NCAA Basketball rewind: Most impactful coaching hires after 2015 season

1. Eric Musselman (Nevada)

Back when they were still in the WAC, Nevada was one of the more potent mid-major programs in the early 2000’s. They had a great run of success, including a Sweet Sixteen in 2004 and a few conference titles along the way. Things had not been as bright in recent years, especially since joining the Mountain West a few years earlier. After a 9-22 campaign in 2015, change was needed and it came in a major way.

Eric Musselman was a talented coach whose career had taken him all over the country. He had twice been an NBA head coach, leading the Warriors and Kings. He’d been an NBA D-League head coach, an NBA assistant, and had spent the last few seasons breaking into the college game. His previous season had been spent on staff at LSU, but now it was Musselman’s time to run the show.

Nevada was markedly better immediately after Musselman’s hire. In his first season, they won 24 games and the CBI championship. In each of the next three seasons, the Wolf Pack won at least 28 games, won the Mountain West regular-season title, and made the NCAA Tournament. The 2018 team was perhaps the greatest of the bunch, marching to the Sweet Sixteen as a 7-seed. After all that sudden and impressive success, Musselman took the job at Arkansas, whereas Nevada hasn’t quite replicated that same level of talent.

Our look through the best coaching hires from 2015 is now complete; which of these coaches were really the best from that offseason?