NCAA Basketball: Top 10 impact head coaching hires from 2009 offseason
By Joey Loose
6. LeVelle Moton (North Carolina Central)
North Carolina Central, certainly not a household name by any means. A school mere miles from Duke, sharing the town of Durham, wasn’t exactly generating any buzz in the college basketball world. They had only recently rejoined D1 and were still hunting for a new conference come 2009, but at least they made a dynamic head coaching hire to jumpstart the process.
LeVelle Moton starred for the Eagles just over a decade earlier before starting a brief international playing career. He had success as a high school coach in North Carolina before joining the Eagles staff in 2007. Moton spent two seasons on the bench before being promoted to the top spot; his first collegiate head coaching job.
Moton got right to work, both on and off the court, and when the program joined the MEAC two years later, this program was ready to succeed. North Carolina Central has made their first four NCAA Tournaments under Moton’s guide, and were certainly favorites to make it five before the national pandemic got in the way. He’s introduced the world to this Eagles program and made them the best team in the MEAC on a regular basis.