NCAA Basketball: Ranking best head coaching hires from the year 2001

4. Bruce Pearl (Milwaukee)

Rebuilding a program, especially a mid-major, takes a lot of time, effort, and patience. Come 2001, the building had already begun at Milwaukee, though it looked as if it was all for not. The Panthers had just had two solid years under Bo Ryan, but he was lured away to Wisconsin. He had started to turn things around at Milwaukee, but the next hire would still have a big task ahead to continue to fix things.

Bruce Pearl took that job and succeeded with flying colors. At the time, he wasn’t a widely-known name in the coaching world. He had played and coached under Tom Davis, lacing up for him at Boston College before joining his bench at Stanford and Iowa. He then got his first head coaching experience during nine years at D2 Southern Indiana, winning the D2 national title back in 1995.

While Pearl would spend just four years with the Panthers, the progress he made on the court can easily be seen. The Panthers were 51-13 in Horizon League play, making their first-ever NCAA Tournament appearance in 2003.

In his fourth season, Pearl turned in what remains the crown jewel in Milwaukee program history, leading the team to the Sweet Sixteen as a 12-seed. Tennessee snatched him away soon after that run, leading Pearl to be nationally known as a fierce coach and recruiter.