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

2013: Andy Enfield (USC)

There are a few names to bring up here, starting with Chris Collins, who is responsible for both of Northwestern’s trips to the NCAA Tournament. We’re looking bigger, meaning we have to ignore Brad Underwood’s legendary three-year stint at Stephen F. Austin, or Steve Alford’s burst early on at UCLA. Instead, we look across Los Angeles at Enfield, who still remains with the Trojans even now.

A scoring machine at D3 Johns Hopkins, Enfield became an NBA shooting coach early in his coaching career and later joined Leonard Hamilton’s staff at Florida State. Enfield’s first shot as a head coach went about as well as humanly possible, leading Florida Gulf Coast to the Sweet Sixteen as a 15-seed in 2013, just a few weeks before taking the USC job.

USC certainly isn’t regarded for their basketball, but Enfield has done solid work turning this program around in recent years. He’s had them in five NCAA Tournaments, including an Elite Eight run just two years ago. The Trojans have finished Top 3 in the Pac-12 in five of the last six seasons and are averaging more than 20 wins a season under Enfield’s leadership. He’s had USC in the last three Tournaments and has this program entrenched among the regular contenders in the Pac-12.