College Basketball Assistants Who'll Be Head Coaches Soon

Timing, regional proximity and personal relationships have a lot to do with how a college head coach is selected. Certain coaches are right for certain head coaching jobs and not others. However, a few assistant coaches seem to be in line for head coaching positions if the time and the place line up correctly.

Some have already been Division I head coaches, while others have enough clout to be selective about the head coaching job they take.

We have identified nine college assistants who are likely to land head coaching jobs soon. We introduce the list with eight other assistants who also have the credentials to become head coaches, but for one reason or another, they did not quite make the list of nine.

Eight Who Might Become Head Coaches

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Eight assistant coaches have the resumes to be candidates for head coaching positions and could land such a job if the situation is ideal. However, they did not quite make our list of nine.

1. Dave Dickerson, Ohio State (pictured above)
2. Travis Steele, Xavier
3. Dwayne Stephens, Michigan State
4. Raphael Chillious, Washington
5. Tim Buckley, Indiana
6. Chris Crutchfield, Oklahoma
7. Jerome Tang, Baylor
8. Kurtis Townsend, Kansas

Ron Sanchez, Virginia

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Ron Sanchez was an assistant under Tony Bennett at Washington State for three years and has been with Bennett for seven seasons at Virginia, including last season as an associate head coach. Sanchez has been with Bennett for all 10 of his seasons as a Division I head coach, as Bennett took two programs that seemed to be headed nowhere and turned them into conference title contenders.

Sanchez seems to have the knowledge necessary to turn the Bennett system into a successful venture as a head coach at another school.

Two other Virginia assistant coaches, Brad Soderberg and Jason Williford, also could be head coaches in the near future. In fact, Soderberg has Division I head coaching experience at Wisconsin and St. Louis.

However, Sanchez seems to be the Virginia assistant who is most in demand. Nick Sunderland of the Daily News-Record reported Sanchez was the top choice to fill the James Madison head coaching vacancy this year. Sunderland (via Rivals.com) later reported JMU was unable to come to terms with Sanchez and hired Louis.

The interest in Sanchez is there.

Baker Dunleavy, Villanova

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Baker Dunleavy was in a perfect position to pursue head coaching opportunities this year. He is the top assistant on Jay Wright's staff at Villanova, and his resume bears the clout of the 2016 national championship.

He was pursued by several schools this spring, but apparently he will wait. Dunleavy was a candidate for the Stony Brook head coaching vacancy, according to Greg Logan of Newsday, and he was expected to be interviewed for the Delaware opening, according to Kevin Tresolini of the News Journal, but never did.

Dunleavy is the son of former NBA head coach and current Tulane head coach Mike Dunleavy Sr., so he has the bloodlines. As noted in USA Today, his experience working for Merrill Lynch and Bank of America should provide the business acumen needed to run a college basketball program.

Dunleavy has carried the title of Villanova associate head coach since 2013 and is just 33 years old. If the Wildcats produce another successful season, the offers should pour in.

Kenny Payne, Kentucky

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Kentucky assistant Kenny Payne seems to be mentioned whenever a college head coaching job becomes vacant. Often it is just media speculation. Chris Emma of CBS Chicago suggested Payne might be a candidate for the DePaul job in 2015, and Zach Greenwell of the Bowling Green Daily News reported Payne was among the names who "have drawn buzz" in connection with the Western Kentucky opening.

However, Payne's most recent legitimate head coaching opportunity was at Mississippi State in 2012. Yahoo's Pat Forde reported that Mississippi State athletic director Scott Stricklin spoke to Payne about the vacancy, which ultimately went to Rick Ray.

Forde wrote this regarding Payne's candidacy at Mississippi State:

"

Payne comes from the most successful program in the country the past couple of years and knows Mississippi. However, he has no head-coaching experience and is closely tied to controversial basketball maven William Wesley.

Wesley helped get Payne into coaching as an assistant at Oregon. Two years ago Payne moved to Kentucky to coach under John Calipari, a close friend of Wesley's. Wesley is a well-connected consultant for Creative Arts Alliance, an agency that represents coaches and professional players, and he has ties to players on levels from high school to the NBA.

