The retirement of Mark Dantonio at Michigan State just broke up the Big Ten’s best football-basketball coaching combination over the past 13 years.
Dantonio teamed with the iconic Tom Izzo — easily the best Big Ten basketball coach of the 21st century — to give Michigan State a substantial 1-2 punch, especially from 2010 through 2015, when you could count on the Spartans to make the Elite Eight most years in basketball and the Big Ten Championship Game in football. The reality of Michigan State having Izzo and Dantonio together was imposing for the rest of the Big Ten, so much so that Ohio State’s immense success under Jim Tressel and Thad Matta (2007-2010) was matched by MSU’s two Italian-American head coaches.
In looking at the entirety of the Big Ten over the past 13 seasons, what jumps out at anyone studying the conference’s combinations of football and basketball head coaches is that only three schools have had excellent coach combinations for any appreciable length of time.
Wisconsin is one of those three schools, which enables Badger fans to appreciate how good they have had it in the 21st century.
Before focusing on Wisconsin and the top three football-basketball coaching combinations in the Big Ten over the past 13 years, let’s look at the other 11 schools.
Penn State, Rutgers, Nebraska, Northwestern, and Minnesota have not achieved much in basketball at any point this century: an NCAA Tournament win once in a while, sure, but nothing beyond that.
Illinois made the Sugar Bowl in the 2001 season and the Rose Bowl in 2007, but has done very little else. Purdue made the Rose Bowl in the 2000 season, and not a whole lot else. Maryland football hasn’t done much. Neither has Indiana. Iowa football has done well under Kirk Ferentz, but basketball has never been especially strong — decent, but not particularly impressive. The Hawkeyes have not made a single Sweet 16 this century.
That’s 10 schools.
Michigan naturally emerges as a school which — to some — might seem to have enjoyed a quality football-basketball coach combination. Yet, the Wolverines never really had a great combination, at least not at the same time. John Beilein produced excellent seasons from 2017 through 2019, but Jim Harbaugh wasn’t able to bring Michigan football to the same level as the basketball program.
Beilein came to Michigan before the 2007-2008 college basketball season, right when Lloyd Carr was preparing for his final football season in Ann Arbor. Beilein and Carr shared the stage at Michigan for one college sports cycle. If they had coached together for several years, Michigan would probably be No. 2 behind Izzo and Dantonio. As it is, though, Carr left when Beilein started, so Michigan can’t claim a coach combination which enjoyed quality and longevity at the same time.
Only three schools have had those ingredients over the past 13 years. Michigan State is the leader, and it’s a battle between Ohio State and Wisconsin for second place.
Ohio State has the better football results. We don’t need to explain that.
Wisconsin has the better basketball results over the past 13 years. That seems self-explanatory, albeit by a smaller margin. Both schools have made two Final Fours in the past 13 years. Ohio State’s best basketball period within the past 13 years was the four-year sequence from 2010 through 2013, in which the Buckeyes were always a top-two seed in the NCAA Tournament and made at least the Sweet 16. However, the Buckeyes missed the NCAA Tournament three times in the past 13 years. Wisconsin missed only once. The Badgers have made seven Sweet 16s (or better) in 13 years, Ohio State only five.
In terms of overall achievements the past 13 years, Ohio State probably wins by a nose. However, in terms of a coaching combination, Ohio State did not have an especially durable combination due to the shortened tenures of Urban Meyer and Jim Tressel.
Because Tressel stepped down after the 2010 season, he and Thad Matta spent just four seasons together within this 13-year period from 2007 through 2019. Given that Matta’s best sustained period at Ohio State was — as noted above — the four years from 2010 through 2013, it isn’t as though Tressel and Matta were both consistently great as a tandem.
Matta’s 2008 and 2009 seasons were ordinary at best. However, when Matta maxed out in the 2007, Tressel did as well. Both men led Ohio State to the national championship game in their respective sports. Wisconsin and Michigan State can’t claim that distinction. Michigan State came especially close in 2015, but the Spartans’ basketball and football teams both lost in the semifinals (the Final Four) of those postseasons.
Yet, does one transcendent season (2007) mean the Tressel-Matta combination is better than what Wisconsin had, with Bret Bielema and Bo Ryan? This becomes a debate between “greatest achievements” and “overall consistency.” Ohio State has the former, Wisconsin the latter.
It is similar for Ohio State’s other great — but short-lived — coaching combination, Urban Meyer and Matta. They were both really, really great in 2012 and 2013 — Urban went unbeaten in 2012 while Matta reached the Final Four; Ohio State reached the Orange Bowl in 2013 while Matta made the Elite Eight — but not beyond those two seasons. Matta’s career lost steam after 2013, and he never regained his fastball (with health problems being part of the story).
Yes, Ohio State had a better coaching combination than Wisconsin in 2007, 2010, 2012, and 2013, but that is just four years out of 13. On balance, the Badgers have had the steadier programs with both coaches doing well at the same time.
The final verdict: Izzo-Dantonio is the best Big Ten football-basketball coaching combination of the past 13 years.
Bielema-Ryan is second. Meyer-Matta is third (because OSU won the national title as opposed to finishing second in football; Tressel’s national title came before Matta and before this 13-year period began.
Wisconsin has the second-best football-hoops coach combo of the past 13 years, you say? Pretty damn good if I may say so.