Horizon League Basketball: Top 10 head coaches of the century (2000-20)
By Joey Loose
8. Horizon League Basketball rankings – Jimmy Collins (UIC, 2000-2010)
Responsible for a fantastic level of success in the state of Illinois, Collins became the head coach at UIC in 1996. He is directly responsible for most of the Flames’ basketball success following over a decade assisting Lou Henson at Illinois. Collins was a great recruiter for the Illini but faced the challenge of bringing and keeping elite talent in Chicago to play for the Flames.
Collins led UIC to all three NCAA Tournaments in the program’s history, including appearances in 2002 and 2004, sandwiching an NIT bid. Those teams in the early 2000’s were talented, with that 2002 running through the Horizon League Tournament as the 6-seed. Things tailed off in his later years, but Collins still produced incredible results when you look at the bigger picture.
This UIC program has not been up to anything in the ten years since Collins’ retirement. Even as the Horizon League has completely changed around them, UIC has failed to establish itself in the now weakened conference. Collins brought a remarkable spurt of basketball success to this program, but couldn’t sustain that success through the 2000’s. That being said, no other UIC coach has come close to accomplishing what he has done.