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

2012: Bruce Weber (Kansas State)

There were some rough hires in 2012 and not a ton that really jumped off the page. Kevin Ollie took over at UConn and won a title but we know how terribly things went for him in the end. Dan Hurley at Rhode Island and Pat Kelsey at Winthrop were two under-the-radar hires that turned out quite well, but we’re looking in a different direction for this one.

After playing his college ball at Milwaukee, Weber would join Gene Keady for a twenty-year span, aiding him at both Western Kentucky and Purdue before beginning his own head coaching career. Weber started off hot, taking Southern Illinois to a Sweet Sixteen before getting the Illinois job in 2003. Two years later, he led the Fighting Illini to the national title game but couldn’t maintain the momentum and was fired seven years later.

Weber bounced back a few weeks later and is fresh off a solid decade at Kansas State. The Wildcats won the Big 12 title in his first season and repeated the feat near the end of his tenure. He led the program on a surprise trip to the Elite Eight in 2018 and had them in the Big Dance five times. Again, Weber didn’t exactly jump off the page, but he was more than solid in the Big 12 with these Wildcats.