"

Payne started his coaching career as an assistant at Oregon, and he has spent the past six seasons at Kentucky under John Calipari. He was promoted to associate head coach in 2014, but more significant is the fact that Payne signed a three-year, $2.1 million contract with Kentucky following the 2014-15 season, according to Kyle Tucker of the Louisville Courier-Journal.

That pay raise suggests Payne is more likely to turn down offers from mid-level basketball programs and may only pursue opportunities at power conference schools. That may limit his chances to become a head coach.

Payne turns 50 in November, so if he is going to become a head coach, it had better happen soon. His Kentucky contract will expire following the 2017-18 season, although that may not affect his career choices.

Mike Hopkins, Syracuse

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OK, we are cheating a bit on this one. Last June, Syracuse chancellor Kent Syverud announced that Syracuse assistant Mike Hopkins would become the Orange's head coach when Jim Boeheim retires following the 2017-2018 season.

It is a logical choice and one that dismisses a lot of haggling and speculation before they can start. For one thing, it prevents Hopkins from pursuing other head coaching opportunities, although it is hard to believe he would be comfortable anywhere other than Syracuse.

He played for Boeheim at Syracuse and was the team captain as a senior in 1992-93. After a brief stint playing professionally, Hopkins joined Boeheim's staff in 1995 and has been a Syracuse assistant ever since.

Hopkins got his first taste of being Syracuse's head coach this past season when he took the reins during Boeheim's NCAA-mandated nine-game suspension. Syracuse went just 4-5 in those nine games, but Boeheim later said Hopkins had been placed in a difficult situation, per Mike Water of Syracuse.com. "I think he's going to be a better coach than me someday,'' Boeheim said in the report, "but not in that situation.''

In 2018, we will begin to find out just how good a head coach Hopkins will be. Born in 1970, he will still be younger than 50 when he takes over in 2018, with 23 years as an Orange assistant coach under his belt. 

Joe Scott, Holy Cross

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Joe Scott has had considerable success in his 16 years as a Division I head coach, and he would seem to be a logical candidate for certain schools. The style Scott employs, which requires patience and discipline and accommodates little individual creativity, is not for everyone. But at the right place he can be successful.

Following assistant coaching stints at Monmouth and Princeton, his alma mater, Scott landed his first head coaching job in 2000 at Air Force, which had not had a winning season since 1978 and had not won more than 10 games since 1990. The Falcons steadily improved under Scott, and in his fourth season, Air Force went 22-7, finished first in the Mountain West Conference and reached the NCAA tournament for the first time since 1962.

That helped him land the head coaching job at Princeton, but the Tigers floundered, finishing 2-12 in the Ivy League in his third season in 2006-07. After that season, Scott accepted the head coaching job at the University of Denver, which had gone 4-25 the season before he arrived. Again Scott's team showed steady improvement, winning 19 games in 2009-10 and then going 22-9 the next year and 22-10 the year after that. Denver finished tied for first in the Western Athletic Conference in 2013.

Scott could not maintain that level and was fired after his ninth season in 2015-16, even though the Pioneers had a winning record at 16-15.

Instead of staying out of college basketball for a while, as many fired head coaches do, Scott accepted an assistant coaching job at Holy Cross under former Princeton and Northwestern head coach Bill Carmody. The latter employs the same Princeton offense that Scott runs, and it helped the Crusaders reach the NCAA tournament in 2016 in Carmody's first season.

A mid-level school that wants to make the most of its talent while tolerating a patient offense is likely to give Scott a look. The change in the shot clock from 35 seconds to 30 this past season did not help Scott's style, but he will still draw interest.

Joe Pasternack, Arizona

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Arizona associate head coach Joe Pasternack has already been a Division I head coach at New Orleans, and although he had mixed results, he was not fired from that job. That experience and his five seasons at Arizona should make him attractive.

After being an assistant coach at California for eight years, Pasternack landed a head coaching job at the University of New Orleans in 2007. The Privateers went 19-13 in their first season under him and then went 19-41 over the next two years combined, before going 16-6 in Pasternack's fourth and final season. 

