In our look back on the decade that was the 2010s in men’s college basketball, we turn our attention to the greatest head coaches of the era. Seven different coaches won a national championship in the last 10 years, and naturally, the two who won multiple find themselves near the top of the list.
I devised a point system to measure in as objective a fashion as possible, placing emphasis on deep postseason runs while still rewarding conference dominance. Here is the key for the scoring:
National Championship – 100 points
National Runners Up – 50 points
Final Four – 25 points
Elite Eight – 10 points
Sweet 16 – 5 points
NCAA Tournament Appearance – 1 point
Regular Season Conference Championship – 5 points
Conference Tournament Championship – 3 points
All coaches who coached Division I men’s college basketball for even one season between the 2009-10 and 2018-19 seasons were eligible. There is no weight system for how many years you coached; it is purely the raw results.
Another note: Rick Pitino would have comfortably finished in the top 10 and contended for one of the top coaches of the decade, but alas, everything of consequence he accomplished has been rescinded. As such, he was not included in this exercise.
Now, let’s take a look at the coaches right outside of the top 10, then those who found themselves closest to the first five:
15. Chris Beard (Arkansas-Little Rock, 2015-16; Texas Tech, 2016-19)
Points: 121
Top Achievements: 1 National Runner Up, 1 Final Four, 2 Elite Eights
14. Jim Boeheim (Syracuse, 2009-19)
Points: 123
Top Achievements: 2 Final Fours, 3 Elite Eights, 5 Sweet 16s
13. Jim Calhoun (Connecticut, 2009-12)
Points: 143
Top Achievements: 1 National Championship, 1 Final Four, 1 Elite Eight
12. Kevin Ollie (Connecticut, 2012-18)
Points: 145
Top Achievements: 1 National Championship, 1 Final Four, 1 Elite Eight
11. Bo Ryan (Wisconsin, 2009-16)
Points: 154
Top Achievements: 1 National Runner Up, 2 Final Fours, 2 Elite Eights
10. Tom Izzo (Michigan State, 2009-19)
Points: 187
Top Achievements: 3 Final Fours, 4 Elite Eights, 6 Sweet 16s
January, February, Izzo. Tom Izzo has turned March into an annual showcasing of his incredibly coaching skills, and even with a few slip ups in early tournament games this decade, he still finds himself in the top 10 off the other several deep runs and success in the Big Ten at the bookends of the era. Without a national championship, or even a title game appearance, Izzo can’t find enough points to push himself any further up this list, but that’s the only possible complaint you could have about his decade, and it would be a rather weak point of contention. He is without a doubt one of the best in the nation and will be considered a legend well after he walks away from the bench.
9. Tony Bennett (Virginia, 2009-19)
Points: 193
Top Achievements: 1 National Championship, 1 Final Four, 4 Regular Season Conference Championships
You wouldn’t have seen Tony Bennett anywhere near the top 10 before he took his Cavaliers on a run to their first-ever national championship earlier this year, but that doesn’t matter now. After being part of one of the most embarrassing defeats in college basketball history, becoming the inaugural No. 1 seed to lose to a No. 16 seed in 2018, Virginia achieved the ultimate one year later, catapulting its coach into the upper tier of his profession for the decade. But Bennett had been building this for some time, and he had seen success before. He went on two other runs into the second weekend and took multiple ACC regular season crowns before 2019, which have contributed to his appearance in the top 10. It all comes down to that title, though, as it should.
8. Brad Stevens (Butler, 2009-13)
Points: 199
Top Achievements: 2 National Runners Up, 2 Final Fours, 2 Elite Eights
Even without a championship, Brad Stevens gets love in my system, as he deserves it. He was inches away from finding himself much higher on this list, though. If Gordon Hayward’s half-court heave at the buzzer of the 2010 National Championship had fallen on the inside of the rim rather than the outside, Stevens would have his title and 50 more points, which would launch him into the top five. But you can’t dwell on what could have been, only what happened, and his work this decade will be remembered regardless. The job he did at Butler was one of the best of the 2010s, and the program he built there, which started in the late-2000s, was instrumental in eventually getting the program in the Big East, where it resides now. Stevens completely changed the trajectory of Butler athletics and university as a whole, an accomplishment I’m not even taking into account in these rankings but should still be recognized.
7. Mark Few (Gonzaga, 2009-19)
Points: 206
Top Achievements: 1 National Runner Up, 9 Regular Season Conference Championships, 3 Elite Eights
The relative softness of the WCC compared to the conferences most of these coaches have to deal with every year has certainly helped Mark Few pile up some extra points, but there is another reason why his Zags have dominated their league: they’re really damn good. Few has taken Gonzaga from Cinderella, to perennial tournament team, to national contender in the last five-or-so years, finally reaching the Final Four in 2017 for the program’s first time. The Bulldogs couldn’t quite finish the job, but that run, among the several others they’ve had into the Elite Eight and Sweet 16, did enough to place their coach seventh on this list. Few is only 56, and his Zags look poised for another year as one of the nation’s elite. He doesn’t have his title yet, but by the end of the 2020s, it’s very possible that he will.
6. John Beilein (Michigan, 2009-19)
Points: 229
Top Achievements: 2 National Runners Up, 2 Final Fours, 3 Elite Eights
Before John Beilein, Michigan basketball as a joke. The program missed the NCAA Tournament from 1999-2008, until Beilein led the Wolverines to their first Big Dance in a decade in his second season in Ann Arbor. He rode that momentum into the 2010s and took Michigan to heights it hadn’t seen since the early-1990s, making runs to two national championship games and bringing the Wolverines back to the forefront of college hoops. The lack of a national title is what is holding Beilein back from the top five, but his consistent runs into the second weekend – five, to be exact – put some space between him and those who follow. He is no longer in college basketball, and he will undoubtedly be missed in the sport. He made his mark in his decades in the college ranks, but he propelled himself to elite status in the 2010s.
Tomorrow, you can expect to find out the rest of the top 10 and we keep the party going, reflecting on the latest college basketball era.