Busting Brackets
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Summit League Basketball: Top 10 head coaches of the century (2000-20)

By Joey Loose

SPOKANE, WA - MARCH 20: Lawrence Alexander #12 of the North Dakota State Bison plays against the Oklahoma Sooners during the second round of the 2014 NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament at Spokane Veterans Memorial Arena on March 20, 2014 in Spokane, Washington. North Dakota State won the game 80-75. (Photo by Steve Dykes/Getty Images)
SPOKANE, WA - MARCH 20: Lawrence Alexander #12 of the North Dakota State Bison plays against the Oklahoma Sooners during the second round of the 2014 NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament at Spokane Veterans Memorial Arena on March 20, 2014 in Spokane, Washington. North Dakota State won the game 80-75. (Photo by Steve Dykes/Getty Images) /
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BOISE, ID – MARCH 15: Head coach T.J. Otzelberger of the South Dakota State Jackrabbits (Photo by Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images)
BOISE, ID – MARCH 15: Head coach T.J. Otzelberger of the South Dakota State Jackrabbits (Photo by Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images) /

5. TJ Otzelberger – South Dakota State (2016-2019)

Before Otzelberger began his head coaching career with the Jackrabbits in 2016, he was already known in basketball circles as a talented recruiter. He did solid work on the staff at Iowa State and Washington before getting that chance to run his own program. He inherited a South Dakota State program that Scott Nagy had built into continued success, though there was no guarantee that Otzelberger could continue that success.

Fortunately, Otzelberger’s first head coaching job went fantastically. In his three seasons, South Dakota State won 70 total games and made a pair of NCAA Tournaments. In his debut, they won the Summit League Tournament as the 4-seed. In the following two seasons, the Jackrabbits won both regular-season titles but were relegated to the NIT in 2019. Otzelberger won 76% of his conference games.

He accepted the UNLV job in 2019, leaving the program in the hands of assistant Eric Henderson. South Dakota State has yet to pull off a Tournament upset, though Otzelberger clearly got the best out of this program in his three seasons. He didn’t really have to build the success, but maintaining it has been impressive work; look forward to more of the same at UNLV in the coming years.