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The 2026 Sweet 16 is star-studded and full of big names across the four power conferences.
While the East Region has gotten notoriety for being a gauntlet with four power coaches fighting for one Final Four spot, all four regions feature notable coaches. However, while all four regions enter the Sweet 16 with fascinating storylines regarding the remaining coaches.
There is a 35-year age difference between the oldest coach and youngest coach left in the tournament, but all that matters is who comes out on top at the end of the madness. Here's a look at each coach's age among those remaining.
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Oldest coaches remaining in March Madness
1. Rick Pitino, St. John's
- Age: 73
- Final Fours: 7
- National Championships: 2
- Record: 915-317
Rick Pitino is the oldest and most experienced coach in the Sweet 16, having been a head coach for seven different college teams since 1975. Pitino has seven Final Four appearances to go along with two National Championships at Kentucky and Louisville, as he is considered one of the best basketball coaches in NCAA basketball history.
Pitino's 915 wins are the third-most in NCAA history, and he could become the third coach to reach 1,000 wins if he coaches a few more years. Only Mike Krzyzewski and Jim Boeheim have more wins, but neither of those two bounced around between jobs like Pitino did.
Of course, Pitino did have some wins from his time with Louisville vacated by the NCAA, which also led to dismissal from the program. Regardless, no coach has done it like him.
2. Rick Barnes, Tennessee
- Age: 71
- Final Fours: 1
- National Championships: 0
- Record: 860-430
While Rick Barnes has just one Final Four in his storied career, the veteran coach is one of the most consistent in college basketball. Barnes has coached at five different schools but is most known for his time at Texas, where he made the Final Four and is the program's wins leader, and Tennessee, where he is 15 wins away from becoming the school's wins leader.
Barnes has led the Volunteers to four-straight Sweet 16 appearances, but is still looking to take Tennessee to its first every Final Four. He is also just four wins away from passing Bob Huggins to enter the top 10 on the all-time wins list.
3. Tom Izzo, Michigan State
- Age: 71
- Final Fours: 8
- National Championships: 1
- Record: 764-309
Tom Izzo's run at Michigan State is incredible, as he's been coaching the Spartans since the 1995-96 season. While he has just one National Championship, Izzo's eight Final Fours are the fifth-most all time, trailing just Mike Kzryzewski, John Wooden, Dean Smith and Roy Williams.
Izzo is currently the second-longest tenured coach in college basketball, and he hasn't shown signs of slowing down. The 71-year-old will likely be at Michigan State until he chooses to retire, as was the case with many of his former colleagues.
4. Kelvin Sampson, Houston
- Age: 70
- Final Fours: 3
- National Championships: 0
- Record: 754-317
Sampson has hit his stride as a coach, taking Houston to the Final Four in two of the last five seasons while winning at least 30 games in five-straight seasons as well. At 70 years-old, Sampson has coached Washington State, Oklahoma, Indiana and Houston since 1987, making his first National Championship game last year with the Cougars.
Sampson's lone blemish came with Indiana, as he was fired after two seasons due to recruiting violations. Sampson then had a six-year gap between head coaching stops, as he worked in the NBA for most of that time, but landed on his feet with Houston in 2014.
5. John Calipari, Arkansas
- Age: 67
- Final Fours: 6
- National Championships: 1
- Record: 905-285
John Calipari has made a career out of developing star players in college, but his resume is full of team success as well. Calipari came on to the scene with unprecedented success at UMass before taking jobs at Memphis, Kentucky and Arkansas following a brief stint in the NBA.
Calipari's lone National Championship came in 2012 with Kentucky, and he has coached in two other title games as well. The majority of Calipari's success came at Kentucky, where he is second on the school's wins list trailing just Adolph Rupp. Finally, Calipari recently passed Roy Williams for the fourth-most wins in college basketball history.
6. Brad Underwood, Illinois
- Age: 62
- Final Fours: 0
- National Championships: 0
- Record: 300-136
Brad Underwood got a later head coaching start than most members of this list, as he didn't get his first Division I head coaching job until he was 50. Previously, Underwood was either an assistant coach or a head coach at a community college for for almost three decades.
Underwood's success at Stephen F. Austin was impressive, taking the Lumberjacks to the NCAA tournament in each of his three seasons at the helm. After a season with Oklahoma State, Underwood went to Illinois in 2017, where he has brought the basketball program back to life. However, he is still looking for his first Final Four appearance.
7. Sean Miller, Texas
- Age: 57
- Final Fours: 0
- National Championships: 0
- Record: 508-210
Sean Miller has won over 70 percent of the games he's coached since 2004, but he is still in search of his first Final Four appearance. The 57-year-old began his head-coaching career at Xavier before leaving for Arizona, where he spent over a decade leading one of the top teams in the sport.
Arizona fired Miller in 2021 following the coach's role in the FBI investigation into college basketball corruption. However, Miller landed on his feet by returning to Xavier for a second stint, and is now in his first season as the head coach for Texas.
8. Matt Painter, Purdue
- Age: 55
- Final Fours: 1
- National Championships: 0
- Record: 525-228
Matt Painter is synonymous with Purdue basketball. The former Purdue guard was the head coach at Southern Illinois for one year before he returned to West Lafayette as the coach-in-waiting during Gene Keady's final season in 2004-05, taking over the program in 2005.
