches—Boston's Brad Stevens and Oklahoma City's Billy Donovan—who previously were running top-notch programs at the college level. The same goes for Chicago's Fred Hoiberg, who like Donovan was in the college ranks as recently as a year ago, but the challenge (and the money that comes with it) was just too much to resist.

Sadly, this has been going on for a while and we can't prevent this from happening. All we can do is hope some of the best that are currently in college choose to stick there.

For this list we only considered coaches who are young enough (let's say, under 60) to where coaching at the NBA level could still be plausible, but also ones who have remained in college since landing their first head-coaching gig. Those who have bounced back and forth between college and the pros, such as John Calipari, Lon Kruger and Rick Pitino, were also left off the list.

Tony Bennett, Virginia

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Years as College Head Coach: 10

Career Record: 234-105

NBA Coaching Experience: None

Tony Bennett's name is one that occasionally pops up when NBA insiders are asked who would make a good head coach in the pros, according to ESPN's Kevin Arnovitz. But unless an NBA team wants to break the mold and adhere to playing defense for the entire season and not just the playoffs, we don't see this happening anytime soon.

And that's just fine by us. Leave one of the college game's top schemers in the amateur ranks, where he can continue to teach his blend of make-you-miss defense and make-you-mad offense.

At Virginia (and Washington State before that), Bennett has employed a system that preaches patience and efficiency but is still dependent on athleticism. It's produced 89 wins the last three seasons, with this most recent team coming close to Virginia's first Final Four since 1984.

The 46-year-old Bennett may someday decide that the NBA is where he belongs, but let's hope that doesn't happen for a while.

Mark Few, Gonzaga

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Years as College Head Coach: 17

Career Record: 466-111

NBA Coaching Experience: None

Mark Few's entire coaching career (other than a few years at the high school level) has been in Spokane, Washington, where in 1989 he joined Gonzaga's staff as a graduate assistant. He was promoted to a full-time assistant the following season, a position he held until 1999 when Dan Monson left the program and the head gig was handed down to Few.

And despite seemingly annual queries as to whether he'll look to take on a job at a bigger school, Few has remained fiercely loyal to the Bulldogs. If he hasn't bolted by now, odds are he never will, and it seems even less likely such a jump would be to the NBA.

The closest Few has come to the pros was as coach of the U.S. National Team in the 2015 Pan American Games, where his roster included a mix of current and former college standouts (the latter of which had spent time in the NBA and pro leagues in China, Puerto Rico and Russia).

Few is 53 and still has plenty of coaching left in him, but all signs point to the remainder of his career being at Gonzaga.

Dan Majerle, Grand Canyon

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Years as College Head Coach: 3

Career Record: 59-37

NBA Coaching Experience: 5 years as assistant

When Grand Canyon looked to move from Division II to the top level of college basketball in 2013, it turned to former Phoenix Suns owner Jerry Colangelo for some advice as to who would be the best coach to lead this transition. Colangelo wasted little time in recommending Dan Majerle, one of the most beloved players in Suns history and a current assistant coach.

Majerle has made quick work of this process, posting a .500 record in each season and finishing in the top three in the Western Athletic Conference. The Antelopes haven't been eligible for the NCAA tournament (that comes after the 2017-18 season) but they've participated in the CollegeInsider.com Tournament each year.

His near-instant success has naturally led to speculation that a more notable school will soon scoop him up, starting with rumors back in January he was in the running for the UNLV job (per Richard Obert of the Arizona Republic). It seems inevitable he'll end up moving on from the fledgling Grand Canyon program at some point, but it's just as likely he'll head to the NBA at some point as well.

When the Suns fired Jeff Hornacek in February, the 50-year-old Majerle was quickly asked what his interest would be in hosting his former team. He told Shane Dale of KNXV-TV that Grand Canyon "is the best place in the world," and the permanent job was eventually given to interim coach Earl Watson.

Gregg Marshall, Wichita State

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Years as College Head Coach: 18

Career Record: 424-168

NBA Experience: None

Nine years at small school Winthrop has been followed by nine more at mid-major Wichita State, with each season adding to Gregg Marshall's reputation as one of the top coaches in college. The fact he's stayed with the Shockers despite numerous overtures from bigger programs only enhances his reputation as someone who's more interested in building and sustaining something than looking to bounce around.

But if and when the 53-year-old Marshall decides he's done all he can with Wichita, will the next step be to a power-conference school or a professional team? Mitch Lawrence of Sporting News included him on a recent list of college coaches who could soon make the jump to the NBA, and if he did so it would be similar to Brad Stevens in going from a mid-major (Butler) to the big leagues.

"He gets guys to overachieve and his teams really play hard, all of the time," a source, listed as an NBA VP, told Lawrence.

