Fresh Faces: NCAA Final Four is Virgin Territory For Lloyd and Underwood

March 29th, 2026 - 21:29

Arizona's Tommy Lloyd, in his fifth campaign with the Wildcats, is the sixth mentor in the last five years to reach the Final Four for the first time with fewer than seven years of head-coaching experience. They were a long way from matching Cliff Ellis (833) for most DI victories without appearing at national semifinals.

Three Final Four coaching newbies were at the Final Four two years ago for the second straight season. All four coaches two years ago could have been Final Four newcomers if Rodney Terry's Texas squad didn't squander a 10-point lead midway through the second half in regional final against Miami (Fla.). The last time all four coaches were F4 newbies was in 1959 (California's Pete Newell/West Virginia's Fred Schaus/Cincinnati's George Smith/Louisville's Peck Hickman).

Hubert Davis realized coaching nirvana as rookie head coach by reaching national semifinals in inaugural campaign four years ago similar to fellow North Carolina mentor Bill Guthridge in 1998. In the previous 60-plus years, the F4 college rookie class also includes Steve Fisher (Michigan interim in 1989), Larry Brown (UCLA in 1980), Bill Hodges (Indiana State in 1979) and Gary Thompson (Wichita in 1965). Kansas State's Jerome Tang could have joined group but the Wildcats were upset in 2023 regional final by Florida Atlantic.

Final Four debuts were a long time coming the previous decade for Dana Altman (Oregon), Mark Few (Gonzaga) and Big Ten Conference coaches John Beilein (Michigan) and Bo Ryan (Wisconsin). Since the start of the NCAA Tournament in 1939, no coach ever took longer in his four-year college career to reach the DI Final Four than Beilein (31 seasons; 21 at major-college level). Ryan (30) and Altman (28) joined five other coaches to take more than Matt Painter's 20 years at Purdue to achieve the milestone - Jim Calhoun (27), Dick Bennett (24), Gary Williams (23), Jim Larranaga (22 with George Mason) and Norm Sloan (22).

There was at least one fresh face among bench bosses at the national semifinals all but once (1993) in a 27-year span from 1985 through 2011. Connecticut's Kevin Ollie joined Indiana's Mike Davis and VCU's Shaka Smart as coaches only in their second campaign to steer squads to the Final Four in the 21st Century. Lloyd and Underwood joined the following list of coaches advancing to the Final Four for first time since legendary John Wooden's first F4 in 1962 in his 14th campaign at UCLA (in reverse order):

*Subsequently returned to the Final Four.