NCAA Basketball: Top 10 impact head coaching hires from 2006
By Joey Loose
8. Tad Boyle (Northern Colorado)
2006 rolled around as Northern Colorado was in the midst of rejoining D1, having just landed in the Big Sky. The former D2 program was struggling and needed new leadership as they tried to adjust to being a D1 program. The hunt led them to make the hire that helped put this program on track.
Tad Boyle played his college basketball under the great Larry Brown at Kansas, though had graduated before the Jayhawks won the national title in 1988. Boyle was briefly a high school coach before joining the staffs of Jerry Green and later Mark Turgeon, spending time at Oregon and Tennessee along the way. He had been on staff at Wichita State for six years when Northern Colorado came calling.
In his first season, Northern Colorado won just 4 games and finished at the bottom of the Big Sky. By his fourth and final years, he had led the Bears to a 25-8 record and their first D1 postseason appearance. The program had greatly improved during his time there and actually made their first and only NCAA Tournament the year after his departure. He was lured away by Colorado in 2010 and remains there to this day, with his impact on this program clear.