After that fourth season, he left New Orleans to take the assistant job under Sean Miller at Arizona in 2011. The program promoted Pasternack to associate head coach in 2013, and his name has come up for several head coaching jobs.

Pasternack reportedly was in the running for at least two Division I head coaching jobs this year. He was one of four people to interview for the New Mexico State job, according to Gary Parrish of CBS Sports, and Mark Anderson of the Las Vegas Review Journal described him as a "significant candidate" for the UNLV vacancy.

Dennis Felton, Tulsa

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Although Dennis Felton's record as Georgia's head coach may not look impressive enough to warrant him another shot, his work at Western Kentucky should make him a person of interest.

When Felton became Western Kentucky's head coach in 1998, the Hilltoppers were coming off three consecutive losing seasons. He methodically built them into a Sun Belt powerhouse, winning the conference title and getting an NCAA tournament berth three years in row from 2001 through 2003. The Hilltoppers won at least 24 games each of those three seasons and were ranked No. 19 in the final 2002 Associated Press poll when they went 28-4.

That earned him the job at Georgia, but things did not go a smoothly there. He had just two winning seasons and reached the NCAA tournament only once with the Bulldogs before getting fired midway through his sixth season.

Felton left college coaching and worked with several NBA teams, including the San Antonio Spurs, Memphis Grizzlies and Phoenix Suns, before joining Frank Haith's coaching staff at Tulsa in 2014. He has been a top assistant for the Golden Hurricane for two seasons and is now looking for another shot as a head coach.

This year he was one of two leading candidates for the Western Kentucky job that went to Rick Stansbury, according to Zach Greenwell of Bowling Green Daily News. With Felton's combination of pro and Division I experience, some school is bound to be interested. He just turned 53, so he is young enough to take on a rebuilding project.

Chris Caputo, Miami

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Chris Caputo is sitting in a good position as Miami's associate head coach, a title he added prior to the 2015-16 season. Last year, Jim Larranaga's top two assistants at Miami landed head coaching jobs for the first time, with Eric Konkol getting the Louisiana Tech job and Michael Huger taking over at Bowling Green.

Caputo could be next. 

He has been a Larranaga assistant for 15 years, going back to Larranga's days at George Mason, and last season Caputo took on the added role of defensive coordinator. Miami's success in recent seasons and Caputo's expanded responsibilities make him a logical candidate for a head coaching opening.

Kevin Tresolini of the News Journal identified Caputo as one of four finalists for the Delaware head coaching vacancy this year. Matt Porter of the Palm Beach Post went so far as to say that Caputo was Delaware's top choice, but the two sides could not reach an agreement.

Last year, when Caputo's name was mentioned in connection with the George Mason vacancy, Porter reported the following: "Caputo, who has been rumored to be taking jobs at Maryland and UNC-Wilmington in recent seasons, is widely considered to be a strong candidate to earn his first head coaching position."

Jeff Capel, Duke

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Duke assistant Jeff Capel can be picky about his next head coaching move. He has head coaching experience at the highest level of college basketball and had considerable success. His name is mentioned often when high-profile jobs become available, and it is easy to see why.

Virginia Commonwealth won at least 18 games in each of Capel's four years with the Rams in his first head coaching venture, and that earned him the top job at Oklahoma. His first year with the Sooners was a little rocky, finishing 16-15, but they went 23-12 in Capel's second season, when Oklahoma reached the NCAA tournament.

The third season is typically the one in which a head coach takes ownership of the team, when the remnants of the former coach's influence have disappeared. The Sooners had a monster season in Capel's third year in 2008-09, winning 30 games and reaching the Elite Eight.

Things went downhill after that. Oklahoma had losing seasons the next two years and fired him. Oklahoma was later placed on probation, and its wins from the 2009-10 season were vacated as a result of NCAA violations, according to the Associated Press (via ESPN.com).

Capel's reputation apparently was not affected, and he has had opportunities to become a head coach again. Georgia Tech seemed interested in him as a possible successor to Brian Gregory this past spring, but Capel removed his name from consideration, according to Gary Parrish of CBS Sports. That report noted that Capel, who is just 41 years old, is being patient and waiting for the right opportunity.