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

4. Tim Cluess (Iona)

Iona basketball has had some fantastic success throughout the years, emerging as one of the more successful programs in the MAAC. There have been ups and downs over the years, though the program was trending back upwards come 2010. That team had won 21 games, a definite improvement over recent seasons, but saw coach Kevin Willard depart for Seton Hall.

In came Tim Cluess, a coach with a lot of experience winning games in and around New York. The former St. John’s and Hofstra guard won a bunch of state titles at the high school level before getting his first collegiate job leading Suffolk CC, a junior college. He then spent four years at LIU Post, taking those Pioneers to the D2 Elite Eight before Iona came calling.

Cluess was an instant success, and his Gaels were the best team in the MAAC for his nine years in charge. He led Iona to six NCAA Tournaments and a pair of NIT’s as well. They won 73% of conference games and took home either the regular season or conference tournament title in all but one of his seasons. He stepped aside for health reasons late in 2019, but this run of success is hard to contend with at the mid-major level.