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

2002: Leonard Hamilton (Florida State)

This was a year that saw a few high-profile hires, though it was some of the under-the-radar ones that stood out. 2002 is when Scott Drew got his start at Valparaiso and John Beilein got started at West Virginia, though both these coaches will get mentioned later on for their next jobs. In the end, Hamilton stands alone for his 21 years of excellence in Tallahassee.

Hamilton was already a relatively well-traveled coach by this point, having won a national championship as an assistant at Kentucky way back in 1978. He had had stints leading both Oklahoma State and Miami, taking the Hurricanes to the Sweet Sixteen at the tail end of a decade in Coral Gables. Hamilton had just spent a season in the NBA leading the Washington Wizards, though things had not progressed as he’d hoped.

Florida State was quite the bounce back for Hamilton. It took him until 2009 to get the Seminoles to the Big Dance, but they’ve had decent levels of success ever since. He led Florida State to a surprise Elite Eight run in 2018 and followed that up with two more trips to the Sweet Sixteen in the following two seasons. He’s become Florida State’s most successful head coach over these last two decades plus and is responsible for more than half of the program’s trips beyond the opening weekend of the Tournament.