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

1. Gregg Marshall – Winthrop (2000-2007)

Long before his great success at Wichita State, Marshall was known for some phenomenal work with the Winthrop program. Before getting that chance, he bounced around as an assistant coach, spending a decade combined at the D1 level at College of Charleston and Marshall. He took over Winthrop in 1998 and the rest, as they say, is history.

In his nine seasons, Marshall owned the Big South. Winthrop made seven NCAA Tournaments, won six regular-season titles, and more than 80% of their conference games. His 2007 team upset 6-seed Notre Dame in the NCAA Tournament, winning a program-record 29 games that season. His 194-83 record at the school was legendary and he certainly set up this program to be a force in the Big South for years to come.

Marshall departed for Wichita State in 2007, leading that program to phenomenal success of its own, including that Final Four run in 2013. Even by completely ignoring his success with the Shockers, what he did at Winthrop is clearly as impressive a job as any mid-major coach did at that point in college basketball. He owned the Big South for nearly a decade and he undoubtedly is the best coach the conference has seen.

We have completed our look at the ten best Big South coaches since the turn of the century. The league has produced exciting basketball throughout its history, and we’ll have to see what’s to come in the future for these mid-major programs.