And you would be right, the part of most coaches. That is why most are not great. When you go to practices of coaches that never win anything there is a huge difference between those and the ones that do, especially the ones who win huge without blue blood recruits. Being a great teacher is a very rare gift. You leave the practice of a gifted teacher and your energized and changed from the experience. At a golf tournament last year Jerry West was sharing a story of having recently attended a practice of a very successful coach he had followed and said it was the best example of great teaching he ever saw ! It makes a huge difference. Also, in recruiting . unless your a blue blood the art will be in the evaluation of how players you get will fit, that is also a great gift, as well as a great way of communicating with kids,parents, coaches. Some people are simply more intelligent, more skilled than others. Every profession, same thing. Heart surgeons, all doctors, dentists, artists, golfers, pilots. Greatness is attained by few.
Like most people have been saying it's really hard to rank the ones other than the top guys. Underwood, howard, miller, piekell, Hoiberg and chambers havent even won an ncaa game as a big ten coach. Obviously, on a couple of those guys they havent been around too long, but none of those guys have proven anything yet! Pitino and collins have won 1 ncaa game. Turgeon has won 4 ncaa games in 9 years at maryland. Mccaffery with his longevity has done decent job! That leaves holtmann, gard, painter, and izzo. A pretty solid group of 4 guys right there. People may disagree, but overall some good coaches, but after 4 guys hard to pick the rest.
I see the HOF list as: Jim Boeheim, and eventually Tony Bennett (just needs a bit more time racking up wins), at this point that's it, not that impressive.
Exactly so far B1G has smelt very rosey in the scandal era. Best conference with the best coaches all without cheating the system!
I'm basing Hoiberg/Underwood on their total resume, not just B1G. I agree with your overall point though. To me, the tier 3 guys are either too new (Holtman/Pekiell/Miller) or have been just OK. (Fran and Gard.)
Did the scandal era start when you decided. We had scandal, Indiana had scandal, having criminals on your team is scandal, Izzo has had a ton of kids that are problems. No argument from me about Williams and K being slime. Louisville had slime in Pitino but they got rid of that and hired a terrific coach. Besides that he got dominated by Bennett. Nationally, recruits see the ACC as having way better coaches. Who in the big 10 outside of Izzo can get his program to be in the top 10 , get to final 4's, win it ? I would say Gard has the best chance. Who can be above .500 in the conference for 6 out of 7 years or so. Painter seems capable. I think Chris Mack will do huge things at LOUISVILLE. Conference coach of the year awards can be achieved by seasons you were the reason that your sucked followed by just a good year. Who wins the conference, who gets to the final 4, who wins a title, who wins national coach of the year multiple times . that award dwarfs a conference coach of the year. Oh well, it is all opinion and nationally the ACC will have 4 active coaches as hall of famers. Bennett is a lock. Look at his bio. Curious as to what coaches fans here see as hall of fame coaches that are now in the Big 10. One of the ways to get there is to knock of those programs that cut corners, knock off MSU.
Interesting that you have GARD as just ok. Fastest to 59 wins and has a conference title.
Fair or not, he's compared to who came before him. He kept the car on the road so far. I reckon around February 1st of this year he wasn't so beloved in Badger Nation when it looked like 2 missed NCAA's in 3 years.
Yeah I do believe underwood and hoiberg will be good coaches in the big ten, but underwood to me is unproven still. In 4 seasons in p6 conferences he is like 8 games over .500 and 9 games under in conference.
I have many badger relatives who were done with Gard around that February time haha. Feeling a lot better after the season though.
Did not think we were doing football but he did pretty damn well. I would not have called him great and he had 7 years . When Gard has 7 he will have done something more significant than Bielema. Do you think he was great ? Would you call Fleck great if he does what Bret did in 7 years ? There was not a single power player involved at UW that wanted Gard out. Alvarez, Strong, Dave Nicholas, Richter, Ryan and Bennett all stood by him. Hell Bennett promised Barry he was not only the right choice but believed in him even more, convinced he would win multiple conference titles and get them back to the final 4. 59 wins in conference, fastest in history. There were disgruntled fans that wanted Tony Bennett and that was never going to happen. We will have fans on here that want Fleck gone if he loses 4 games this year ! I have friends that will be yelling for his head if that happens. Gard won the conference quickly in his career and just now has it cranked up.
Thought Forbes was a cheater?
I have to say, his conference championship last year was wizardry.
Good observations. Both Collins and Pitino have things in both their plus and minus columns. Collins should almost end up in the CBB hall of fame for getting the Cats to the Tournament. But right now his program is in the deep mud. Pitino did win a coach-of-the-year award, so he's not without accomplishment. But he's got the lowest conference winning percentage in program history since one-and-done George Hanson.
I’d love to see the exactly which schools cheat and which schools don’t. I’d imagine a few of your beloved crystal clean characters aren’t smelling as rosy as you portray them to be. The unfortunate truth is if you aren’t cheating you probably aren’t winning these days.
Not today, BADGER is OK with him.
Could not have been hired here. Easy research to see what he did. Some people believe if you pay the penalty for your crime you get a 2nd chance. The can can flat out coach. Like Pearl, he served his penalty but the guy sure can coach. Not a fan but that does not cloud my ability to see what he teaches.
Go for it. Show where UVA or UW or Nova OR the Gophers cheated. Those are the programs i follow, show where Cronin cheated at UCLA CHEATED. Just because some cheat does not mean everyone cheats.
Remember you being the first person i saw on here that recognized how good he has been. His show cause was more about not cooperating with investigators.
Beilema was not a good coach. His time at Arkansas exposed that. Gard is in a similar situation. If he goes Tom Izzo and takes it to the next level or at least maintains it for a significant period of time, OK. Not there yet.