Jon Scheyer Headlines 2026 Men's College Coach of the Year Semifinalists

Duke's Jon Scheyer, Arizona's Tommy Lloyd and Michigan's Dusty May were among the 10 head coaches named semifinalists for the 2026 Naismith Men's College Basketball Coach of the Year Award on Friday.

The full list of semifinalists is as follows:

• Mark Byington (Vanderbilt)
• Todd Golden (Florida)
• Fred Hoiberg (Nebraska)
• Tom Izzo (Michigan State)
• Tommy Lloyd (Arizona)
• Dusty May (Michigan)
• Ryan Odom (Virginia)
• T.J. Otzelberger (Iowa State)
• Jon Scheyer (Duke)
• Travis Steele (Miami (Ohio))

Entering the NCAA tournament, there was a clear divide between the top three teams in the nation and everyone else.

At 32-2, the Scheyer-led Blue Devils are the No. 1 team in the nation, followed by Lloyd's 32-2 Wildcats at No. 2 and May's 31-3 Wolverines at No. 3.

Scheyer was a Coach of the Year finalist last season when Duke went 35-4 and reached the Final Four.

While Scheyer lost a ton of top-end talent to the NBA, including Cooper Flagg, Kon Knueppel and Khaman Maluach, he quickly reloaded with an elite recruiting class, led by a National Player of the Year candidate in Cameron Boozer.

Duke Beats Virginia

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Lloyd has changed the culture at Arizona, leading the Wildcats to five consecutive NCAA tournament appearances after three years out of the tourney prior to his arrival.

Arizona has made three trips to the Sweet 16 under Lloyd, but this may be his best team yet, thanks to a quintet of double-digit scorers.

Much like Lloyd has done at Arizona, May has brought Michigan back to prominence over the past two seasons.

The Wolverines did not reach the NCAA tournament in their final two years under Juwan Howard, but May took them to the Sweet 16 last season and established them as one of the best teams in the country entering this year's tournament.

While Scheyer, Lloyd and May will be tough to beat, a couple of other semifinalists do seem to have a legitimate chance.

Chief among them is Nebraska's Fred Hoiberg, who has completely turned around what was once a moribund program.

After a five-year NCAA tournament drought, Nebraska hired Hoiberg in 2019, and things didn't initially get much better, as the Huskers posted win totals of seven, seven and 10 in his first three seasons.

He finally got Nebraska to the NCAA tourney in 2024, though, and entering this year's tournament, an argument could be made that Hoiberg had assembled the greatest team in program history with a 26-8 record.

On Thursday, Hoiberg helped the Huskers win their first-ever NCAA tournament game, beating Troy in the first round.

Another semifinalist to keep an eye on is Travis Steele of Miami (Ohio) after securing the MAC's first NCAA tournament at-large bid since 1999.

Miami went a perfect 31-0 in the regular season before getting shocked by UMass in the MAC tournament quarterfinals. There was some discourse that the Redhawks should be left out of the tournament, but they were among the last teams in.

They went on to prove they were worthy of a spot by beating SMU in a play-in game, bolstering Steele's Coach of the Year case in the process.