Which college basketball coach is sitting on the unwanted throne of having the longest tenure without a Sweet 16 berth?
Who Is the Longest-Tenured Coach Without a Sweet 16 Appearance in College Basketball?
The NCAA Tournament isn’t easy to reach for low D-I college basketball programs. Watch one of their conference title games; it’s a party on the court for whoever punches their ticket to “The Big Dance.”
But once those teams get there, it will likely result in a one-and-done loss to a higher-seeded opponent. Sometimes, they pull off an upset and reach the Round of 32. But rarely does a low D-I team survive until the second weekend of the tournament — otherwise known as the Sweet 16.
Often, a head coach gets fired or moves on to another job before they’re able to reach that goal with a certain school. But several coaches who have served in their positions for 20+ years have not reached the second weekend of the NCAA Tournament.
Bill Coen of Northeastern is the first example. He’s been the Huskies’ head coach since the 2006-07 season and has led the program to the tournament twice, in 2015 and 2019. The Huskies put up a fight against the Notre Dame Fighting Irish in 2015 before falling. They were beaten by over 30 points in 2019.
But two coaches top Coen: Yale’s James Jones and Oakland’s Greg Kampe. Each was hired ahead of the 1999-00 season and has held the throne ever since.
Together, they represent the longest-tenured head coaches in college basketball who have never reached the Sweet 16.
It hasn’t come without some close calls, as their teams have won three combined first-round games (Jones 2, Kampe 1).
In 2016, the Bulldogs, seeded No. 12, defeated No. 5 Baylor before falling by seven points to the No. 4 Duke Blue Devils. It was a nice effort, but they couldn’t survive.
Both coaches led their teams to first-round victories in the 2024 NCAA Tournament. Yale stunned No. 4 Auburn, and Oakland—with the help of the sweet-shooting Jack Gohlke—took down No. 3 Kentucky by four points.
Yale stood no chance in the second round against the fifth-seeded San Diego State Aztecs, losing by 28 points. But the Golden Grizzlies and Kampe took No. 11 NC State to overtime before losing by six points. It was the closest call to make the Sweet 16, but it wasn’t meant to be.
Jones has built Yale into a potential perennial NCAA Tournament team, winning the Ivy League tournament in the last two seasons.
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But that doesn’t quite matter when discussing making it to the tournament’s second weekend, as both Jones and Kampe share the title of being the longest-tenured coaches who haven’t done so.
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