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

2010: Greg McDermott (Creighton)

There were actually some really nice hires in 2010, though we clearly don’t have the space to dive into all of them. Iowa got a winner in Fran McCaffery, Seton Hall did the same with Kevin Willard, and Boise State has been much better since Leon Rice arrived in town. Fred Hoiberg began his head coaching career with success at Iowa State, but it’s the new head coach at Creighton who gets the nod this time around.

McDermott was no stranger to coaching by this point, with Creighton becoming his 5th head coaching position. He started with stints at Wayne State and North Dakota State before leading alma mater Northern Iowa to three straight NCAA Tournaments back in the mid-2000s. McDermott then spent four uneventful and unsuccessful seasons leading Iowa State but has nicely bounced back at Creighton.

The first three years were excellent in the MVC, but Creighton remained a force in the Big East after swapping conferences in 2013. Early on, the Bluejays were excellent with McDermott’s son Doug as a national star, but these last few seasons have shown that Creighton is for real. Creighton has only finished below .500 once in a decade in the Big East and has made five of the last six NCAA Tournaments, including an Elite Eight run last month. In fact, McDermott is responsible for half of Creighton’s NCAA Tournament victories in their long history.