25.
Buzz Williams, Virginia Tech (30-18-24-76-160): Buzz once did
this, which was pretty incredible. I'm not sold on him though. He had a lot of success at Marquette, but his last team there wasn't very good at all. The roster he left behind wasn't, either. And the fact that he left them for Virginia Tech was an...interesting move. I could see not being sold on Marquette as a destination, but shouldn't a very top coach have a better option? Maybe that's just the negative view. Never finishing below .500 in the Big East in 6 years is a feat, and he's already started to accrue talent in Blacksburg.
24.
Mark Turgeon, Maryland (49-128-48-40-32): There is no chance I would pick Mike Brey over Mark Turgeon, so that alone puts Turge here. I also can't put Turgeon anywhere near the elite until he makes more than zero NCAA Tournaments at Maryland. That will happen this year, but to move higher on the list Turgeon needs to show that he's building a program. The recruiting has been great on paper, but not so much on the results. He lost five transfers last offseason and has five of his own on the roster. Transfer happen in modern college basketball, but it's a worrying number for a major college program. The class of 2014 looks outstanding, but then so did the class of 2012 at this point in its first season. Time will tell, and next year's team could be special.
23.
Rick Barnes, Texas (): Does Rick Barnes put "recruited Kevin Durant" on his resume if he's out looking for a job? That seems like it would inevitably lead to thorny questions like why they were 24th in adjusted efficiency rankings and why they got hammered in the 2nd round of the NCAA Tournament that year. That's the cynical view on Barnes that many take, ignoring that the Durant year was sandwiched between two 30+ win, Elite Eight campaigns. Barnes missed the tournament just once since 1996 and it almost got him fired, so maybe that's just his lot in life. He's another coach that's been beset by roster turnover in recent years, but there's still talent on the roster. He's also seemingly avoided even a whiff of sanctions or impropriety which shows either impressive adherence to the rules or impressive discretion given his long tenure. And I'm not sure that one is better than the other.
22.
Bo Ryan, Wisconsin (8-7-13-6-5): Bo Ryan absolutely ranks first on the list of coaches who look most like their school's mascot. Put a red and white sweater on the guy and you can't tell the difference between him and Bucky the Badger. Ryan is a high floor coach (10 seasons of 24+ wins in 14 years in Madison) and the past couple years have shown that he can coach an elite team, if there was any doubt before. Ryan also isn't young at 67 and hasn't coached outside of Wisconsin since 1976. He's had few top recruits, and his offense, though deadly efficient, probably won't excite many recruits. Hire Ryan and go 23-11 in a bad season, but things probably have to break exactly right for him to put together a top five team. See: Kaminsky, Frank.
21.
Ed Cooley, Providence (100-112-70-51-52): I like the guy. He's had success on the court and the recruiting trail in his time at Providence. It's easy to forget how much PC
isn't a power. They were an original Big East team (thanks, Dave Gavitt), but only had six winning seasons in league play in the 32 years of the "old" Big East. Rick Barnes had one in six years before hopping to Clemson. Pete Gillen had one in four years before bolting to UVA. Rick Pitino went to the NBA after one good (great) season in Providence. All of which is to say that it's not easy to win at a private school in the country's smallest state. Cooley has done that so far and could be in line for bigger things soon.
20.
Tom Crean, Indiana (81-10-3-67-50): Crean is fast becoming either the best bad coach or the worst good coach in the country. Four months ago you could read an article or message board post about Crean and probably see the phrase "losing control of the program". Ouch. Cody Zeller and Victor Oladipo, the guys that rebuilt Indiana, left campus with only a Sweet 16 and Noah Vonleh, the next top recruit left with far less. Crean has two NCAA appearances in 6 years at Indiana, and no guarantee for a third yet this year. Crean walked into a program with a bare roster, but at some point he's living off of a Final Four run with Dwyane Wade from 12 years ago.
19.
Bruce Pearl, Auburn (13-38-26-63-150): Ten years as a DI head coach at Milwaukee and Tennessee. Eight NCAA tournament appearances, a .725 conference winning percentage, and one show cause penalty. If you believe that "it's not the crime, it's the coverup", that probably applies to Pearl. The violations on their own were innocuous by the standards of the Wild West of college sports recruiting, but Pearl lied and spent a couple years in purgatory (Bristol, CT) before landing back at Auburn. Pearl didn't waste much time pulling whatever talent he could to Auburn, grabbing Trayvon Reed weeks after being kicked out of Maryland, plus KC Ross-Miller, who fought some fans last year. He'll win games, but caveat emptor.
