ESPN Top 50 BB Coaches

covufan · June 13, 2014, 03:30:24 PM

ESPN is doing a running article on the Men's BB Top 50 Coaches:

http://espn.go.com/ncb/notebook/_/page/top50coaches16/no-17-north-carolina-roy-williams

So far, they are up to number 16 - Roy Williams. Scott Drew is in a tie for 50th. I found it interesting that Brian Wardle made the list of 25 who just missed the cut. I don't expect that we'll see Bryce in the remaining days...

covufan · June 13, 2014, 03:53:35 PM

Was also surprised by Jim Crews at 29. In his last seven years at Evansville he had only one good season. In his next seven years at Army, he never got over 0.500. He has done well replacing Majerus, especially under the circumstances.

valpotx · June 14, 2014, 12:03:07 AM

Give me a break regarding Brian Wardle...

usc4valpo · June 14, 2014, 09:39:31 AM

Bryce is not at the top 50 level --- yet. Valpo should be very thankful that Bryce is still around.

Considering what he has done in rebuilding Baylor, Scott Drew should certainly be ranked higher than 50. And Rick Barnes, because he coaches at one of ESPN's flagship schools, get a much higher ranking than what he deserves.

I agree with tx's assessment on Wardle. Alford is also way overrated.

valpotx · June 14, 2014, 01:16:46 PM

I agree that Barnes is very overrated. Anyone can do what he does at a school with the largest athletic budget and recruiting pipelines in the NCAA...

LaPorteAveApostle · June 15, 2014, 07:34:46 PM

Bryce isn't even top 75, which I'm fine with.

I'm not a huge Scott fan, but he certainly deserved better. Just started to list all the people he should have been better than...JThompson III? AKA the world's worst NCAA tourney coach? Are you kidding me? Mercer has one good run and their coach is suddenly brilliant? What about the FGCU guy that made the most improbable Sweet 16 run? He's suddenly an idiot because he took a better job? THERE IS NO LOGIC. Beilein better be top 5.

Why I even click on anything ESPN any more...put one over on me there, though, guys.

vu84v2 · June 19, 2014, 11:06:57 AM

From my somewhat biased perspective, I probably would have had Bryce in the 50-75 range. He is a very good game coach, seems to develop players well, and seems to know the importance of having (and retaining) strong assistants like Roger Powell.

Scott, on the other hand, is a horrible game coach. In the Big 12, he probably only ranks ahead of Barnes (I really dislike Huggins, but he did a lot this year with mediocre talent...TCU and Texas Tech have become competitive despite a very weak talent base). I have been to the Baylor-KU game at KU for each of the last three years and Scott's team has looked very poorly prepared for each game. Scott is good at getting talent and seems to be doing better at retaining some of that talent - but unline Byce he does not seem to be particularly good at developing his talent (contrary to someone like Hoiberg who is excellent at developing talent).

Glad that Boeheim was not higher. Izzo and Coach K should be the top 2.

valpotx · June 19, 2014, 05:05:21 PM

Uh, TCU is nowhere near competitive in men's basketball

. They beat Kansas 2 seasons ago, but have averaged 1-2 conference victories in the Big 12, I believe. They have a very large talent base to select from in DFW, one of the main recruiting areas for just about every sport you can think of.

vu84v2 · June 21, 2014, 08:29:42 AM

valpotx - I agree with you completely about the competitiveness of TCU, but their talent is horrible. Johnson does a great job of making that team competitive given their vastly weak talent. Thus, I was probably weighing game coaching and talent development much more heavily. Scott Drew is certainly one of the best recruiters in the Big 12...he just doesn't get much from his talent.

vu72 · June 21, 2014, 11:37:41 AM

Quote from: vu84v2 on June 21, 2014, 08:29:42 AM
valpotx - I agree with you completely about the competitiveness of TCU, but their talent is horrible. Johnson does a great job of making that team competitive given their vastly weak talent. Thus, I was probably weighing game coaching and talent development much more heavily. Scott Drew is certainly one of the best recruiters in the Big 12...he just doesn't get much from his talent.

Not sure I agree on not getting much from his teams. Scott has two Elite Eights, one Sweet Sixteen, one runner-up at an NIT and one Championship NIT. I would guess that there are probably five or six coaches with those performances during his years at Baylor. Baylor is a good basketball school--only since Scott arrived--but still is in Texas where the focus is primarily on football. Certainly no coach among the Texas schools has a better record.

valpotx · June 21, 2014, 10:04:15 PM

I agree that Scott is a fantastic recruiter, but he does need work on in-game coaching, much like Bryce. His talented teams really help him avoid coaching mistakes, just by their sheer athleticism in some games. Also, Scott does pad the schedule with wins in non-conference, by playing the Prairie View A&M and Nicholls State's of the NCAA. I guess you need to do that when you play in a good conference, though.