Top 5 men's basketball assistant coaches that are ready to take over a head job ft. Kimani Young

The annual coaching carousel of college basketball tends to be heavy on veteran retreads, but there are some excellent young candidates out there. Assistant coaches are often reduced to sitting and waiting for prime jobs, but here are five assistants who are ready to be top dogs at their own programs.

Top 5 basketball assistant coaches who are ready for a head coaching job

Kentucky and Baylor assistant Alvin Brooks III is a top assistant who could soon be a head coach. (Photo Credit: IMAGN)

Alvin Brooks III, Kentucky

Brooks, whose father Alvin is the head coach at Lamar, has an excellent resume going. He helped Baylor build up under Scott Drew and joined Kentucky for the resurgence of the team under Mark Pope. He was the associate head coach at Baylor starting at 2016 and has the same role at Kentucky.

Brooks is a veteran of recruiting and portal recruiting. He's picked up strategy under a pair of well-respected veteran coaches, and again, his dad is already a head coach. Brooks figures to be a head coach soon.

Chris Carrawell, Duke

Jai Lucas got the call to move up to the Miami head coaching job and Carrawell is a likely next man up. The Duke alum coached an NBA D-League (the precursor to the G-League) team before moving on to Marquette under former teammate Steve Wojciechowski. He came to Duke in 2018 to replace Jeff Capel and has been associate head coach since 2021.

Carrawell has proven his chops in recruiting and his ties with the NBA certainly won't hurt. Jon Scheyer's staff figures to shed assistants to head coaching jobs regularly and Carrawell is a good pick there.

Kellen Sampson, Houston

This guy has to be included because he's officially the succession plan now for the Houston Cougars. His father, Kelvin, is 69 years old and Kellen is learning the ropes ahead of taking over. Kellen has been at Houston since 2014, and also coached at Appalachian State and Stephen F. Austin before his days at Houston.

Sampson's most recent contract formalized the plan under which he will eventually fill his father's role. Given the success that Kelvin Sampson has experienced throughout his career, pressure will be high on Kellen, but he seems ready to make the jump whenever his father is ready to bow out.

Carlin Hartman, Florida

Hartman has been well-traveled, having spent nearly three decades as an assistant coach. His path started at Rice and includes Oklahoma and UNLV. He's spent the last three seasons as associate head coach with Todd Golden at Florida. This means he's experienced not only in game management, but in program building. Hartman has experience and insight and will be a head coach soon.

Kimani Young, UConn

Young came to UConn with Dan Hurley and has been the associate head coach of the team since 2020. Young coached under Richard Pitino at Minnesota before settling in with Hurley and the Huskies. He's an experienced recruiter and has had a chance to learn game management from a couple of excellent young head coaches. He's from New York, played at UTEP, and should be a future star.

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