10. Chris Collins (Northwestern)
Collins was raised near Chicago and it’s pretty fitting seeing what he’s become for Northwestern basketball. After his brilliant work at the high school level, he starred at guard for Duke and spent over a decade as an assistant for Mike Krzyzewski, winning a pair of national championships on staff. Collins then took his first head coaching job when Northwestern opened up back in 2013.
It only took four years for Collins to lead the Wildcats to their first-ever trip to the NCAA Tournament. More recently, he’s gotten two more trips and a pair of Top 3 finishes in the Big Ten, getting back to the Big Dance in both 2023 and 2024. Considering the history of this program, those breakthroughs alone make Collins immensely notable, even if his overall record is exactly .500.
You don’t see deep postseason runs or perennial contenders in Evanston but what Collins has been able to accomplish makes him stand out. These last couple of seasons haven’t exactly been outstanding, especially tying for 15th place this past year, but it’s hard to knock him too far with the difficulties involved at a school like that.
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