SEC Basketball Coaching Carousel: Meet The New Guys

Barring a late surprise, it appears the SEC Basketball coaching carousel has come to a stop. Last night’s news that Chattanooga’s Lamont Paris is taking the job at South Carolina brings the number of filled vacancies in the conference this spring to six. That means just under half of the teams in the SEC will have new head coaches next season. Thankfully, we’ve got plenty of time to learn about them.

Sorting through the mess of Kentucky Basketball’s premature exit from the NCAA Tournament has been completely depressing, so I took a break to get to know the new guys. Actually, let’s start with one of the old guys.

Georgia: Mike White (Florida)

• Replaces: Tom Crean (fired)
• Previous school: Florida, 7 seasons – 142-88 (.617), 72-52 SEC (.581)
• Career record: 243-128 (.655)
• NCAA Tournament appearances (highest finish): 4 (2017 – Elite Eight)
• Age: 45

Georgia clearly needed to get rid of Tom Crean after an abysmal 6-26 season. Knowing they couldn’t get a home run hire, the Bulldogs went for a comfortable, albeit boring one in Mike White. White seemed like a promising star on the rise when he took the job at Florida in 2015, taking the Gators all the way to the Elite Eight in his second season; however, he’s underwhelmed in recent years, only getting as far as the second round of the NCAA Tournament three separate seasons and going 9-9 in SEC play in his final year in Gainesville. With another mediocre year, White could have been on the hot seat, so who’s to blame him for starting fresh elsewhere in the SEC?

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Florida: Todd Golden (San Francisco)

• Replaces: Mike White (went to Georgia)
• Previous school: San Francisco, 3 seasons – 57-36 (.613)
• Career record: 57-36 (.613)
• NCAA Tournament appearances (highest finish): 1 (2022 – First Round)
• Age: 36

With Mike White unexpectedly taking the job at Georgia, Florida went with 36-year-old Todd Golden from San Francisco. Golden will be the second-youngest power-conference head coach behind Duke’s Jon Scheyer (age 34) and is fresh off leading the Dons to their first NCAA Tournament since 1998. He’s familiar with the SEC. Before taking the associate head coaching job at San Francisco in 2017, he was on Bruce Pearl’s staff for two seasons at Auburn, first as director of basketball operations and later as an assistant. He’s analytics-forward and had success in the West Coast Conference against Gonzaga and his alma mater, Saint Mary’s; will that success carry over to the SEC?

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LSU: Matt McMahon (Murray State)

• Replaces: Will Wade (fired)
• Previous school: Murray State, 7 seasons – 154–67 (.697)
• Career record: 154–67 (.697)
• NCAA Tournament appearances (highest finish): 3 (Round of 32 – 2019, 2022)
• Age: 43

This guy you should know. Matt McMahon has been a popular name in the coaching circles for the past few years thanks to his success at Murray State. He led the Racers to three NCAA Tournaments, most recently losing to Saint Peter’s in the second round on Saturday. The Racers were 31-3 this past season, a perfect 18-0 in OVC play. In 2017, he signed Ja Morant, who would go on to be the No. 2 pick in the 2019 NBA Draft. He’ll have quite the task ahead of him as LSU tries to rebuild following whatever sanctions the NCAA hands down.

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Mississippi State: Chris Jans (New Mexico State)

• Replaces: Ben Howland (fired)
• Previous school: New Mexico State, 5 seasons – 122-32 (.792)
• Career record: 143-44 (.765)
• NCAA Tournament appearances (highest finish): 3 (Round of 32 – 2022)
• Age: 52

New Mexico State upset No. 5 seed UConn in the first round of the NCAA Tournament last week, the school’s first officially-recognized NCAA Tournament win since 1970. The Aggies lost to Arkansas in the next round, but Jans had already done enough to impress the folks in Starkville. The Bulldogs got a firsthand look at his work in December 2019, when New Mexico State beat Mississippi State in Jackson, Mississippi. A former junior college coach, Jans is familiar with roster turnover and building a team through the transfer portal.

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Missouri: Dennis Gates (Cleveland State)

• Replaces: Cuonzo Martin (fired)
• Previous school: Cleveland State, 3 seasons – 50-40 (.556)
• Career record: 50-40 (.556)
• NCAA Tournament appearances (highest finish): 1 (First Round – 2021)
• Age: 42

Gates is from the Midwest, born in Chicago with assistant coaching stints at Marquette and Northern Illinois. He’s a disciple of Leonard Hamilton, working eight seasons on his staff at Florida State before taking his first head coaching job at Cleveland State. He won Horizon League Coach of the Year in 2020 and 2021 and got Cleveland State back to the NCAA Tournament in just his second season as a head coach.

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South Carolina: Lamont Paris (Chattanooga)

• Replaces: Frank Martin (fired)
• Previous school: Chattanooga, 5 seasons – 87-71 (.551)
• Career record: 87-71 (.551)
• NCAA Tournament appearances (highest finish): 1 (First Round – 2022)
• Age: 47

Paris’ deal is not yet official, but all signs point to him being South Carolina’s first African-American men’s basketball head coach. He led the Mocs to this year’s NCAA Tournament, where they led No. 4 seed Illinois until the final minute before losing 54-53. Prior to taking the job at Chattanooga, Paris was on Bo Ryan and Greg Gard’s staffs at Wisconsin from 2011-17, playing a key role in recruiting and developing players like Frank Kaminsky, Sam Dekker, Nigel Harris, and Ethan Happ. (So, we dislike him, right?)

On top of everything else, John Calipari’s gonna have plenty of young guys nipping at his heels next season. Cats better be ready.