NCAA Basketball: Top 10 Players to Play for 40-Year Head Coach Cliff Ellis

Cliff Ellis has coached for over 40 seasons in college basketball. Here is a list of the 10 best players that have ever played for the longtime head coach.

There were 50 new head coaches named to different programs this off-season. Statistically speaking, those who will be fired within four years will reach double figures. That’s the nature of a sport where there are winners and losers, with many never having a long head coaching career.

Cliff Ellis has been a clear exception. He’s been a head coach in college basketball since 1975 when he was in charge of South Alabama. After nine successful seasons that included multiple trips to the NCAA Tournament, he went to Clemson and became the all-time winningest head coach (still to this day).

He spent nearly a decade with the Tigers before playing with another Tigers team in Auburn. Ellis had his moments, including winning the SEC one year, but was ultimately relieved of his duties in 2004 after 10 years.

Five years later, he gave coaching one last go at it at Coastal Carolina. 11 seasons later, Ellis is still going strong, with 749 total wins added to his resume. 10 trips to the NCAA Tournament in 40 seasons might not seem too impressive, but he’s been at programs with no history of success before he arrived, yet Ellis made each stop go well, even until the very end.

Hundreds of players have played for Ellis since 1975, so limiting the rankings to the top-10 was very hard, especially since I wasn’t able to watch live many of the players on this list. So in full disclosure, I relied heavily on stats and accomplishments to create this list.

Hopefully, many of you readers agree for the most part with this list of players, so please forgive me if I left someone great out.