Humble Backgrounds: Small-College Grads Piloting Power-League Members

In a caste-like era separating the haves from the have-nots, imperial universities are seeking mega-conferences and, perhaps in the near future, a restrictive upper division. But the socially elite won't ever be able to exclude small schools from making a big impact among power-conference members, including two mentors in Pac-12 from Eastern New Mexico.

Smaller colleges, many of them in the hinterlands, have supplied a striking number of the biggest names in coaching including three new power-league pilots (Mississippi State's Chris Jans, South Carolina's Lamont Paris and Kansas State's Jerome Tang). From 1995 through 2000, five of the six NCAA Tournament championship coaches (Jim Calhoun, Jim Harrick, Tom Izzo, Lute Olson and Tubby Smith) graduated from obscure colleges with smaller enrollments. In fact, it is a rarity for a Final Four not to feature at least one coach who graduated from a non-NCAA Division I school.

John Calipari, a graduate of Clarion (Pa.) State, guided Kentucky to the 2012 national championship before Michigan's John Beilein (Wheeling Jesuit NY) and Wichita State's Gregg Marshall (Randolph-Macon VA) directed teams to the Final Four the second half of the previous decade. After nine such bench bosses were hired in the last two years, following is an alphabetical list of fraternity of active power-league mentors working their way up the ladder after graduating from a small school:

Current Head Coach	Power-League Member	Small-College Alma Mater
Dana Altman	Oregon	Eastern New Mexico '80
Rick Barnes	Tennessee	Lenoir-Rhyne (N.C.) '76
Brad Brownell	Clemson	DePauw (Ind.) '91
John Calipari	Kentucky	Clarion (Pa.) State '82
Ed Cooley	Providence	Stonehill (Mass.) '94
Andy Enfield	Southern California	Johns Hopkins (Md.) '91
Steve Forbes	Wake Forest	Southern Arkansas '88
Mark Fox	California	Eastern New Mexico '91
Greg Gard	Wisconsin	Wisconsin-Platteville '95
Earl Grant	Boston College	Georgia College '00
Leonard Hamilton	Florida State	Tennessee-Martin '71
Chris Holtmann	Ohio State	Taylor (Ind.) '94
Tom Izzo	Michigan State	Northern Michigan '77
Chris Jans	Mississippi State	Loras College (Iowa) '91
Kevin Keatts	North Carolina State	Ferrum (Va.) '95
Tommy Lloyd	Arizona	Whitman College (Wash.) '98
Nate Oats	Alabama	Maranatha Baptist (Wis.) '97
T.J. Otzelberger	Iowa State	Wisconsin-Whitewater '01
Lamont Paris	South Carolina	College of Wooster (Ohio) '96
Micah Shrewsberry	Penn State	Hanover College (Ind.) '99
Shaka Smart	Marquette	Kenyon (Ohio) '99
Craig Smith	Utah	North Dakota '96
Kyle Smith	Washington State	Hamilton (N.Y.) College '92
Tony Stubblefield	DePaul	Nebraska-Omaha '93
Jerome Tang	Kansas State	North Central Bible College (Minn.)
Brent "Buzz" Williams	Texas A&M	Oklahoma City '94
Mike Young	Virginia Tech	Emory & Henry (Va.) '86

NOTE: Nebraska-Omaha, North Dakota and Tennessee-Martin subsequently were classified as NCAA DI universities. OCU previously was designated as a major college.