NCAA Basketball: Top 10 impact head coaching hires from 2006

Take yourselves back to the year 2006. After a remarkable NCAA Tournament, Florida has taken home their first national championship, with that run including a win over upstart 11-seed George Mason in the Final Four. Names like Adam Morrison, J. J. Redick and Brandon Roy were among the best players in the nation, while talented NCAA Basketball coaches Jay Wright and Roy Williams split the major coaching awards.

With another basketball season ending, the time came for a number of these collegiate programs to move forward. Several schools were shopping for new head coaches, whether through dismissal or retirement, not to mention those that were churned out as the coaching carousel began to spin. There were a number of openings to be filled, including at schools like Arizona State, Indiana, and Missouri.

Naming a new head coach is an important process; it’s very easy to mess it up. Hiring the right guy is important for each and every program, regardless of its current state. As the offseason came in 2006, there were a number of different openings; with each program faced with that important choice.

Fifteen years later, it’s time to reflect back on those decisions and look more closely at the best coaching hires. There were certainly more than ten coaches hired in 2006; we’ll be focusing on just the ten best, even though there were other good hires made.

Without further ado, let’s jump right in and look back at some of these hires.