1. John Calipari
It’s difficult to argue with success, and Calipari has certainly turned Kentucky back into a program that contends at the very top of the nation on a regular basis. These Wildcats stumbled in the final year of Tubby Smith’s tenure and the two years of Billy Gillispie, but Calipari’s impact this decade has been phenomenal.
While he doesn’t have a pair of national titles, he does have four Final Fours and seven Elite Eights in these last ten years. Kentucky has finished near the top of the SEC every single season, with perfect records in conference play on multiple occasions. His 2015 team marched to the Final Four at 38-0 before dropping the semifinal for their first loss.
The recruiting has been excellent and Kentucky regularly ranks near or at the top of the national recruiting classes. He’s brought bigtime talent like Anthony Davis, DeMarcus Cousins, and John Wall to the Wildcats, with Davis playing a gigantic role in their 2012 march to the national championship.
Kentucky is a regular contender and Calipari has brought insane progress and promise to this program. The postseason consistency and conference dominance makes him the most successful head coach of the decade. Clearly, the SEC is getting stronger in these last few seasons, but it would be unfair to count Kentucky out with Calipari still at the helm, and there for the time being.
As another great decade of college basketball comes to an end, we’ve taken a look at ten of the most successful coaches from that decade. After taking a look at these coaches and their accomplishments, we’re left to wonder who exactly will make their impact on the coming years in college basketball.