Basketball coaches used to have style. The avatar of basketball coaching swag is, of course, Pat Riley, who patrolled the sidelines in the ‘80s and ‘90s in custom Armani suits. In the college ranks, Villanova’s Jay Wright set the bar in suits tailored by the same clothier who dressed Frank Sinatra.
But “stylish basketball coach” has become an oxymoron these days. During the COVID-19 pandemic the NBA loosened the dress code for coaches in the League, resulting in a coaching corps consisting of dudes who look like tall finance bros. Thankfully, there are still a few college coaches who at least attempt to uphold the history of business attire on the sideline. Are they actually succeeding though? Or are they better off just donning a quarter zip and joining the crowd?
With the NCAA Tournament underway, we asked an expert, Nick Torres, the founder and chief tailor at Beyond Bespoke, a premium clothier in Manhattan, for his thoughts. Follow Nick on Instagram at @beyondbespoketailorsnyc and read on to see who he thinks are the Best Dressed Coaches in the NCAA Tournament.
School: Arkansas (West Region, 4 seed)
The Tailor’s Take: “He looks great. The blazer and the black pants work well. However, this comes again where like usually my older clientele likes more of a looser fit like this gentleman. His pants are a little bit wider. They’re more conservative, but they are tailored well for the silhouette. The break is small. The shoes look great with it.
The sleeves are tailored perfect. He’s showing a little bit of cuff. The shoulders are a little bit wide. That’s why if you see like the top of the shoulder kind of looks a little bit roundish, that’s because the head of the shoulder is falling off his natural shoulder. I don’t think his fit’s terrible. I just think his shoulders, bringing them in just a little bit will really bring it together. And in fashion, you know, there’s no right or wrong. It’s all about the person that’s wearing it. If you have the confidence to pull it off, you’ll look great. He’s a very stylish guy. He looks like he knows what he’s doing. He just looks like, you know, he’s from a different generation. He likes things a little bit looser.”
School: UCLA (East Region, 7 seed)
The Tailor’s Take: “The suit looks a little bit tight on him. You can see how the buttons are pulling as well as the spread of the bottom of the jacket. So it’s, it’s a little tight. In tailoring it’s a little hard because everything’s about proportion. So it looks like what the tailor did was they took in too much in the back of the jacket and not enough in the front of the jacket because the front of the jacket on his right side is a little boxy. So it just doesn’t look like he has the best tailor or he just isn’t familiar with how a suit should fit. His shoulders are a bit big but not terrible. They’re just a little big because I see a little bit of a divot on the head of his shoulder. As opposed to his pants—his pants are tapered pretty well. However, he has more of a medium break. If you see the bottom where the pants are, where it hits his shoe, it starts bunching up a little bit.
[The color scheme and material] is very limited. It’s not something you can use time and time again, because it’s a little loud. I like something a little bit more subtle because if it’s a little bit more subtle you’re able to use it time and time again as opposed to if you wear this to the next time you probably could wear it again is probably like a month later.”
School: UConn (East Region, 2 seed)
The Tailor’s Take: “It’s a little hard to tell because the jacket is not buttoned, which makes me think that it might be a little bit more on the fitted side, which isn’t a bad fit. It just limits him to being able to move his hands and coach, which makes sense why he has it unbuttoned. The head of his shoulder is a little bit wide, but overall the silhouette of the jacket looks like it’s tailored pretty well. As opposed to his pants, his pants are a little bit more of the conservative style. They’re a little bit wider. He doesn’t have them as tapered. You can see from the knee down it starts to widen out. So he likes the more conservative fit on the legs, but he also has more of a small to medium break. The reason why it doesn’t bunch up as much as it did for Mick Cronin is because Mick Cronin had a more tapered leg, so the circumference of the leg was a little bit smaller around the shoe, giving his break a little bit more of that ill fit.
It’s a navy suit, so the belt and shoe combination that he used is perfect. It goes well. The brown belt and brown shoes work perfect with the suit fabric as well. The fabric isn’t as noticeable. So what happens is you could change your shirt to different color schemes and it looks like a whole new outfit. Right now he has a light blue shirt he could wear white, you can do pink, purple, lavender. There’s so many different options which will make the suit look completely different the next time he wears it.”
School: Notre Dame (Fort Worth Region, 6 seed)
The Tailor’s Take: “She looks great. The only thing I would have done, I would have lowered her button stance a little bit. Because what’s going on is her first button stance is a little bit high. What happens with female clientele is because of their bust, you know, it’s a different anatomy than a male clientele. I would have lowered it a little bit so it wouldn’t look as snug around that area.
She looks like she’s trying to pull off a little bit more of an oversized look as well. If you see her, her shoulder points a little bit on the wider side, her sleeves a little bit on the wider side, her pants are very oversized, and that’s the style that I’m seeing more and more today. It’s not necessarily a tailored fit, but it just looks like she’s more up to date with today’s style in terms of tailoring. If I made this for her, I would have made the button stands a little bit lower. And I would have brought in her legs just a little bit more because I feel like it swallows her legs. But she’s stylish. I really love her outfit. I’m not a big fan of today’s style with the oversized look, because I did that in the 90s, but it’s things that like a little tweak here and there could make it, bring it really together.”
