NCAA Basketball: Stevens, Huggins among top head coaching hires of 2007

7. Mark Schmidt (St. Bonaventure)

St. Bonaventure was a solid program with a decently rich history, then as the century turned over things really fell apart. This Bonnies program was rocked by scandal in 2003 surrounded former coach Jan van Breda Kolff and the athletics department after an ineligible junior college transfer was permitted to play, causing the program probation and great distress. Four years later, things were still dire.

Mark Schmidt was still a relatively young coach in the game. After playing at Boston College he had a few assistant coaching jobs before joining Skip Prosser’s staff at Loyola-Maryland. He’d follow Prosser to Xavier, spending seven years with the Musketeers. His first head coaching experience had come in the last six years, doing some solid work at Robert Morris. However, he’d have to be better than solid to turn around a St. Bonaventure program in desperation.

As it turned out, Schmidt was absolutely the right choice. His hard work paid off over time, and by 2012 the Bonnies were back in the NCAA Tournament, an incredible rise less than a decade after the program was nearly eviscerated. Schmidt has not only led the Bonnies to three NCAA Tournaments (and the A-10 title this past season), but they’ve finished in the top 5 of the tough A-10 in each of the last six seasons. St. Bonaventure is back, all thanks to Schmidt.