I've identified 20 DI coaches who have ties to Kentucky, either as a high school player, college player or as an assistant coach somewhere in the Bluegrass State. I've probably overlooked a few.

I know there are states with more representatives but I think Kentucky stacks up pretty well with similar sized states.



Leonard Hamilton (Florida St.)asst at UK under Joe B. Hall

Mick Cronin (Cincinnati) asst. to Pitino at Louisville; coached at Murray St.

Rick Pitino (Louisville)

Herb Snedek (Arizona St.) asst. to Pitino, 1993-96. Sendek, in turn, has 7 former assistants who are now DI coaches...at Drake; Ohio U; Miami (OH); Western Carolina; IUPUI; Ohio State; and Arizona.

Billy Donovan (Florida) asst. to Pitino

Travis Ford (Oklahoma St.)- Madisonville (KY) H.S. and UK player, coached at Campbellsville (KY) and Eastern Ky.

Mike Sutton (Texas Tech)- UK asst, 1998-2001

Darrin Horn (So.Carolina)- Ky. High school star, coached at Western Ky.

John Pelphrey (Arkansas)- Ky. High school star; played at UK

Tubby Smith (Minnesota)- asst. to Pitino; coached at UK

Bruce Weber (Illinois)- coach at Western Ky

Ken McDonald (Western Ky)- asst at Western 1998-03

Robbie Laing (Campbell)- asst. at Western KY

Tom Crean (Indiana)- asst at Western Ky, 1990-94

Jim Christian (TCU)- asst. at Western Ky

Scott Cherry (High Point)- asst. at Western Ky.

Tewester Anderson (Jackson St.)- coached at Murray St.

Jerry Eaves (No. Carolina A & T)- Ky. High school star; played at Louisville

Marvin Menzies (N.M. State)- assistant at Louisville

Kevin Willard (Iona)-played at Western Ky; asst. at Louisville

Dennis Felton is no longer coaching at Georgia

Oops! I knew that. I'll delete him from the list

Williard is now an assistant at UL again

Is Sean Woods still the head coach at Mississippi Valley Sate?

I bet if you looked though you will find a ton more. A lot of coaches these days move around a lot.

It would be more impressive if all these coaches went straight from Assistant at like UK to a head coach someplace else.

Problem is even coaches like Rick Pitino have this as a resume:
Grew up and played in NY
Played at UMASS
Coaches at:
Boston U
Providence
UK
Louisville

Assistant coach at:
Hawaii
Syracuse (1st assistant hired by Jim B)

Heck he even coached the NY Knicks

In the end none of this really means anything cause like I said everyone moves around to 3+ assistant jobs before they ever get the head coaching position

I'd guess most head coaches have 5+ coaching positions on their resume. Plus playing careers. Multiply that by 350 D1 teams and the current DI head coaches may have close to 2000 stops on their resumes.

Now what would be interesting is to see what school has had the most D1 coaches pass through their school. It would have to account for every head coach though.

I think the thing that will throw all of this off though is great head coaches are going to have great assistants. Reason being is that the great head coach has a system that works for training and game planning so obviously most assistants can take that to their own job. Not to mention they will get hired more often.

Who are you going to hire after all, #1 Assistant from Texas or #1 Assistant from Alcorn State.

Offhand I think there are 10 D1 head coaches that at one time were assistant coaches at Michigan State.