NCAA Basketball: Ranking best head coaching hires from the year 2000

10. Jeff Jones (American)

Before the turn of the century, there wasn’t much to celebrate about American basketball.  They hadn’t had a season over .500 since 1991 and the Eagles had yet to make the NCAA Tournament. They were struggling to contend in the CAA, though the program would join the Patriot League in 2001, right around the time Jeff Jones started to turn things around.

Jones was certainly a retread hire when American hired him in 2000, having spent nearly a decade leading his alma mater Virginia, but the hire certainly worked out for the Eagles. Having coached the Cavaliers to an Elite Eight and Sweet Sixteen in the 90’s, Jones’s favor had run dry, with American being just his second head coaching job, but he was the right hire.

He led American to a Patriot League regular-season title in their very first season in the conference and by 2008 had led them to their very first NCAA Tournament appearance. A second appearance would come a year later and the Eagles were in the top 4 of the conference in all but one of Jones’s 13 seasons at the helm. He’d leave for Old Dominion in 2013, but left behind a potent legacy with the Eagles, leading them finally to the promised land.