Marshall has yet to develop a player who's made his mark in the NBA—though outgoing seniors Ron Baker and Fred VanVleet could change that—but otherwise he has everything that pro teams are looking for in a coach.

Sean Miller, Arizona

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Years as College Head Coach: 12

Career Record: 307-108

NBA Experience: None

Sean Miller has taken teams to the Sweet 16 on six occasions, the Elite Eight four times and won at least one NCAA tournament game in seven of his 12 seasons as a head coach at either Xavier or Arizona. Yet in some circles he's not considered a top-tier coach because he's failed to get a team to the Final Four.

Whether or not you agree that reaching the national semifinals is a necessary barometer to reach elite status in college, don't think getting to the Final Four isn't a motivation for Miller. And until that happens, it's very unlikely he'll seriously consider an NBA job when that other goal hasn't been achieved.

Miller never played professional basketball, going straight from a career at Pittsburgh to being a graduate assistant at Wisconsin in 1992. It's been a steady rise since then, and at 47 it's far from over, and that may some day involve going into the pros.

But not, however, until he's done all he feels he can at the college level.

Bill Self, Kansas

Timothy D. Easley/Associated Press

Years as College Head Coach: 23

Career Record: 592-188

NBA Experience: None

The winner of 12 consecutive conference titles at Kansas, Bill Self is no doubt among the best coaches in college and has been for some time. Even before he won the 2008 NCAA title with the Jayhawks, the success he'd had with that program and three others before that established his reputation. And with that praise has come plenty of wonders about whether he'd go pro like so many of his best players.

The wonder reached a peak last offseason when the job opened at nearby NBA club Oklahoma City, a franchise that eventually dipped into the college ranks to hire longtime Florida coach Billy Donovan. Two years before that, Self told ESPN that “it would be great to be able to match wits with the best athletes in the world” and that “I'm not saying I never would” take an NBA job.

That was when he was 51 and had won 10 consecutive Big 12 regular-season championships. His next Kansas team had Andrew Wiggins and Joel Embiid, both future first-round NBA picks, and he'll probably see a few more former players get drafted this June.

Maybe someday he'll get to coach against some of the players he helped develop into pros.

Shaka Smart, Texas

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Years as College Head Coach: 7

Career Record: 183-69

NBA Experience: None

Pro sports teams are always looking for the next big thing, but they're also constantly in search of more of the same that's worked. After the rapid improvement Brad Stevens has made with the Boston Celtics since his surprise hire away from Butler in 2013, it's seemed inevitable that another NBA team would try to sweep down to college and steal away another bright young coaching mind.

Shaka Smart is still with us, though if he manages to be as successful at Texas as he was at VCU, this might not be the case for much longer.

The 39-year-old Smart—who is the same age as Stevens—has made a name for himself in college with the style of play he prefers: one that's heavy on pressure and creating chaos, using it to force turnovers and throw opponents off their game.

Such a system would be hard to employ at the pro level, where the regular season alone is more than twice as long as the entire college campaign and defensive intensity is hard to sustain for long periods of time. Smart has somewhat modified this approach since moving to Texas, though he'd have to make even more changes for it to work in the NBA.

If Smart really wants to coach in the pros, and more importantly if an NBA team really wants him, then the necessary changes will get made. Until then, let's just enjoy the "Havoc" that he brings to every college game he coaches.

Jay Wright, Villanova

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Years as College Head Coach: 22

Career Record: 476-242

NBA Experience: None

Congratulations on your first NCAA title, Jay Wright! With that victory, you not only cement yourself as an all-time college coaching great but now get to answer questions about your interest in the NBA.

It's almost a rite of passage for the coach of the national champion in college basketball, just as much as cutting down the nets and being a guest of honor at a hometown parade, to suddenly become the center of NBA job speculation. You've conquered one level, why not take those talents up to the next one to see if you can do just as well up there?

Wright and Villanova beat North Carolina on April 4, less than an hour before April 5, and by April 7 he was reportedly "the top choice" of the then-coachless Phoenix Suns. A few weeks later, when the Los Angeles Lakers fired Byron Scott, ESPN listed Wright among a handful of coaches (both from the pro and college level) that were likely to get considered.

It's pretty much the same treatment that Connecticut's Kevin Ollie got after the 2014 season, when after winning the national title with the Huskies he was instantly on the short list for every NBA opening. Ollie is still at UConn, at least for now, and so is the 54-year-old Wright with Villanova.

All statistics courtesy of Sports-Reference.com, unless otherwise noted. All recruiting information from 247Sports, unless otherwise noted.

Follow Brian J. Pedersen on Twitter at @realBJP.