There are some impressive head coaches in Big Ten Basketball, but how do they compare against each other? Let’s take a look at how they’d rank for next season.
Five years ago, your favorite college basketball team had an entirely different roster of players. Five years from now, the same will be true, though for some schools it might be over the course of less time. The one factor that changes less frequently than the roster of players is the program’s head coach. The coaches not only recruit players and prepare for games, but become the backbone of these college basketball teams.
In Big Ten Basketball, this is no different. As one of the nation’s most potent conferences for college basketball, the Big Ten has seen a fair share of remarkable coaches pass through the league. While we no longer see Bob Knight, Jud Heathcote or Gene Keady roaming these sidelines, the current slate of coaches remains impressive in this conference.
What we’re going to attempt to do is to rank all fourteen coaches. This is not a ranking of these programs historically nor what you should expect from them for next season. There will be mention of historical information from each coach as well as a brief summary of what to expect from them going forward. Someone with only a few years of experience as a head coach has a greater chance of being below a more experienced head coach, though there are certainly exceptions based on performance.
One thing to remember is that this is a power conference league. There are coaches near the bottom of this list that would clearly top other, smaller conferences. Of course, the top of the list features some of the sports’ most brilliant and accomplished minds as well. Without further ado, let’s start running through the coaches, ranking them from bottom to the top.