NCAA Basketball: Top 10 impact head coaching hires from 2009 offseason

By Joey Loose | Jun 14, 2021

MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA - APRIL 08: Head coach Tony Bennett of the Virginia Cavaliers cuts down the net after his teams 85-77 win over the Texas Tech Red Raiders in the 2019 NCAA men's Final Four National Championship game at U.S. Bank Stadium on April 08, 2019 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. (Photo by Tom Pennington/Getty Images) /

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NCAA Basketball Pat Chambers Penn State Nittany Lions (Photo by Mitchell Layton/Getty Images) /

10. Pat Chambers (Boston University)

Things were going alright at Boston University by the time 2009 rolled around, but they certainly could have been going better. Longtime coach Dennis Wolff stepped aside, necessitating the search for the next head coach. The Terriers had been competing at or near the top of the America East for the last decade but had just a single NCAA Tournament to show for their efforts.

They’d turn towards Pat Chambers, a Pennsylvania native, and young collegiate assistant. After playing and assisting the great Herb Magee at Philadelphia. He got his first D1 experience when he was hired onto Jay Wright’s staff at Villanova, spending five years with the Wildcats before his first chance to be a head coach.

Chambers spent just two seasons at Boston University, but they were pretty great seasons for the program. In his first year, the Terriers won their first postseason game in fifty years, going on a mini-run at the CBI. The following season, they won 21 games again, but this time returned to the NCAA Tournament for the first time in a decade, and their most recent appearance. Penn State scooped up Chambers a few weeks later while the Terriers hunt for relevance.

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