Humble Backgrounds: Small-College Grads Coaching 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. 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 six such bench bosses were hired since the conclusion of last campaign, 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 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 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 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.