Every head coach has to start somewhere; this is where the 2024 Final Four coaches got their coaching start.
Now that the Elite Eight has come to a close, the country is awaiting the Final Four in Phoenix where a new (or previous) national champion will be crowned. For some coaches, this will be their first time competing for the title, while others have been around the block before. Let’s take a look at how these coaches got in this position and who helped mold them into to coaches they are today.
Nate Oats – Alabama
Oats got his first head coaching position at Romulus High School in Romulus, MI after serving as an assistant at Maranatha Baptist and Wisconsin-Whitewater.
In 2013, then-Buffalo head coach Bobby Hurley was recruiting a kid who played for Oats at Romulus. Hurley was impressed with Oats’ coaching abilities and offered him a position on his staff.
Two years later, Hurley left Buffalo for Arizona State and Oats served as the head coach until 2019. That year, Oats started as Alabama’s head coach and has been there ever since. This Final Four marks the first appearance in Alabama men’s basketball history.
Dan Hurley – UConn
Fresh off his own collegiate career in 1996, Hurley served as an assistant for St. Anthony High School in Jersey City and after a year, went on to be an assistant at Rutgers. Hurley was named head coach at Saint Benedict’s Preparatory School in Newark, N.J. in 2001 where he turned the program into one of the most elite in the country.
In 2010, Hurley got the head coaching job at Wagner where he remained for two years before accepting the Rhode Island head coaching position. Hurley served as the head coach for six years, three of those years with his brother Bobby as his assistant, before going to UConn in 2018.
Since then, Hurley won a national championship with the Huskies last season and will compete for another one this season. His team will try to become the eighth team to win back-to-back championships and earn a second title for Hurley.
Matt Painter – Purdue
Painter played collegiately for Purdue until 1993 and then took an assistant coaching gig at Washington & Jefferson College where he stayed for a year. Painter also was a forklift operator in that time to earn extra money.
The next year, he was an assistant at Barton College where he also stayed for a year. Painter was hired at Eastern Illinois where he stayed for three years while also obtaining a master’s degree. He then went to Southern Illinois where he coached under Bruce Weber until Weber left for Illinois in 2003.
Painter finally got his shot to be a head coach after a promotion at Southern Illinois, where he remained for a year before leaving for his current role at Purdue. Painter has been with the Boilermakers since 2005, led them to 15 NCAA Tournament appearances, and will lead his team in his first Final Four appearance in Phoenix.
Kevin Keatts – NC State
Keatts started as an assistant coach at Southwestern Michigan in 1996, where he stayed for one season before taking another assistant job at Hargrave Military Academy. He spent two seasons as the head coach at Hargrave before leaving for Marshall in 2001 where he was an assistant under Greg White.
Keatts returned to Hargrave in 2003 and was the head coach there for eight seasons. Then-Louisville head coach Rick Pitino offered him a spot as an assistant in 2011, and Keatts stayed there until 2014. He won a national championship with the Cardinals in 2013, but it was later vacated by the NCAA due to recruiting violations.
In 2014, Keatts took over for Buzz Peterson as the head coach at UNC Wilmington where he remained until 2017. Keatts achieved success in Wilmington, taking his team to the NCAA Tournament twice. Keatts started his head coaching job at NC State in 2017, with this season being his most successful yet.