Ivy League Basketball: Top 10 head coaches of the century (2000-20)

By Joey Loose | Jun 1, 2020

PHILADELPHIA, PA - MARCH 11: Darnell Foreman #4 of the Pennsylvania Quakers sits atop the rim after the win at The Palestra on March 11, 2018 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Penn defeated Harvard 68-65 for the Men's Ivy League Tournament Championship title. (Photo by Corey Perrine/Getty Images) /

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VILLANOVA, PA – DECEMBER 05: Head coach Fran Dunphy (Photo by Mitchell Leff/Getty Images) /

3. Fran Dunphy – Penn (2000-2006)

For those are you who have been confused by some previous comments, Dunphy and Penn were part of the reason that programs like Columbia and Yale have had long stretches of unimpressive play. Dunphy took over as head coach at Penn in 1989 and built a monstrously successful program along the way. While we’ll touch on his entire tenure with the Quakers, rest assured that Dunphy’s #3 ranking still comes from just his time since the turn of the century.

In 17 years running the Quakers, Dunphy led Penn to 9 NCAA Tournaments, with 4 of them coming this century. In five (one this century) of those seasons, the Quakers went undefeated in conference play. They were a dominant force in the Ivy League. In Dunphy’s final six years, the Quakers were 116-58, with a mind-boggling 70-15 run through Ivy League play. His only Tournament win with Penn came way back in 1994, but clearly, we can’t hold that against him.

Dunphy left for Temple in 2006 and led the Owls to a bunch of Tournament appearances there as well. The retired head coach is a legend in Philadelphia basketball. 14 of his 17 Quakers teams finished in the top 2 in the Ivy League, including all six since the century began. When you consider how things fell apart for the Quakers in the years following his departure, it really paints Dunphy as one of the Ivy League’s most impressive head coaches.