It’s hard to sort out whether it is about achievement, raw coaching ability or upside moving forward.
Forget about Ed Cooley, who I wouldn’t rank there but at least you can make a case based on program or whatever. I don’t understand Musselman in Tier 2 compared to some of the other trendy younger coaches who I would put in a tier at least with him.
Tier 3 is just a mess. Way too many coaches in there and needs to be separated. You have a guy like Fran who is what he is and has done it for a long time, and then you have guys in there who are trending upward (Hubert Davis, Tommy Lloyd, Nate Oats, Juwan Howard) and have a way better chance of leaping tiers in the coming years.
Not that I’m not high on him but having a great recruiting class doesn’t really rank you somewhere on a coaching list for me. I just think he’s in a similar group with some of those other names I mentioned and it is a bit surprising to see him as the only coach without a Final Four or long track record there.
No. He’s fine - not good, not bad. Before last season, he had missed the tournament in 5/11 years at Providence. Before last season, he had one tournament win.
Last year, his best team was absurdly old, took advantage of the extra Covid year and isn’t replicable. Most of the year he started 4 5th year seniors and 1 regular senior. The other main player in the rotation was a junior.
The numbers show that he is exactly replacement level for the program he coaches. He’s done no better or worse than his predecessors (with the exception of Pitino getting them to an F4). Otherwise he has not had more success or less than that program is accustomed to having. He’s fine. He’s just not fine for us. We ought to aspire to more.
If you think he’s a good coach then make the case. Simply asserting it is not the same thing.
Made the case above. 7 of 11 making the tourney. Won their first conference title last year. Was light years better than the last three providence coaches.
I’ve posted a detailed comparison and I know you saw it, so not gonna again. Time to go look for yourself, or search the board and find it. The record shows he’s on par with the other coaches that have come through there.
So that includes Pete Gillen, who beat Duke in the tourney and was an overtime loss away from making a Final Four – not sure how Cooley’s done anything light years better than that. But it’s a convenient cutoff since if you looked at the last four coaches you’d be including Rick Barnes, and it would be fun to see you argue that Cooley’s been ``light years better’’.
i think you’re giving NBA too much credit for “better” vs “cheaper”. I think the key change that has not been raised yet is the salary structure for draft picks. Shaq and Webber were among the best paid players in NBA in their early years bc there was no draft structure and a real option that they would say F it, I’ll wait a year. Elway did the same thing.
Pro leagues have become much better at managing (under paying) exceptional talent. (Except that apparently insane Phoenix Qb contract.) but unless current nba contract system is changed, there will be huge pressure to ‘get the clock started’, which poisons college hoops rather than rewarding it as previous system did.
That’s what I counted. Also, it looks like six tournaments is correct. Not 7. I don’t see how you’re even close to “light years better”. Cooley is a replacement-level coach at the level he’s at now.