A handful of March Madness coaches stand out for their fashion choices amid a sea of casual attire

Notre Dame’s Niele Ivey is doing it the way she learned how to coach, pacing the sideline in stylish attire in a time when most coaches favor far more casual attire.

“When I first got into coaching, I learned under a Hall of Fame coach,” Ivey said. “Being coached under Coach (Muffet) McGraw, her whole staff dressed up. Coaching with her we dressed up. That’s kind of the fabric of Notre Dame, and what I’m used to style-wise.”

As the NCAA Tournament heats up, the styles of Ivey, LSU’s Kim Mulkey, Alabama’s Nate Oats and South Carolina’s Dawn Staley stand out in a sea of coaches in team polo shirts and quarter-zip pullovers. There are a handful of coaches on the men’s side who evoke memories of a time when John Wooden, John Thompson and Denny Crum roamed the sidelines immaculately dressed.

Oats, who routinely reminds fans of former Crimson Tide coach Wimp Sanderson with his colorful tailored sports coats, will stand out on the men’s side in the Sweet 16. Fans saw two other throwbacks — Texas A&M’s Buzz Williams and Rick Pitino of St. John’s — before the Aggies and the Red Storm were eliminated in the second round last weekend.

“I don’t fish, I don’t golf, I don’t hunt, I don’t do all the things that you’re supposed to do as a hobby,” Williams recently said when asked about his dapper attire. “That’s just always been my hobby.”

Most coaches moved to casual sideline attire during the COVID-19 pandemic and many simply never went back to dressing up for games. Count Auburn coach Bruce Pearl among those who have completely abandoned sideline suits after wearing them for years.

Some think that not dressing up on the sideline is disrespectful to the game. But for Pearl it’s simply a matter of comfort.

“Think about what a suit is,” he said. “You put on a 100% cotton shirt and you button it all the way at the top, OK? And then what you do is you put a tie on and then you bring it all the way up and then you choke yourself with it, then you throw a coat on it. And then you go out there and you coach and you just sweat through it.”

Ivey and Pitino just believe in ‘dressing up’

Like Williams, Pitino always dresses up for games and has been doing it throughout a career that’s spanned decades. His duds have inspired others to follow in his footsteps, notably former assistants UCLA coach Mick Cronin and Kevin Willard, the Maryland coach.

And though the 72-year-old Pitino loves his suits and will never change his sideline attire, he won’t stand for anybody who criticizes the casual coaching look.

“It’s my preference to just dress up rather than dress down,” Pitino said. “My son ( newly named Xavier coach Richard Pitino ), who is the closest person to me in coaching, he wears a quarter-zip and he looks great. He’s more comfortable doing that, and I’ve just been doing it for so many years — 50 years — that I believe in dressing up.”

The elder Pitino made headlines for his attire when he suited up in an all-white Armani ensemble for St. John’s whiteout at Madison Square Garden on Feb. 16. His players raved about the suit after the 79-73 win and Jimmy Fallon wore an identical one alongside Pitino during a skit that opened “The Tonight Show” earlier this month.

Pitino said his stark white suits are one small way he connects with fans.

“The white suits started at Kentucky, and I did it just to join in with the fans, join in with the student body, just as a fun thing,” he said. “They’re all different suits, different outfits throughout the years and I’m just having fun with everybody. It’s a fun thing. Everybody laughs about it. Everybody has fun.”

Ivey noted that fashion has taken on a life of its own the last couple of years.

“You get a chance to really showcase your personality,” the coach of the Irish said. “For me, I like to look nice. I feel the way you look, you play good, feel good, and also just bringing power and elegance to the sideline.”

Houston’s Sampson was once chided for wearing sweatpants

Kelvin Sampson, the 69-year-old Houston coach, wore suits on the sideline for decades before the pandemic. Though he’d be in a full suit at tipoff, he’d famously rip off his tie before the first TV timeout in almost every game while coaching at Oklahoma and Indiana.

Though casual wear is the norm for college coaches these days, Sampson admits he might have taken it a bit too far. He said that Arizona coach Tommy Lloyd, a quarter-zip-wearer himself, once chided him for wearing sweatpants on the sideline.

“I really hadn’t noticed that I was wearing sweatpants,” Sampson said. “So, I went to more of … I guess athletic slacks, whatever they call it golf pants, whatever. So, people get on me for the way I look on the sidelines sometimes, but I don’t really care.”

On the women’s side some of the male coaches have adopted a more casual look since the pandemic. But the style of many of the female coaches has become part of the game narrative, led by Ivey, Staley and Mulkey.

Staley has become a style icon in the last few years as her team has won two of the last three national titles. The former standout player was photographed on the front row at the Gucci show sitting alongside NFL star Stefon Diggs at Milan Fashion Week last year.

“I dress for comfort. Anything I wear I’m comfortable, like I could probably have on the entire day,” Staley said. “So it’s more geared to comfort. I’m so glad I don’t have to wear heels anymore.”

Staley doesn’t know what people will see her don next.

“I will try on an outfit. If it’s really nice, I might save it for a later round,” she said. “Sometimes I haven’t been able to wear them because we don’t advance. But I have quite a few just ideas. I can’t wait until the season is over because I can clean my closet. It’s not in a good position right now.”

Mulkey’s outfits becoming must-see TV

Many fans can’t wait to see what bold, unpredictable outfit Mulkey will be wearing when she walks out of the LSU locker room.

That includes Michigan coach Kim Barnes Arico, who has found herself in the fan fashion zone when coaching against Mulkey.

“We’ve had to play against each other a lot. I always wonder when we’re playing against her, ‘What’s the wear going to be?’ I know it’s something that people think about,” Barnes Arico said. “But for me, I try to do it a little bit for our players. Even in the locker room just now, C’mon, coach, put the hat on. They want to get a selfie. It’s fun. I think it’s good to have some fun with it.

“But I’m not Kim Mulkey. I’m the other Kim,” Barnes Arico said with a laugh.

Ivey is also one of one, and she takes pride in continuing the Notre Dame fashion tradition.

“I feel very confident in the choices that I choose as far as clothing, fashion,” Ivey said. “It’s fun, but also I feel powerful. It’s just something that has been a fabric of myself being a part of this program for a long time.”

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This story has been corrected throughout to show Alabama’s coach is named Nate Oats.

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AP Writers Pete Iacobelli in Columbia, South Carolina, and Curt Rallo in South Bend, Indiana, contributed to this report

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