NCAA Tournament 2016: Tourney coaches who also coached high school teams

Video: High school coaches to Division I
See this 2015 update of big-name prep coaches headed to the NCAA level.

The gap between prep and college basketball is indeed large. Still, many coaches participating in this year's NCAA men's basketball championships formed their coaching foundations in the prep ranks.

Twenty-one of the 68 coaches have verifiable experience at the high school level. Some were short-term assistants, some coached JV teams and others built high school dynasties that they oversaw for significant amounts of time. One even reached local glory leading a girls program.

Some led programs at national powerhouses, competing for national titles with the top recruits in the nation. Others coached at tiny public schools in small towns. A few even cut their teeth at their alma maters. And of those 21 coaches, they represent 14 of the 16 different seeds in the tournament (only the 3-seed and 12-seed teams don't have at least one coach with prep experience).

Check out info on the 21 aforementioned coaches, and below all that, see our list of the high school alma maters of all 68 coaches. Coaches who went to high school in 32 different states are represented this season, with Pennsylvania leading the way with eight alums and New York second with five.

Roy Williams, North Carolina (1 seed)
Williams knows more than basketball. While at Owen (Black Mountain, N.C.) from 1973-78, Williams coached boys basketball, golf and even freshman football. He was even the athletic director for two years, according to USA Today. Williams is in the Owen High Hall of Fame.

Chris Mack, Xavier (2 seed)
Mack was a very successful coach in Cincinnati in the girls' ranks. He was the JV coach at McAuley (Cincinnati) for two years, leading the squad at the all-girls school beginning in 1993. In 1995 he moved on to become the head coach at Mount Notre Dame (Cincinnati), and a year later he was named the Cincinnati Post's Coach of the Year. According to CBS Sports, Mount Notre Dame was 7-14 when he showed up and immediately moved to 19-4 in his first season.

Tom Izzo, Michigan State (2 seed)
Izzo coached the 1977-78 season at Ishpeming (Mich.) and turned around a losing team. The Hematites went 16-7 that year and took a league title under the 22-year-old Izzo, who rankled some parents by instituting two-a-day practices.

Cuonzo Martin, California (4 seed)
Martin was an assistant coach at West Lafayette (Ind.) during the 1999-2000 season. He returned to the home of Purdue University, where he played his college basketball, after a three-year professional career. He was given an assistant coach job at Purdue after just one season working at the prep level.

Tom Crean, Indiana (5 seed)
Crean coached at his alma mater, Mt. Pleasant (Mich.), while working on his bachelor's degree at Central Michigan. He put in four seasons as an assistant from 1985-86 to 1988-89, and was part of a pair of conference titles.

Mike Brey, Notre Dame (6 seed)
Brey stayed at his alma mater and learned under the legendary Morgan Wootten before he moved on to Duke. He spent five seasons at DeMatha (Hyattsville, Md.) starting in 1982, working as the JV head coach and varsity assistant. In his five years helping on the bench, DeMatha went 139-22.

Greg Gard, Wisconsin (7 seed)
Gard's story of how he got into coaching basketball is one of right place, right time. He had been cut from his college baseball team and was looking for jobs in the local weekly newspaper when he found an ad looking for a JV basketball coach at Southwestern (Hazel Green, Wis.), according to this ESPN article. Gard got the job in 1990 and stayed at Southwestern for three years before adding on one more year of high school experience as an assistant at Platteville (Wis.) for the 1993-94 season.

Tad Boyle, Colorado (8 seed)
Boyle was the JV coach at his alma mater's rival Greeley West (Colo.), then was head coach at Longmont (Colo.) for three years. His final prep gig was as an assistant at Loveland (Colo.) for two years.

Phil Martelli, St. Joseph's (8 seed)
Martelli was the head coach for seven seasons at Kenrick Catholic (Norristown, Pa.), which merged to become Kennedy-Kenrick Catholic (Norristown, Pa.). At Bishop Kenrick, he groomed one of the greatest women's basketball coaches ever in UConn's Geno Auriemma, according to the New Haven Register. Martelli left the school in 1985.

Tubby Smith, Texas Tech (8 seed)
Smith kickstarted his coaching career at Great Mills (Md.), his alma mater, where he was the head coach for four years, and went 46-36. Then he moved on to Hoke County (Raeford, N.C.), where he went 28-18 in two seasons.

Mick Cronin, Cincinnati (9 seed)
Cronin was the JV coach at Woodward (Cincinnati) from 1991-96. He began working with the program when he was a freshman at Cincinnati, as a knee injury derailed his playing career in high school. His father Hep Cronin was a high school coach in the Cincinnati area who won more than 400 games.

Fran Dunphy, Temple (10 seed)
Dunphy coached his alma mater, Malvern Prep (Pa.), from 1975 to 1979 after a previous assistant coaching gig at the United States Military Academy. He taught accounting at the school in addition to his basketball duties.

