Big Ten Basketball: Ranking all 18 head coaches for 2024-25 season

8. Chris Collins (Northwestern)

A Duke guard back in the mid-90’s, Collins spent much of his early coaching career with the Blue Devils, though he was an assistant for Tommy Amaker at Seton Hall for a couple of seasons. He returned to Durham in 2000 and worked on Coach K’s bench for thirteen years before starting his own head coaching career at Northwestern. Suffice to say, Collins has been the most impactful head coach in the history of Northwestern basketball.

The Wildcats entered Collins’ tenure with zero basketball success, but he has now led the program to their first three NCAA Tournaments in program history. Northwestern also won a Tourney game in all three of those trips, including to end each of the last two seasons. The overall record isn’t great and there have been a few rough seasons, but Collins has been a miracle back in his home state of Illinois, especially with how the Wildcats have played lately.

7. Dana Altman (Oregon)

While he does have previous coaching experience in the Midwest, it’s a brand new journey for Altman as Oregon transitions into the Big Ten. However, this is far from Altman’s first rodeo, as he has 35 years of D1 head coaching experience. Altman led Marshall and Kansas State before a 16-year stint in the MVC with Creighton, with all sorts of success with those Bluejays. Oregon brought him to the Pac-10 in 2010 and now a new conference awaits him.

Oregon has reached the postseason in each of Altman’s first 14 seasons, including eight NCAA Tournament’s, a CBI title, and a number of NIT bids. The highlight of his career is Oregon’s Final Four run back in 2017, that coming during one of his four Pac-12 regular season titles. Oregon reached the second round of this past NCAA Tournament and are trending in a better direction, though adjusting to the Big Ten will certainly take some time for this program.