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

By Joey Loose | Jul 22, 2020

SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH - MARCH 21: The Fairleigh Dickinson Knights huddle before taking on the Gonzaga Bulldogs during the first half in the first round of the 2019 NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament dat Vivint Smart Home Arena on March 21, 2019 in Salt Lake City, Utah. (Photo by Tom Pennington/Getty Images) /

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WASHINGTON, DC – FEBRUARY 08: Head Coach Jamion Christian (Photo by G Fiume/Getty Images) /

3. Jamion Christian – Mount St. Mary’s (2012-2018)

When Christian returned to his alma mater as head coach in 2012, he was only 29 years old. He had spent the previous season on Shaka Smart’s staff at VCU, later using a system similar to the famous havoc defense with the Mountaineers. He took over a program that had greatly struggled the last couple of seasons and was now five years removed from an NCAA Tournament bid.

Christian turned Mount St. Mary’s into an NEC contender from the beginning. In each of his six seasons, they finished in the top 5 in the conference, and he won 101 games during that time span. His 2014 squad, just his second season as head coach, won the NEC Tournament as a 4-seed; they’d return to the NCAA Tournament in 2017 as well.

Christian’s success led him to a season at Siena before taking the George Washington job, though there’s plenty of work ahead for him and those Colonials. As for Mount St. Mary’s, Christian had a definite impact on the program, winning 63% of conference games and those two titles. With how things have gone in these last two seasons without him, it’s even clearer what Christian meant to the Mountaineers.