College Basketball Coaches Whose Stock Is Soaring Early in 2014-15

It's the holiday season, which is a good time to reflect on the previous year and analyze who has been naughty and who has been nice. This applies to the college basketball world too—particularly the coaches.

Though conference play won't seriously get underway until the new year begins, there have been enough games so far this season to figure out who is on the right track and who needs to regroup entirely. In this list, we're going to get into the holiday spirit and only focus on the positive.

Coaches usually don't receive a lot of attention until March when seasons are on the line (and jobs are up in the air), but there are a handful of men who are already standing out and making a name for themselves early in the season.

Here are a few college basketball coaches who aren't quite household names yet, but they have a chance to be come March.

Richard Pitino, Minnesota

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In his second year as the head coach of Minnesota, 32-year-old Richard Pitino—the son of legendary coach Rick Pitino—is beginning to make a name for himself. 

Last season, the younger Pitino made the most of his opportunity as the head coach of a stagnant Minnesota program, beating three top-20 teams, winning 25 games and winning the NIT tournament. He's far from satisfied.

This year, the Golden Gophers are off to a strong 8-2 start. One of his losses came in the opening game against his dad's Louisville Cardinals. With an unrelenting coaching style, a humble attitude and a lot of returning talent on his team, Richard has his sights set on the NCAA tournament.

According to Eric Prisbell of USA Today, Richard has one admirer already—his father:

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He is a lot different than me in a lot of ways. He reminds me of Billy Donovan at the same age. That is about as high a compliment as I can give him (Richard). I always told him, if you are going to take after someone, take after Billy.

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Richard may turn heads because of his famous last name, but it's his dynamic coaching and basketball I.Q. that keeps people looking.

Joe Dooley, Florida Gulf Coast

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After spending 10 years as an assistant coach at Kansas and learning under Bill Self, Joe Dooley once again got his time to shine as a head coach when he took over the top spot at Florida Gulf Coast University in 2013.

His arrival came right after Dunk City made it to the Sweet 16 as a No. 15 seed in the NCAA tournament, so the job was suddenly a fairly high-profile one. While he wasn't able to duplicate that success in his inaugural year, he still led the team to an impressive 22-13 record.

After his job last season, Dooley was already rumored to be in the mix for other head coaching jobs across the nation, as reported by ESPN and Sean Soffian of News-Press.com, but he stuck with Eagles. This season the team is off to an 8-2 start, with nice wins over UMass and UCSB. If Dooley is able to navigate his team back into the NCAA tournament this season, he'll be a hot candidate.

Larry Eustachy, Colorado State

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The Colorado States Rams are 10-0 on the season and on the brink of making the AP Top 25, and life is good for coach Larry Eustachy.

The 59-year-old, who is in his third season with the Rams, has brought this program back to relevancy, and this season is shaping up to be one of its best.

As reported by Eric Prisbell of USA Today, Eustachy, a recovering alcoholic, is modeling his program after San Diego State's and building through transfers:

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The transfer formula — seven of his top nine players have transferred from four-year school or a junior college — appeals to Eustachy for another reason. Like him, they often have dealt with some form of personal hardship. And they understand that he has not run from his past. He's owned it. He's real with players. And they respect it.

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Eustachy has stated that he wants to remain with Colorado State until he retires, but he'll definitely be drumming up some interest if his team stays on this path.

Larry Krystkowiak, Utah

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The Utah Utes have been one of the most surprising teams at the start of the 2014-2015 college basketball season, going 7-2 with an OT win over No. 8 Wichita State and two close losses to Kansas and San Diego State University.

A lot of their early success has to do with fourth-year coach Larry Krystkowiak's patience. In his first year as coach, the Utes only went 6-25. Last year, they were 21-12 and made the NIT. This year, the man they call the "West Coast Coach K" due to his long last name, hopes his team can make it to the dance.

The former NBA player told C.L. Brown of ESPN.com that a one-day-at-a-time mentality has been the key. "You try to figure out a way to fix something and improve a little bit each day, and you hope over the course of time your graph is trending upward, and you're making progress," he said. 

Krystkowiak, who was a head coach for one year in the NBA, will be the talk of the town if Utah makes it to the NCAA tournament this season.

Archie Miller, Dayton

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The Dayton Flyers, who are looking to back up their run to the Elite Eight in March, have started this season 7-2. With every win, coach Archie Miller—the younger brother to Arizona's Sean Miller—becomes a bigger star.

Many expected Archie to bail on Dayton for greener pastures after he took the No. 11 seeds deep into the dance, scoring huge upsets over Ohio State, Syracuse and Stanford. Instead, the 36-year-old decided to stay put and continue to build the program. He believes the Atlantic-10 will soon be considered one of the best conferences, and it's worth sticking around to see Dayton grow.

“It was definitely a relief having him back because when you start something like that, you want to build on it," Dayton senior guard Jordan Sibert said, as reported by Terrence Payne of NBC's College Basketball Talk.

Still, with the Flyers looking like a tournament team early this season, Archie's stock is continuing to climb.

Jim Larranaga, Miami

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It's hard to think of an ACC college basketball program's 65-year-old coach as a "rising star," but that's the category that Jim Larranaga deserves to be in right now. He's in his fourth year as the head coach of Miami, and even though people keep underestimating his squad, the Hurricanes keep delivering the goods.

Two years ago, Larranaga's team climbed to No. 2 in the country and was both the ACC tournament and the ACC regular season champions. Last year, a team that experienced a high rate of turnover still managed a few marquee upsets.

This season, after being forgotten in all preseason predictions, his team is 9-1 and has climbed up to No. 18 in the AP Top 25 with impressive victories over Florida and Illinois. Larranaga has relied on team-building trips to Spain, a switch to zone defense and a lot of statistics to keep his team moving ahead.

"You're always taking steps forward or backward," he told his team, as reported by Nicole Auerbach of USA Today. "You're never really standing still."

Kyle Smith, Columbia

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Kyle Smith is the coach of the Columbia Lions, a school that hasn't received much attention for its basketball prowess. Now in his fifth year with the school, 45-year-old Smith is changing that. 

Columbia is 5-3 on the season, but it impressed the most in a loss. On December 10, the Columbia Lions scored the first 11 points against No. 1 Kentucky and hung onto the lead for nearly 27 minutes, dramatically slowing Kentucky's high-powered offense and controlling the pace of the game. The Lions ended up losing 56-46, but the Ivy Leaguers made quite an impact.

Smith has turned around the mentality of a program that hadn't made it to a postseason tournament of any kind since 1968. Last year, the Lions went 21-13 and made it to the CollegeInsider.com Postseason Tournament.

This season, Columbia is fighting for the top spot in the Ivy League and a bid to the NCAA tournament. That's a long way off, of course, but if it does happen, it's hard to see Smith staying at Columbia for long.