Seton Hall operates at a decent facilities disadvantage compared to many other Big East schools. Factoring that in he was probably a bit underrated when he made the move over to Maryland. But he’s been itching to get out for a while. He was close to taking the Virginia Tech job but (this is me speculating) Myles Powell opting to return kept him at SHU. He and Turgeon both had the same raw deal in 2020 where their best team did not get to play in the tournament.
OTOH he also had two Big East players of the year but never truly “got there.” Even in 2020 with both Powell and Sandro on the roster they went 5-5 at the end of the year. High floor low ceiling seems right. Lots of 8-9 or 7-10 games in Maryland’s future. He had a great recruiting class at SHU in 2014 (#16 according to 247) and got one tournament win out of it. But perhaps with Maryland’s resources he’s able to build something bigger.
It’ll be interesting if he can maintain this level of recruiting if Georgetown brings in somebody competent post-Ewing. He got to operate at Seton Hall in the mid-2010s while Rutgers had Eddie Jordan, St. John’s had Chris Mullin, and UConn was in a fake conference.
Edit: Since 2016 (both had losing seasons in 2015), Creighton is 77-52 in the BE and Seton Hall is 75-53. They’re on the same tier. McDermott beat a 12 and a 13 seed to make a second weekend while Willard got stuck facing underseeded Gonzaga and Wofford in two of his appearances.
Honestly I should amend my original statement, because the reality is the Big East has no tier two programs. Villanova is clearly two tiers above the next programs.
So we’ll say Nova is tier one, Creighton is a tier above Seton Hall in the third tier, and then Seton Hall is in the 4th tier.
Maryland fans have delusions of grandeur for what their program is and should be. I’m sure they’ll be happy with a coach who, now that he is at a program with better resources, might be able to reach the same level as Creighton lol.
i’m cracking up outside my classroom because i can tell this discussion of the big east’s relative tiers is going to go on for at least another ten posts. perfect august content
Average ranking is not a great metric to use. The middle has a large number of teams grouped together without much to separate them. The difference between 5 and 35 is much more meaningful than the difference between 100 and 160, but using the average gives the opposite conclusion.
All of this begs the question, where does Ed Cooley and Providence fit into this discussion? Would Cooley have elevated another Big Ten program after coming from the Big East? Many people are asking
Even if you want to put them in the same tier, Creighton is clearly ahead of Seton Hall within that tier.
And the overall point is that if you can’t even manage to be a big fish in a little pond, then you have no chance of being a big fish in a bigger pond.
Cooley’s as successful or not successful as any Providence coach. Hasn’t lifted it beyond it’s historical level, or sunk below it. Replacement level for that kind of program.