NCAA Basketball: Top 10 head coaching hires from the year 2002

2. John Beilein (West Virginia)

For more than two decades, Gale Catlett led the Mountaineers to a whole host of victories and postseason appearances, but it was time to find a new leader by 2002. The program had been struggling in recent years, having missed the last four NCAA Tournaments, and had just landed in the basement of the Big East.

The keys to the program were turned over to John Beilein, a coach who had already bounced around at several colleges as head coach. A former high school and junior college coach, he spent five years apiece at the D1 level at both Canisius and Richmond. He led Canisius to their first NCAA Tournament in nearly forty years and won a Tournament game with the Spiders a few years later. Beilein was more than ready to take over a power conference program.

After several years of struggle, West Virginia became a top-level program again, thanks to the five years Beilein put in with the program. By his third season, he had led the Mountaineers to the Elite Eight, following that up with a trip to the Sweet Sixteen and an NIT championship. Beilein would have likely ended up higher on this list, but departed for Michigan in 2007, where he’d make an even more impressive legacy. Meanwhile, Beilein’s successor at West Virginia has certainly done a solid job.