NCAA Basketball: Best head coaching hire from each of last 25 seasons

2007: Brad Stevens (Butler)

There are too many solid hires to name in 2007, but there are a few that really stood out. This was when Bob Huggins returned home to West Virginia, leading his Mountaineers to a Final Four a few seasons later. 2007 was also the year John Beilein was hired at Michigan, eventually taking the Wolverines to a pair of trips to the national title game. Regardless, it’s hard to argue that Stevens doesn’t have them beat.

A decade before his hiring, Stevens was an unheralded guard at DePauw who’d begin his coaching career on Todd Lickliter’s bench at Butler just a few seasons later. Stevens was a valuable asset for Lickliter, and the young coach helped lead the Bulldogs to a pair of Sweet Sixteen runs. When Lickliter left for Iowa in 2007, the keys to the castle were handed to Stevens and the results were legendary.

He got the Bulldogs back in the Big Dance the next two seasons, but it’s all about what happened next. In his third season, he led Butler to the national championship game, a true Cinderella run for a 5-seed from the Horizon League. What makes Stevens a legend of the game is that he pulled this feat again, leading 8-seed Butler to the national championship game again the following season. He’d spend six total seasons leading the Bulldogs before being lured to the NBA by the Boston Celtics in 2013, responsible for one of the most amazing bursts of success for a mid-major program.