Missouri Valley Basketball: Top 10 head coaches of the century (2000-20)

By Joey Loose | Jun 5, 2020

ST. LOUIS, MO - MARCH 10: Members of the Bradley Braves celebrate after beating the Northern Iowa Panthers in the final game of MVC Basketball Tournament at the Enterprise Center on March 10, 2019 in St. Louis, Missouri. The Bradley Braves beat the Northern Iowa Panthers 57-54 to win the MVC Championship. (Photo by Dilip Vishwanat/Getty Images) /

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CORVALLIS, OREGON – FEBRUARY 08: Head coach Dana Altman of the Oregon Ducks (Photo by Soobum Im/Getty Images) /

2. Missouri Valley Basketball coach – Dana Altman (Creighton, 2000-2010)

By 2000, Altman had already spent six seasons with the Bluejays and was already turning Creighton into an MVC power. Altman picked up head coaching experience at Marshall and Kansas State before landing in Omaha but did some pretty fantastic stuff in his 16 years at Creighton. The team he inherited in 1994 hadn’t won double-digit games for three years, but soon they’d put those memories behind.

Since the turn of the century, Altman has led Creighton to five NCAA Tournaments and a trio of MVC regular-season titles. In fact, his Bluejays were a top 4 team in the MVC for each of the last 13 years of his tenure. Creighton was constantly winning at least 20 games, making the postseason, and competing on par with the rest of this conference. Altman rebuilt success for the Bluejays and turned that into remarkable consistency.

Of course, as we mentioned with McDermott, Altman failed to lead the Bluejays on a deep Tournament run, watching as programs like Bradley and Southern Illinois made runs during this same time frame. Altman departed for Oregon in 2010, leading the Ducks to the Final Four back in 2017. His hiring by Creighton was a remarkable decision for the scope of this program and he certainly left in great shape.