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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Dylan Raiolas short Nebraska run left behind the kind of conversation that lingers around a program trying to climb. The five-star quarterback transfer didnt hide the gap he saw between Oregon and Nebraska when he talked about the differences in talent, but he also made clear he appreciated his time with the Cornhuskers. For Nebraska, the bigger takeaway may not be the split itself, but the way it forced a reset at a position that shapes everything else.
Since Raiola moved on, the roster picture has shifted in ways that could fit Nebraska better. The Huskers brought in Anthony Colandrea at quarterback, and the offense has also been tweaked under coordinator Dana Holgorsen. Even without closing the book on what Raiola might have become in Lincoln, Nebraska now looks like a team with a cleaner fit at the sports most important position and a more deliberate plan around it. [Read more 🡒]
Nebraska Fall Camp Just Put Two Huge Husker Storylines In Focus
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The other storyline is coming from the recruiting side, where Nebraska is lining up a fall wave of visits from some of the top names in the 2028 class. Quarterbacks Anthony Turner and Jaxson Carper, along with running back Noel Washington, are among the prospects the Huskers are hoping to bring through campus, a reminder that even in the middle of camp, the staff is already thinking well beyond August. [Read more 🡒]
Former Nebraska Receiver's Tumultuous College Journey Took Another Sudden Turn
Hardley Gilmores college path has already been a winding one, and it took another sharp turn as fall camp opened in Lexington. The former Nebraska wide receiver had most recently been with Kentucky, adding the Wildcats to a college journey that has also included Nebraska and a pair of other stops that never fully materialized, with a brief Louisville commitment and a Baylor pledge that did not end in a signature.
Gilmores latest exit leaves another unanswered chapter in a career that has changed direction often since his first arrival on the recruiting trail. Kentucky has not made public the reason for the dismissal, which only adds to the uncertainty around a player whose next landing spot remains unclear after yet another sudden move. [Read more 🡒]