School: LSU (Sacramento Region, 2 seed)
The Tailor’s Take: “I actually think she looks amazing. She looks great. With female clientele, they tend to like the sleeves a little bit on the longer side. I feel like her sleeves are a little bit too long. They’re basically covering the bottom palm of her, her hand. I would have brought them up probably somewhere around one-half inch to three quarters. But her style is amazing. The shoes match well with the pants. Her blouse just brings it together and she made her jacket pop. Whoever tailors her did a really, really good job because it fits really well around her sides. The shoulders are a little hard to see with the white. They look like they might be a little bit big, but that’s me nitpicking. I like the flare look. The break looks great. Women could pull off more of a bell bottom flare. Then again, a lot of Tom Ford suits, when I work with like the Tony Awards, they like to use a little bit more flare to their bottoms. So it really depends on the industry, you know.”
School: Alabama (Midwest Region, 4 seed)
The Tailor’s Take: “The jeans work a little bit better with the color scheme. They’re darker, they work better with the blazer. Me personally, I would have chosen a different pair of sneakers, but you know, to each their own. What happens with those types of sneakers is that the opening of the shoes is a little bit wide, so you’re limited to the pair of jeans that fit well with it. As opposed to like, say for instance, high top Converse, they will work way better with a fit. But he doesn’t look bad. He looks good.
The buttons on the shirt are great because they actually complement the blazer. They have more of a gray tone to it which really makes the jacket pop a little bit better. He’s still a little bit stylish. His shoulders are a little bit big. If you see the top of the head and shoulders, you see all the bunching. That’s because the model that this jacket was designed for had a wider point to point shoulder, so the model that the jacket was for was just a little bit wider than he was, but the fit overall looks pretty good. He’s wearing the jacket open because it might be a tailored fit, which restricts him a little bit. His style is very good. Just the tailor could just use a little bit more touching.”
School: Virginia (Midwest Region, 3 seed)
The Tailor’s Take: “His suit doesn’t look fully traditionally tailored. It looks a little bit on the looser side. The pants are tapered well. He has a small break. The sneakers go well with the suit that he has. I think overall the belt works well. The shirt—I probably would have used a little bit of a different color scheme because I just don’t like the pocket square with the shirt he chose. I just feel like there’s other options he could have used, but overall he doesn’t look bad. His shoulders on this look OK. His sleeves are a little bit wide on the bicep. The sleeve length is tailored well. Overall, he doesn’t look terrible. His thighs are a little bit loose too. If you could see all the gathering around his thigh is because it could be taken in a little bit better. But in terms of style, you know, his suit is something that could be used time and time again. It’s the same thing if you change the shirt scheme as well. The accessories, the pocket square; it’ll look like a brand new outfit every time he wears it if he switches it up.”
School: St. John’s (East Region, 5 seed)
The Tailor’s Take: “His suit is tailored perfectly, whoever his tailor is. Even the fabric he used is something that could be used time and time again. I could tell that he’s right-handed, because I could see the slight flare in his lapel. He has a traditionally tailored fit. His legs are tapered really well with a slight, almost no break. He has a very, very modern traditional fit. A break is basically the length of the hem—how it folds on the pants, how the bottom folds on the shoe. So with a no break and a small break, those are a little bit more on the shorter side. Sometimes older gentlemen, they usually like more of a medium to a deep break which is more on the longer side as opposed to Rick. He’s very up to date with today’s style. His pants are tailored perfect.
Back in the ‘90s, when I was first working with suits, it was more fuller, everything was a little bit more boxier. In the ‘80s, it was more shoulder pads and a wider cut. In the 2000s, everything started to get a little bit slimmer, and now that we’re in 2026, things are going back to more of a wider fit.”
School: Kentucky (Midwest Region, 7 seed)
The Tailor’s Take: “The blue striped tie and his sneaker combo—gray works well with blue. He has a little bit of light blue gray in his sneakers that help go with the tie scheme as well as the suit fabric. Overall he’s looking really good for the style he’s going for. His sleeves are tailored perfectly. He’s showing a traditional amount of cuff. His shoulders are a little big, just a little big, not terrible. Again, I’m a nitpicker, so I would have just brought it in about a half inch on each side just to make it a little bit better. When you’re a broader guy, they don’t like to feel restricted [in the shoulders]. He’s a bigger guy, he probably just likes it to be a little bit wider to have more mobility. As opposed to like a slimmer guy could tailor it a little bit tighter.
He has a patterned shirt. It’s OK. I would have done more of a solid shirt and let the tie be the pattern; let the tie pop. The tie length is right above the belt, which is great. It’s not too long.”
School: Villanova (West Region, 8 seed)
The Tailor’s Take: “He looks great. I like the fact that he has no real color on his sneakers as opposed to [Nate Oats] who had the red which didn’t really go well with the gray. His suit is tailored really well. The pants aren’t so tapered. They’re conservative traditional, so they still look great. They have a small break which goes well with sneakers, so it doesn’t gather so much on the bottom. The belt he’s using works well. The shirt and tie is perfect. It goes well with the suit fabric.
The head of his shoulder is perfect. You see how he doesn’t have all that gathering as opposed to the other coaches. His shoulders are tapered very well. Shoulders are very important. When the shoulders are oversized, what happens is it kind of throws off the look for the rest of the jacket.
So with dress shoes, the foot opening is a little bit smaller, so you’re able to taper it a little bit more towards the bottom to give it a cleaner break. I would still use the same break style he has, which is almost a small to no break. But overall his tailor did a great job. His tailor is great. I’m a nitpicker. I feel like his sleeves are a little bit wide from the elbow down so with his hands in his pocket you could kind of see the flare towards the bottom of his sleeve. If it was me, I would have had him tapered the sleeves a little bit more.”
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