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

5. Mike Anderson (UAB)

When you consider just how UAB athletics came into being, their successes early on are even more impressive. Up until 2002, Gene Bartow and later son Murry led this program to tons of initial success, leading the Blazers to join Conference USA and become one of basketball’s more interesting stories. However, the younger Bartow was cast aside as the program began to struggle and a new voice was needed.

For Mike Anderson, UAB was his first shot to run his own program. He had spent the entirety of his career playing and working under the great Nolan Richardson. After playing under him at Tulsa, he later following him to Arkansas as an assistant, playing a big role on the 1994 team winning the national championship. Anderson had even spent two games as interim head coach after Richardson was dismissed in 2002.

UAB was dynamic under Anderson, winning at least 21 games in each of his four seasons leading the program. The Blazers made three straight NCAA Tournament appearances, including a Sweet Sixteen run in 2004 as a 9-seed. He got UAB back on track and took the Missouri job just after the conclusion of the 2006 season, winning three NCAA Tournament games in total in his four years in Birmingham.