Painter has been at Purdue for 21 seasons and led one of the most consistent programs in college basketball. He has three Big 10 championships as a head coach and made his first Final Four in 2024, when Purdue lost to UConn in the National Championship game. After winning his 500th game at Purdue on Sunday, Painter is now just 12 wins away from tying Keady for the most wins in school history.
9. Fred Hoiberg, Nebraska
- Age: 53
- Final Fours: 0
- National Championships: 0
- Record: 227-170
Fred Hoiberg has coached just two college basketball teams, Iowa State and Nebraska, but he has had success in both instances. First, Hoiberg led his alma mater, Iowa State, to four winning seasons in five years and back-to-back Big 12 championships before he left to take over the Chicago Bulls.
After the Bulls fired Hoiberg, the veteran coach returned to college with Nebraska in 2019. Since then, Hoiberg has led the Cornhuskers to new heights by making two NCAA tournaments and winning the program's first ever NCAA tournament games this year.
10. Dan Hurley, UConn
- Age: 53
- Final Fours: 2
- National Championships: 2
- Record: 347-179
Dan Hurley tapped into his family history by becoming one of the best coaches in the country and the rare coach to have back-to-back titles on his resume. Hurley first was a head coach at Wagner for two years, then took over Rhode Island in 2012 for six years and led the Rams to two NCAA tournament appearances in his last two with the program.
In 2018, Hurley took over at UConn and has helped rebuild one of the top programs in the country. Hurley has made the NCAA tournament in each of the last six seasons, which includes National Championships in 2023 and 2024. He is one of three active coaches with multiple titles, along with Rick Pitino and Bill Self.
11. Nate Oats, Alabama
- Age: 51
- Final Fours: 1
- National Championships: 0
- Record: 266-115
Once a high school coach for over a decade, Oats successfully made the leap to college when he took over Buffalo in 2015. Oats led the Bulls to three NCAA tournament appearances in four seasons, which included multiple wins and a major upset over Arizona in 2018.
Alabama hired Oats in 2019, and Oats has helped bring the Crimson Tide to the forefront of the sport. Oats led Alabama to its first Final Four in 2024 and has produced 170 wins in his first seven seasons in Tuscaloosa.
12. Tommy Lloyd
- Age: 51
- Final Fours: 0
- National Championships: 0
- Record: 146-35
Tommy Lloyd spent two decades as an assistant coach at Gonzaga but finally made the jump to Arizona when he replaced Sean Miller in 2021. Ever since, Lloyd has led the Wildcats to five-straight seasons with at least 24 wins, making the NCAA tournament each season.
Still, Lloyd is in search of his first Final Four, which would be the program's first since 2001. In fact, no one other than Lute Olson has taken Arizona to the Final Four despite the program's consistent success in the years since Olson retired.
13. Dusty May, Michigan
- Age: 49
- Final Fours: 1
- National Championships: 0
- Record: 186-82
After bouncing around as an assistant coach, Dusty May got his first head coaching job at Florida Atlantic, where he built the program up almost from scratch. In 2023, May led the Owls to the Final Four following a 35-win regular season, and he followed that up with a 25-win season and another NCAA tournament appearance in 2024.
May left Florida Atlantic for Michigan after the 2023-24 season, but May didn't skip a beat. The Wolverines have won 60 games in May's first two seasons at the helm, which includes tying the program record with 33 wins in the 2025-26 season.
14. T.J. Otzelberger, Iowa State
- Age: 48
- Final Fours: 0
- National Championships: 0
- Record: 223-115
T.J. Otzelberger was an Iowa State assistant coach for much of a decade prior to taking his first head coaching job with South Dakota State in 2016. In three seasons with the JAckrabbits, Otzelberger made the NCAA tournament each year, which helped him earn a job with UNLV.
Otzelberger was at UNLV for two seasons before he returned to Ames, this time as a head coach in Iowa State. Otzelberger has won 124 games with the Cyclones over the last five seasons, making the NCAA tournament each time and winning the Big 12 tournament in 2023.
15. Ben McCollum, Iowa
- Age: 44
- Final Fours: 0
- National Championships: 0
- Record: 54-16 (D-I), 395-91(D-II)
Ben McCollum made his mark in Division II, where he led Northwest Missouri State for 15 years between 2009 and 2024. While there, McCollum won four Division II national titles and won over 80 percent of his games, including a perfect season in 2018-19.
McCollum finally made the jump to Division I in 2024, leading Drake back to the NCAA tournament in his lone season with the Bulldogs. That got McCollum a job at Iowa, where he has now led the Hawkeyes to the Sweet 16 for the first time in over 25 years.
16. Jon Scheyer, Duke
- Age: 38
- Final Fours: 1
- National Championships: 0
- Record: 123-24
Jon Scheyer had the tall task of replacing Mike Kzrzyewski after serving eight years as a Duke assistant once he retired from playing. However, Scheyer has picked up where his predecessor left off, making the NCAA tournament in four-straight seasons with four-straight top-four seeds.
Scheyer made his first Final Four as a coach last year, and is now in seach of his National Championship in this role. He is the only coach on this list who has yet to turn 40 years-old.
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