John Beilein, Michigan (11 seed)
Beilein coached three years at Newfane (N.Y.), two as the head coach. He was also a history teacher before moving on to the junior college ranks. His tenure there lasted from 1975 to 1978.

Mark Few, Gonzaga (11 seed)
Few took Creswell (Ore.) to the state title game as a senior and then ended up working there as an assistant starting in 1983. He also spent time assisting at Sheldon (Eugene, Ore.) in 1988 while attending the University of Oregon.

Kevin Keatts, UNC Wilmington (13 seed)
Keatts didn't exactly work in a traditional high school setup, and his success was hardly traditional, either. In two stints from 1999-2001 and 2003-11 at Hargrave Military Academy (Chatham, Va.), he won two national prep championships and finished second three other times. Six different times his team finished with one or zero losses, and nine of his former players reached the NBA during a tenure that saw him go 262-17. He was an assistant at Hargrave for two years before taking over, and his break in between stints was while he was an assistant coach at Marshall. His success there earned him an assistant's job at Louisville with Rick Pitino.

Tim Cluess, Iona (13 seed)
Cluess coached at St. Mary's (Manhasset, N.Y.) from 1991-2005, becoming a local legend. His record was 264-78 (.772 winning percentage) and St. Mary’s won a record eight consecutive Nassau-Suffolk Catholic High School Athletic Association titles from 1998-2005. His final season saw the Gaels go 25-1 and spend considerable time ranked No. 1 in the country.

Nate Oats, Buffalo (14 seed)
The most recognizable high school coach on this list simply because of how recent his tenure was, Oats led Romulus (Mich.) to glory and has experienced great success quickly at the college level. The math teacher led the Eagles to a 222-52 record in 11 seasons at Romulus, outside of Detroit. His final season was 2013, when he won a Class A state title and finished at No. 16 in the MaxPreps Xcellent 25 National Boys Basketball Rankings presented by the Army National Guard. Oats reached four Final Fours in his 11 campaigns at Romulus. He got his NCAA opportunity because then-Rhode Island assistant Bobby Hurley came to recruit one of Oats' players and liked what he saw from the coach. When Hurley took the job at Buffalo, he brought Oats in, and just two seasons later, Oats became the head coach when Hurley left for Arizona State.

Rodney Terry, Fresno State (14 seed)
After two years working as an assistant at Bowie (Austin, Texas) from 1991-93, Terry took the head coaching job at Somerville (Texas) and led the team to the 1994 Class 2A state semifinals. After one more season at Somerville and a 49-21 overall record, he took the head coaching job at his alma mater, Angleton (Texas), and went 15-13 in 1995-96.

Randy Rahe, Weber State (15 seed)
Rahe got his first head coaching job at Bethune (Colo.) in 1985, later calling the school "Hoosiers-esque" and talking about borrowing the janitor and superintendent to be able to have 5-on-5 practices. He then moved on a year later to a similar school in the area, Stratton (Colo.), and coached there until 1988. He was the District Coach of the Year twice at Stratton, with district and league titles in 1986, 1987 and 1988. He went 54-17 there, with third-place finishes in the state tournament two times.

Roman Banks, Southern (16 seed)
Banks coached at Green Oaks (Shreveport, La.) in the 1993-94 season.

Dave Loos, Austin Peay (16 seed)
Loos put in eight years of head coaching at his alma mater, Mehlville (St. Louis), and turned around a program that had endured 11 consecutive losing seasons. He posted a winning record in five of his seasons at Mehlville and reached the state tournament in addition to becoming the school's all-time winningest head coach. He coached there from 1974 to 1982.


