NCAA Basketball: Top 10 impact head coaching hires from 2010 offseason

10. Dan Hurley (Wagner)

With just a single NCAA Tournament appearance to show for a few decades of history, Wagner was again shopping for success with their next head coaching hire. The team hadn’t been bad in recent years, but fell hard to a 5-26 mark in 2010, necessitating that change. Whoever they brought in would have his work cut out for him in the NEC; not exactly the most glamorous conference in the country.

The Seahawks turned their attention to Dan Hurley, a former point guard at Seton Hall who had spent nearly a decade as a prominent high school head coach in New Jersey. Hurley had also spent a few seasons on the Rutgers staff, his lone collegiate experience, but his success coaching at St. Benedict’s Prep had more than prepared him to return to the college game.

Hurley spent just two seasons at Wagner, but the program experience a big step forward in both of his seasons. That first year ended with 13 wins, but it’s year two that showed the promise of this program. The Seahawks finished the year 25-6, second place in the NEC, and a major growth from what Hurley inherited two years earlier. He’d soon leave for Rhode Island, with this Seahawks program having maintained some of that success still today.