Fresh Faces: NCAA Final Four is Virgin Territory For Dutcher, Hurley and May

March 26th, 2023 - 19:45

All four coaches this year could have been Final Four newcomers if Rodney Terry's Texas squad didn't fritter away 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). This year marks the first time since 1979 for multiple coaches to make their F4 debuts with fewer than seven seasons of experience as a Division I head coach.

Hubert Davis realized coaching nirvana as rookie head coach by reaching last year's national semifinals in inaugural campaign similar to fellow North Carolina mentor Bill Guthridge in 1998. In the previous 60 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 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 20 years 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. Brian Dutcher (San Diego State), Danny Hurley (Connecticut) and Dusty May (FAU) joined the following list of coaches advancing to the Final Four for first time since legendary John Wooden's first F4 in 1962 (in reverse order):

*Subsequently returned to the Final Four.