1. Kansas - Bill Self, Edmond Memorial (Okla.)

1. North Carolina - Roy Williams, Roberson (Asheville, N.C.)

1. Oregon - Dana Altman, Wilber (Neb.) - became Wilber-Clatonia (Wilber, Neb.)

1. Virginia - Tony Bennett, Preble (Green Bay, Wis.)

2. Villanova - Jay Wright, Council Rock (Newtown, Pa.) - became Council Rock North (Newtown, Pa.)

2. Oklahoma - Lon Kruger, Silver Lake (Kan.)

2. Xavier - Chris Mack, St. Xavier (Cincinnati)

2. Michigan State - Tom Izzo, Iron Mountain (Mich.)

3. Miami (FL) - Jim Larranaga, Archbishop Molloy (Queens, N.Y.)

3. Texas A&M - Billy Kennedy, Holy Cross (New Orleans)

3. West Virginia - Bob Huggins, Indian Valley South - now Indian Valley (Gnadenhutten, Ohio)

3. Utah - Larry Krystkowiak, Big Sky (Missoula, Mont.)

4. California - Cuonzo Martin, Lincoln (East St. Louis, Ill.) - merged into East St. Louis (Ill.)

4. Duke - Mike Krzyzewski, Archbishop Weber (Chicago) - closed

4. Kentucky - John Calipari, Moon Area (Moon Township, Pa.)

4. Iowa State -  Steve Prohm, Northwest Whitfield (Tunnel Hill, Ga.)

5. Maryland - Mark Turgeon, Hayden (Topeka, Kan.)

5. Baylor - Scott Drew, Valparaiso (Ind.)

5. Indiana - Tom Crean, Mt. Pleasant (Mich.)

5. Purdue - Matt Painter, Delta (Muncie, Ind.)

6. Arizona - Sean Miller, Blackhawk (Beaver Falls, Pa.)

6. Texas - Shaka Smart, Oregon (Wis.)

6. Notre Dame - Mike Brey, DeMatha (Hyattsville, Md.)

6. Seton Hall - Kevin Willard, Bowling Green (Ky.)

7. Iowa - Fran McCaffery, La Salle College (Wyndmoor, Pa.)

7. Oregon State - Wayne Tinkle, Ferris (Spokane, Wash.)

7. Wisconsin - Greg Gard, Iowa-Grant (Livingston, Wis.)

7. Dayton - Archie Miller, Blackhawk (Beaver Falls, Pa.)

8. Colorado - Tad Boyle, Greeley Central (Colo.)

8. USC - Andy Enfield, Shippensburg (Pa.)

8. St. Joseph's - Phil Martelli, St. Joseph's Prep (Philadelphia)

8. Texas Tech - Tubby Smith, Great Mills (Md.)

9. Connecticut - Kevin Ollie, Crenshaw (Los Angeles)

9. Cincinnati - Mick Cronin, La Salle (Cincinnati)

9. Providence - Ed Cooley, Central (Providence, R.I.)

9. Butler - Chris Holtmann, Jessamine County - now West Jessamine (Nicholasville, Ky.)

10. Temple - Fran Dunphy, Malvern Prep (Pa.)

10. VCU - Will Wade, Franklin Road Academy (Nashville, Tenn.)

10. Pittsburgh - Jamie Dixon, Notre Dame (Sherman Oaks, Calif.)

10. Syracuse - Jim Boeheim, Lyons (N.Y.)

11. Vanderbilt - Kevin Stallings, Collinsville (Ill.)

11. Wichita State - Gregg Marshall, Cave Spring (Roanoke, Va.)

11. Michigan - John Beilein, DeSales Catholic (Lockport, N.Y.) - now an elementary school

11. Tulsa - Frank Haith, Western Alamance (Elon, N.C.)

11. Northern Iowa - Ben Jacobson, Mayville-Portland (N.D.) - now Mayville-Portland-Clifford-Galesburg (Mayville,
N.D.)

11. Gonzaga - Mark Few, Creswell (Ore.)

12. Yale - James Jones, Half Hollow Hills West (Dix Hills, N.Y.)

12. Chattanooga - Matt McCall, Belleview (Fla.)

12. South Dakota State - Scott Nagy, Centennial (Champaign, Ill.)

12. Little Rock - Chris Beard, McCullough - now The Woodlands (Texas)

13. Hawai'i - Eran Ganot, Tenafly (N.J.)

13. Stony Brook - Steve Pikiell, St. Paul Catholic (Bristol, Conn.)

13. UNC Wilmington - Kevin Keatts, Heritage (Lynchburg, Va.)

13. Iona - Tim Cluess, St. Agnes (New York City)

14. Buffalo - Nate Oats, Maranatha Baptist (Watertown, Wis.)

14. Green Bay - Linc Darner, Highland (Anderson, Ind.)

14. Stephen F. Austin - Brad Underwood, McPherson (Kan.)

14. Fresno State - Rodney Terry, Angleton (Texas)

15. UNC Asheville - Nick McDevitt, Madison (Marshall, N.C.)

15. Cal State Bakersfield - Rod Barnes, Bentonia (Miss.) - closed

15. Weber State - Randy Rahe, St. John's (Bancroft, Iowa) - closed

15. Middle Tennessee - Kermit Davis, Starkville (Miss.)

16. Florida Gulf Coast - Joe Dooley, St. Benedict's Prep (Newark, N.J.)

16. Fairleigh Dickinson - Greg Herenda, St. Peter's Prep (Jersey City, N.J.)

16. Holy Cross - Bill Carmody, St. Rose (Belmar, N.J.)

16. Southern - Roman Banks, Captain Shreve (Shreveport, La.)

16. Austin Peay - Dave Loos, Mehlville (St. Louis)

16. Hampton - Edward Joyner, Harding University (Charlotte, N.C.)