25 worst coaching hires in the history of college basketball

18. Brian Ellerbe – Michigan (1997-2001)

• 62-60 record (4 seasons)

After winning the national championship in 1989, Michigan was humming along nicely in the ’90s until an off-court scandal cost coach Steve Fisher his job in 1997. The Wolverines had certainly established themselves as a college basketball power, with the Fab Five making a pair of Final Four’s earlier in the decade. With Fisher out of the picture, Michigan was forced into a late head-coaching hunt and ultimately settled on a coach that few knew anything about.

Brian Ellerbe was just 34 years old at the time and had barely been around. He had been an assistant at a number of schools, most notably at Bowling Green under Jim Larranaga and at Virginia a few years later. His last three years had been spent as head coach at Loyola-Maryland, leading the Greyhounds to three uninspiring seasons and a 34-47 mark. While it’s true that the Greyhounds had improved in each of his three seasons, it was still a bit of a surprise when Michigan ushered him into the program.

With the players he inherited, Ellerbe went 25-9 in his first season, losing in the second round of the NCAA Tournament, but it was all downhill after that. The Wolverines won no more than 15 games in each of his next three seasons. He was fired in 2001 after years of getting embarrassed by Michigan State and finishing near the bottom of the Big Ten standings. One of the mighty programs of the early ’90s had come undone. To add insult to injury, the Ed Martin scandal that chased away Steve Fisher led to the vacation of Ellerbe’s first two seasons’ wins.