‘ I’m turning into Pitino, man.’ Darrin Horn has a burgeoning coaching tree
Unless you have been following this spring’s men’s college basketball coaching carousel with unusual fervor, you may have missed a story of local resonance.
Lexington product Darrin Horn now has a multi-branch, NCAA Division I head coaching tree.
With Tarleton hiring Eric Haut to replace Billy Gillispie as Texans head coach and Troy tabbing Adam Howard to replace Scott Cross as the Trojans head man, Horn, the Northern Kentucky coach and Tates Creek High School alumnus, now has two former assistants and an ex-player currently serving as NCAA Division I head hoops coaches.
“How about that? I’m turning into Pitino, man,” Horn joked last week.
While Horn is not quite at the level of Rick Pitino’s legendary coaching tree, Haut and Howard join Rhode Island’s Archie Miller to make three current Division I head coaches with direct ties to Horn.
Miller, the former Dayton and Indiana head coach, broke into college coaching working as an assistant under Horn at Western Kentucky in 2003-04.
“If I’m really reaching, I’ll claim Archie Miller, because I gave him his first full-time (coaching) job,” Horn said.
Haut has logged two stints as an aide under Horn, first working for him at WKU in 2004-05, then serving as an assistant at NKU from 2019 through 2024.
After the 2024 season, Haut left Northern Kentucky to work under Jerrod Calhoun at Utah State. (Calhoun is the new head coach at Cincinnati).
“Eric Haut, I was so happy for him. He is a real throwback in terms of an old-school dude that’s stayed loyal and just worked hard and grinded his way up and taken all the steps and done all the jobs,” Horn said.
“When he left for Utah State, he said ‘Coach, I’ve only worked for people that are like family to me. I’ve only been with people from Kent State (Haut is a Kent State alumnus) or with you. ... To try to get to a higher level, I kind of feel like I need to (work with) somebody else to increase my chances.’ Lucky for him, it played out perfect and led to that (Tarleton head coaching) job.”
Howard played for Horn at Western Kentucky from 2004 through 2008.
An Ashland product, Howard has worked as an assistant at Morehead State, Southern Mississippi, Tennessee, Troy, South Alabama, Nebraska and, last season, NC State.
“Adam’s another one, he’s kind of stuck with it ... and moved his family all over the country,” Horn said. “He’s faced some adversity over his career. He’s been a survivor, man, a tough kid.”
A third coach who worked for Horn, Scott Cherry, was the head man at High Point from 2009 through 2018. Cherry, who coached under Horn at Western Kentucky in 2007-08 and at South Carolina in 2008-09, is now an assistant coach at Lipscomb.
The 53-year-old Horn, the star player on Tates Creek’s 1991 boys basketball state tournament runner-up team and a college standout at WKU, just wrapped up his 16th season as a Division I head coach.
Overall, in stints at Western Kentucky (111-48 from 2003 through 2008), South Carolina (60-63 from 2008 through 2012) and Northern Kentucky (134-90 since 2019), Horn is 305-201 with two NCAA Tournament appearances, including a run to the Sweet 16 with WKU in 2008. What would have been a third March Madness trip for Horn at NKU in 2020 was canceled by the coronavirus pandemic.
This past season, Northern Kentucky finished 20-14, 10-10 in the Horizon League, and lost to eventual champion Wright State in the conference tournament semifinals. In seven seasons as Norse head man, Horn has led NKU to four 20-win seasons and two Horizon League Tournament titles.
Looking forward to next season, “My expectation is the same as always, to be competitive enough to play for a (league tournament) championship,” Horn said. “We did that again this year. We were definitely good enough to do that.”
Each of NKU’s top-five leading scorers was a senior or graduate student. On the plus side, “We don’t have anybody (off this past season’s team) that has eligibility left, that is leaving,” Horn said. “We’re not losing anybody to the portal. So I think that’s good. Now, we’ve still got to go get some guys (in recruiting), too. But we will.”
One thing that will make the 2026-27 NCAA basketball season notable is that, when it tips off, “the Darrin Horn coaching tree” is going to have multiple head-coaching branches.
“I’m just happy for my guys to be doing well,” Horn said. “There’s a lot that goes into (getting Division I) head coaching jobs. There’s only (361) of these jobs, and they’re really hard to get. So I am just really happy for them to have the opportunity, and have zero doubt that (Haut and Howard) will be successful as long as they get close to what they need (in resources).”
