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

1. Tom Brennan – Vermont (2000-2005)

Decades ago, Brennan’s career got started as an assistant at schools like Seton Hall and Villanova, though it was at Yale where his head coaching career really began. In 1986, he accepted the head coaching job at Vermont, though this certainly wasn’t the Catamounts program that we know today.

Brennan built Vermont into the power that it is, but the results didn’t come until after the turn of the century. After nearly two decades of struggle, the Catamounts won their first regular-season title in 2002 before making the NCAA Tournament in each of Brennan’s final three seasons. The cherry on top was the 2005 team that upset 4-seed Syracuse in the Tournament.

Brennan retired in 2005, having put the pieces together for the last two decades of success for this Vermont program. They aren’t exactly winning the conference on a yearly basis, but they are the conference dominator because of all the work Brennan put in. When you consider he’s responsible for the other Tournament victory in the America East, it is even more reason he should top a list like this, as his legacy lives on in this conference and program.

We’ve finished our look at the ten best America East coaches since the turn of the century. The conference has served up one of college basketball’s most shocking moment in recent years; who knows what these programs and coaches will provide in the years to come.