by Mike Leviere

Created on: April 11, 2009   Last Updated: April 12, 2009

Many names could be thrown into the realm of possibilities when looking for the most underrated coach in men's college basketball. Tom Izzo from Michigan St. has not been listed as one of the greatest. Yet his teams have been to the final four five times in the last 11 years, more than any other program.

That's right, more than Duke, North Carolina, UCLA, Kentucky, etc. John Beilein, currently at Michigan, could certainly be underrated (by the way, just a coincidence that these first two are both from Michigan schools!).

Beilein has been nothing short of phenomenal in building winning programs beginning at Erie Community college and ending at Michigan. He is the only active collegiate coach to achieve 20 win seasons at four levels; junior college, NAIA, NCAA Division II, and NCAA Division I.

He is also only one of 7 coaches in history to take 4 different teams to the NCAA tournament. He has simply experienced success everywhere he coached. Other names can definitely be thrown in with similar statistics but I believe the man most overlooked by the general public is Don Meyer, currently coaching at Northern State University in Aberdeen, S.D.

Coach Meyer's accomplishments and accolades are simply astonishing. In 37 years of college coaching he has had 2 losing seasons. He is the all time winningest men's coach in NCAA history with 910 wins following the 2008-2009 season.

He was the fastest coach to achieve 800 victories in the history of the game. His annual Don Meyer's Coaching Academy has attracted over 10,000 coaches over its nine year existence and the biggest names in the game have traveled to Aberdeen to participate, drawn by the excellence of Coach Meyers.

Pat Summit, John Wooden, and Tubby Smith have joined the myriad of others in recent years by gracing the little town of Aberden with their presence for the Academy which has turned into the premier coaching clinic in the U.S.

Yet Coach Meyer has not only won games, but he has done it the right way. In the past 36 years of his coaching, only one player failed to graduate; not one percent, one player!

He also is concerned with community involvement and the community in turn responds by supporting the team. Northern State basketball attendance has consistently been at the top of the NCAA II for the last 9 years.

Coach Meyer's Building a Championship Program video series is used by college and professional programs each year. Among his peers he is considered one of the top coaches in the nation, yet very few people know of him since he coaches at the division II level.

Coach Meyer purposefully remains at Division II and yet has garnered the respect and admiration of all basketball coaches at every level. He is truly the most underrated coach in men's college basketball.

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