Big East Basketball: Top 10 head coaches of the century (2000-20)

1. Big East Basketball power rankings – Jim Calhoun (Connecticut, 2000-2012)

When comparing some of the greats of this or any sports, it’s easy to default to the argument of titles. As we look at what Calhoun has done for the Huskies, he certainly checks this box. After spending 14 years as head coach at Northeastern, he arrived at Connecticut in 1986 and completely built the Huskies program into national prominence.

Just before the turn of the century, Calhoun won the Huskies’ first national title in 1999, but he certainly wasn’t finished. He led Connecticut to additional national title runs in 2004 and 2011 and made a major role in building the team that won the 2014 title. He led his Huskies to 13 second weekend or further trips, while making an additional Final Four in 2009. His teams were consistently on top of an elite Big East, finishing in the top 3 eight times in this century alone.

Connecticut wasn’t anything of note when Calhoun arrived over three decades ago, but he quickly built a national power. The program mightily struggled under success Kevin Ollie, perhaps showing further evidence of Calhoun’s importance to Connecticut. He brought a load of national success to an unheralded program, putting them on top of the world in a time when the Big East was a tougher and deeper conference.

We’ve taken our look at the ten best Big East coaches since the turn of the century. There have been some pretty incredible teams and coaches in this amazing conference and it’ll be interesting to see how these legacies continue to be written in the future.