Ranking the Big Ten head men's basketball coaches

1. Tom Izzo, Michigan State: Nobody in the Big Ten comes close to matching Izzo’s career accolades. During his 25 years at the helm, Izzo has led the Spartans to 10 Big Ten regular-season championships, six conference tournament titles, 14 Sweet 16s, eight Final Fours and the conference’s last national title in 2000. Izzo’s squads have never had a losing season, have never finished below .500 in Big Ten play and would have extended their NCAA Tournament streak to 23 consecutive seasons if the 2020 postseason wasn’t canceled due to the coronavirus outbreak. His long stretch of success is why he has already been inducted in the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.

2. Matt Painter, Purdue: The Boilermakers have established themselves as a Big Ten contender and NCAA Tournament team on a regular basis under Painter. They have finished in the top four in league standings 10 times in the past 15 seasons while recording three regular-season titles, one conference tournament crown and five Sweet 16s in 11 trips to the Big Dance. Painter guided Purdue to its first Elite Eight in 19 years two seasons ago, but he’s still looking to break through and add a Final Four to his resume.

3. Chris Holtmann, Ohio State: Holtmann has gone from the Big South to the Big East to the Big Ten over the last decade. He improved from 11 to 21 wins in his three seasons at Gardner-Webb, averaged 23 wins during his three-year stint at Butler and has won at least 20 games his first three years at Ohio State. Holtmann’s first season with the Buckeyes was his best as he took a team that wasn’t expected to do much and guided them to a second-place finish in the Big Ten. He has a Sweet 16 and six NCAA Tournament wins under his belt, and he would’ve notched his sixth straight NCAA bid if not for the coronavirus outbreak.

4. Mark Turgeon, Maryland: Since the Terrapins left the ACC and joined the Big Ten in 2014-15, Turgeon’s teams have finished in the top five in the conference in five of the past six seasons — highlighted by last season’s share of the regular-season title — recorded at least 23 total wins five times and made four trips to the NCAA Tournament. He has been around a while and won during previous stops at Texas A&M and Wichita State, but the knock on Turgeon is his lack of hardware and postseason success. He has only captured two regular-season titles and made two Sweet 16s in his 22 years as a head coach.

5. Fred Hoiberg, Nebraska: Hoiberg’s first year in the Big Ten was brutal, but that was to be expected after he essentially inherited a blank canvas. The Cornhuskers returned no starters and lost virtually all their production from the year before. As a result, Nebraska went 7-25 and had a 2-18 mark in league play last season. The hope is Hoiberg can work his transfer magic and spearhead a resurgence like he did at his alma mater Iowa State, where he reached 100 wins faster than any coach in program history and led the Cyclones to four consecutive NCAA Tournaments in his five seasons there.

6. Greg Gard, Wisconsin: There’s always pressure that comes with following a legendary coach, but Gard showed he can win in Bo Ryan’s shadow — both with Ryan’s players and his own guys. Gard took over the reins during the 2015-16 season and guided the Badgers to two straight Sweet 16s. Then after a down year where Wisconsin missed the NCAA Tournament and had its first losing season since 1997-98, Gard rebounded with a 23-win campaign and followed that with last year's impressive job that netted Wisconsin a share of the Big Ten regular-season title. In total, Gard's teams have recorded at least 12 conference wins and finished near the top of the Big Ten standings in four of his five seasons.

7. Archie Miller, Indiana: Big things were expected of Miller when he left Dayton to rebuild Indiana’s storied program. During his six-year stay in Ohio, he reached the Elite Eight and notched back-to-back Atlantic 10 titles as he turned the Flyers into a mid-major power. However, Miller has yet to deliver the type of results Hoosier fans anticipated when he was hired in 2017. Miller has been able to attract top talent (Romeo Langford in 2018, Trayce Jackson-Davis in 2019 and Khristian Lander in 2020), but his teams have only made small jumps from year to year.

8. Fran McCaffery, Iowa: Following coaching stops at Lehigh and UNC Greensboro, McCaffery turned around Siena and has done a respectable job at Iowa, where he has stabilized a program that hadn’t won an NCAA Tournament game in nine years before he arrived in 2010. He has led the Hawkeyes to three first-round victories and his teams have finished .500 or better in Big Ten play seven times in the past eight years. McCaffery has yet to reach a Sweet 16 or win a Big Ten regular-season championship, which is no easy feat for any coach.

9. Brad Underwood, Illinois: Underwood won 89 games and scored a pair of NCAA Tournament upsets in three years at Stephen F. Austin before making the Big Dance in his lone year at Oklahoma State. But after landing at Illinois in 2017, success hasn’t come as fast for Underwood, who is looking to restore the program’s winning tradition. His first two seasons were underwhelming, but Underwood has the Fighting Illini trending in the right direction. Last season, they collected over 20 wins for the first time in seven years and their 13 conference victories were the most since 2004-05.

10. Chris Collins, Northwestern: Collins took over the Big Ten cellar-dweller and raised it to new heights, leading the Wildcats to their first NCAA Tournament in program history in 2017. During that same historic season, Northwestern tallied a program-record 24 victories and finished with a winning record in conference play for the first time in 49 years. But after posting back-to-back 20-win seasons for the second time in school history, Collins hasn’t been able to build off that success. The Wildcats regressed with a 15-win campaign in 2017-18, a last-place Big Ten finish in 2018-19 and a woeful 8-23 mark last season.

11. Steve Pikiell, Rutgers: After spending a decade transforming Stony Brook, Pikiell has taken on another building project and has spent the last four years breathing life into Rutgers' slumbering program. Over the past three seasons, the Scarlet Knights have improved their Big Ten win total from three to seven to 11. They took a huge step forward last season by recording their first winning campaign since 2005-06 and earning their first Associated Press Top 25 ranking in 41 years.

12. Juwan Howard, Michigan: The reason Howard is ranked so low on this list is because last season was his first as a head coach and he hasn't had as much time to accomplish as much as his colleagues, who have all had a top job for at least five years. Regardless, Howard has gotten off to a solid start. The Wolverines were in position to reach the 20-win mark and the NCAA Tournament for a fifth consecutive season, and he put together a top-15 class in his first full spin through the recruiting cycle. Only time will tell if he’ll be able to keep the program in as good a shape as he inherited it.

13. Richard Pitino, Minnesota: His last name helped him land the job in 2013 after spending just one season manning the ship at Florida International. However, Pitino hasn’t done much to elevate the program after replacing Tubby Smith. The Gophers were NIT champions in Pitino’s first year and rebounded from an eight-win campaign in 2015-16 with NCAA Tournament berths in 2017 and 2019. But in seven seasons, Pitino has three more wins (127 to 124), two more Big Ten victories (48 to 46) and one fewer NCAA bids than Smith, who was at Minnesota for six years.