Four years ago, men’s college basketball’s future was facing something of an identity crisis. Many of the faces who had defined the sport over the past several decades were all calling it quits around the same time. We knew the 2022 Final Four in New Orleans would be it for Mike Krzyzewski, but we didn’t know at the time that it would also be the end for Jay Wright, who had turned Villanova into arguably the best program of the 2010s. In a sport that has always been shaped by its biggest coaches being larger than life, the questions were valid about who the next faces of college basketball would be.
The four national champions since then have answered that question. The first two went to 53-year-old Dan Hurley and UConn, with Hurley becoming arguably the sport’s most recognizable head coach in the process. The next two champions had to go through Hurley to win their titles, and both are elite modern recruiters and roster builders: Todd Golden at Florida in 2025 and Dusty May at Michigan in ’26. Unless any of that trio leaves for the NBA (Hurley already turned down the Lakers two years ago), they figure to be faces of the sport for at least the next decade and beyond.
