Here’s a fun twist near the end of this year’s carousel cycle: An HBCU has hired a Heisman Trophy winner to run its men’s basketball program.
Charlie Ward signed a five-year deal with Florida A&M this week, giving the SWAC some extra swagger and pop. Ward was an electric football player at Florida State in the early 1990s, but he made his money in basketball. Imagine winning college football’s most prestigious individual award, then going pro for a decade-plus in a different sport. That’s exactly what Ward did. A first-round NBA Draft pick in 1994 by the Knicks, Ward spent 11 seasons in the NBA.
He spent the past seven years coaching high school basketball in Florida. Now he enters the Division I ranks and will try to get the Rattlers to the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2007.
Previously …
Creighton has its next men’s basketball coach — though it will be some time before he officially gets the job.
High Point’s Alan Huss agreed to a contract that will make him the coach-in-waiting under Greg McDermott, the school announced after CBS Sports reported the news. Huss, McDermott, Creighton athletic director Marcus Blossom and Creighton president Daniel Hendrickson were in communication on the succession plan for weeks, sources said. After serious deliberation, Huss made up his mind and agreed to a deal to return to his alma mater.
“Returning to Creighton, my alma mater, to work alongside Coach McDermott and contribute to the future of this program is an extraordinary opportunity and, honestly, my dream job,” Huss said in a statement.
The decision was delayed because Huss was a candidate at multiple high-major openings, in addition to having some hesitation over leaving High Point. Huss’ choice to leave a high-end mid-major was aided by some assurances from McDermott that he wouldn’t be coaching into the end of the 2020s at Creighton. No concrete decision has been made on when the 60-year-old McDermott will coach his final games with the Bluejays, but sources said the expectation is two more years at most. Huss likely would not have agreed to the deal to leave High Point if there was an indefinite long-term timeline moving forward with McDermott.
Huss, who has deep ties to the Midwest and played at Creighton from 1997-2001, was previously an assistant under McDermott at CU from 2017-23 and helped build out the program to one of the best in the Big East during that span. Creighton is pivoting to an atypical hiring arrangement. There have been hand-picked successors in college basketball over the years, but this is a rare situation in which a former assistant has opted to leave a head job at another school to come back and theoretically wait multiple seasons before taking over.
It’s happening because Huss has a high-end reputation for how he runs a program, having established himself as a head coach immediately the past two years.
The Panthers made the 2025 NCAA Tournament and fell in the first round as a No. 13 seed to fourth-seeded Purdue. Huss’ team went 29-6, including a 17-2 mark against Big South teams this past season. Huss is 56-15 overall as a head coach. Creighton is coming off a second-round loss as a 9-seed to No. 1 seed Auburn. The Bluejays are 350-171 under McDermott, who has 630 career wins and taken Creighton to 10 NCAA tourneys, including the last five in a row.
With his departure from High Point, Huss’ top assistant, Flynn Clayman won over the job in less than 48 hours. HPU is regarded as a top 10-15 mid-major gig. From a facilities and support standpoint, it’s clearly No. 1 in the Big South.
As for other coach-in-waiting situations: Houston has a deal signed to have Kellen Sampson take over for Kelvin whenever the latter opts to retire, which is not expected in the next year or two. Bruce Pearl is looking to do the same at Auburn for his son, Steven. In football, Utah has defensive coordinator Morgan Scalley as coach-in-waiting. But to have someone in line the way Creighton has arranged things with Huss is a creative way to ensure consistency for whenever McDermott steps away.
Elsewhere … Former Iona and FDU coach Tobin Anderson accepted a job to join Bryan Hodgson’s staff at USF. It’s a big get for the Bulls; Anderson was also considering an offer to join Ben McCollum’s staff at Iowa. Anderson’s firing at Iona was panned across the industry for how poorly it was handled. He’ll get a fresh start in the Sunshine State.
As for the carousel overall, we’ve had 14 flips in the five power conferences in this cycle. That’s more than I expected at the start of March, and in fact matches the number from 2024. The total number of coaching changes in 2025’s cycle is now at 55, with just one vacancy to fill at the mid-major level: UC Riverside. We’re almost home free!
Major-conference changes
Non-Power Five changes
This news was originally published on this post .
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