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

By Joey Loose | Jun 22, 2020

NEW YORK, NY - MARCH 18: Jared Johnson #3 of the Stephen F. Austin Lumberjacks celebrates with his bench in the second half against the West Virginia Mountaineers during the first round of the 2016 NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament at Barclays Center on March 18, 2016 in the Brooklyn borough of New York City. (Photo by Elsa/Getty Images) /

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NEW ORLEANS, LA – MARCH 12: Head coach Danny Kaspar of the Texas State Bobcats (Photo by Jonathan Bachman/Getty Images) /

10. Southland Basketball rankings – Danny Kaspar (Stephen F. Austin, 2000-2013)

He’s been playing and coaching in Texas for his entire career, but Kaspar did some of his finest work in his thirteen years with the Lumberjacks. Before taking over at Stephen F. Austin in 2000, Kaspar had been an assistant at Baylor and spent nine years leading Incarnate Word before they joined Division 1. He built those Cardinals into a dominant NAIA team, but a bigger challenge awaited.

By 2003, Kaspar already had a team with 21 wins and a second-place finish in the Southland. While it took until 2008 to lead his team to the postseason, an NCAA Tournament would follow in 2009. Kaspar won 246 games with the Lumberjacks, highlighted by a 27-5 finish in his final season. He won four Southland regular-season titles but could produce one conference championship out of that success.

While it’s something we’ll discuss later, Kaspar certainly helped set the table for much greater success for Stephen F. Austin in the years to come. He departed in 2013 for Texas State and the Sun Belt and is still fighting to lead the Bobcats to the NCAA Tournament. He certainly built up the Stephen F. Austin program, laying the groundwork for some serious success in the future, and not only in the Southland Conference.