Black coaches in the top six men s college basketball leagues are still facing a tough climb in going from assistant to the top job. An analysis by The Associated Press
Bruiser Flint remembers being a Massachusetts assistant coach building a resume that would one day have him running his own program. The breakthrough had come for Flint, who was 30 at the time: He had joined the limited ranks of Black men in charge of a top-level college basketball team. “I was unbelievably grateful,” Flint recalled.
Black coaches in the top six men's college basketball leagues are still facing a tough climb in going from assistant to the top job. An analysis by The Associated Press found Black coaches holding 59.4% of assistant jobs in the Atlantic Coast, Big 12, Big East, Big Ten, Pac-12 and Southeastern conferences for the 2022-23 season. But the head-coach rate stood at just 29.9%. Richard Lapchick is founder of The Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sport. He says the percentage of Black coaches holding top jobs across all of Division I has largely been stagnant around 25% going back decades.