In a conference where coaching changes can swing a program from contender to cautionary tale in a hurry, the Big Ten has seen both kinds of hires over the last decade. Some moves changed everything. Others left a mess behind.
If you’re sorting through the best and worst coaching decisions since 2016, the list starts at Michigan and ends there too.
Dusty May’s two-year run with the Wolverines was the gold standard. He went 64-13, won the national championship in April, and then left for the Dallas Mavericks of the NBA. That title gave the Big Ten its first national championship since 2001, which makes May the clearest No. 1 on the best-hire side.
Brad Underwood has also delivered exactly what Illinois wanted when it brought him in 2017. He’s 193-110 overall with the Illini, and the program has made six straight NCAA Tournament trips under his watch. This past season ended with a Final Four appearance, and with a top-5-caliber roster lined up for 2026-27, Illinois could be staring at another deep run.
Nebraska’s Fred Hoiberg rounds out the best of the bunch. The record still sits three games below .500 at 112-115, but the bigger picture is impossible to miss: he took the Cornhuskers to their first-ever Sweet 16 this past season. The reigning AP National Coach of the Year has turned Nebraska into a real Big Ten Basketball contender, and that alone makes his hire one of the strongest of the decade.
On the other end of the spectrum, Indiana’s Archie Miller gets the unwanted top spot. In four seasons, he finished 67-58 and never reached the NCAA Tournament. For a program with Indiana’s resources, that’s a major miss, and the Hoosiers still haven’t fully shaken off the fallout.
Ben Johnson’s tenure at Minnesota wasn’t much better. Over four years from 2021-25, he went 56-71 and posted two bottom-tier finishes in the Big Ten Basketball standings.
The Golden Gophers also took too many damaging non-conference losses to keep any realistic at-large hopes alive. In his first year, Coach Niko Medved had the program looking much more competitive, which only sharpened the contrast with what came before.
Juwan Howard’s time at Michigan started with promise. The former “Fab 5” star and Wolverines alum reached the Elite 8 in 2021 and added multiple Sweet 16 appearances.
But the last two seasons went off the rails, ending with several notable incidents and an 8-24 finish in his final year before he was fired. Michigan quickly bounced back with the Dusty May hire, but Howard’s ending was still a rough one for a program and a player with deep ties to it.
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Illinois went into the offseason looking for stability in the middle of its offensive line, and Jake Renfro arrives with exactly the kind of rsum that can change a room. The seventh-year senior center transferred in after stops at Cincinnati and Wisconsin, where he showed he could play at a high level while also working through injuries. For a team trying to build something sturdier up front, bringing in a veteran center with that background is a meaningful move.
Renfros profile got a little brighter this week with his place on a national watch list, a sign that he is on the radar as one of the better centers in college football. For Illinois, the real story is simpler and more important: if he can stay healthy, he has a chance to give the line the kind of anchor it has been searching for, and his presence could shape how far the offense can go this season. [Read more 🡒]
Illinois Defense Is Taking A New Turn Fans Will Notice Fast
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For Illinois, the change is about more than terminology after the defense had some issues in previous seasons under Aaron Henry. The new look also opens the door for players such as Matthew Bailey, Xavier Scott, Joe Barna and Carter Janki to carve out bigger roles, and the early signs suggest fans should notice the shift quickly once the season gets going. [Read more 🡒]