18.
John Thompson III, Georgetown (36-16-12-65-21): John, at some point you need to stop embarrassing yourself in March. A lot of people criticize the Princeton offense for being slow and boring to watch, but to me, the reason it's never made sense for a team like Georgetown is that they recruit so well and almost always have at least as much skill as the other team. Slowing the game down and playing like, well, Princeton probably keeps some lesser teams in the game. Back at the end of the last decade, Hoya Paranoia looked like it was back in full force with a Final Four and a seemingly endless supply of top recruits, many of them from talent-rich DC. Georgetown is still in fine shape, but the local recruiting has tapered off a bit and the March losses have turned the narrative around. JT III stays high on the list at least in part because of who his father is and which shoe company that man has deep connections with.
17.
Jay Wright, Villanova (34-84-46-14-8): Jay Wright is so close to being elite, but there's something missing. He recruits at a high level. He's had good offensive and good defensive teams, often in the same year. He's broken through to the Final Four once already. He still young at 53. I don't know that it's fair to say that he hasn't done enough with his talent, but here's some food for thought. By my count, using the RSCI composite rankings, Wright has coached 5 top 25 recruits and 12 top 50 recruits, but only 5 guys who played in the NBA. I should probably look into the numbers a little more, but that doesn't feel like a lot. Seems fitting for a coach is just right there, but not quite over the hump.
16.
John Beilein, Michigan (26-23-4-10-76): Michigan's 2013 NCAA runner-up had more NBA players (six, assuming Caris Levert makes it) than the Fab Five teams. Beilein has a rep as someone who does more with less, but at Michigan he's started to do more with more. Or, at least this year, less with more. But the point is that Beilein actually does a pretty good of bringing high quality players to campus. He's also shed the March choker label, which is such a weird thing for a guy who famously took a less talented team on paper at West Virginia to the cusp of the Final Four.
15.
Gregg Marshall, Wichita State (25-13-17-5-14): Alright, it's time to move on, Gregg. Marshall is now on his fourth or fifth excellent team in a row at Wichita State. 2013 was the Final Four team and who knows where last year's 35-1 team would have ended up if not for running into Kentucky's House of Flying Daggers tournament run last year. Last year's team, as excellent as it was, only beat two NCAA tournament teams all season before March Madness tipped off. In a lot of ways putting together this run at Wichita is more impressive than doing it at a higher level, but I want to see Marshall mix it up on the court and the recruiting trail with the real heavyweights. No disrespect to Northern Iowa, but that's not a worthy. Where does Marshall want to go? Does he want to be the next Mark Few? Maybe we find out after Rob Baker and Fred Van Vleet graduate next year.
14.
Roy Williams, North Carolina (14-6-32-27-12): Never been a fan of Roy Williams. He's won at phenomenal levels but he's done it at Kansas and North Carolina, two of the most storied programs in country. He's shed any questions about his tournament bona fides by winning two titles in Chapel Hill. But I look at his roster and see no shooters for the second straight year. This is at UNC, where he should (and can) get any recruit in the country to listen. First six years at Carolina, average offensive rating: 5th. Second six years at Carolina, average offensive rating: 42. He's always relied on an up and down offensive style with traditional bigs, eschewing the three point shot, and you wonder if maybe we're too the point that it isn't a recipe for a great offensive team. Plus there are those nasty rumors of massive academic fraud.
13.
Fred Hoiberg, Iowa State (84-24-27-21-23): The Mayor. Transfer U. Relying on a new crop of transfers every year has to be like walking a tightrope. After Hoiberg took Deandre Kane from a disgruntled guy that basically got run off the team at Marshall to an All-American at Iowa State in the span of an offseason nothing seemed impossible. I personally love that Hoiberg plays uptempo and always seems to find itself in some of the most entertaining games of the week. Since he's locked in for eight years in our hypothetical #hottakes rankings, that puts to rest the constant talk that Hoiberg will find his way back to the NBA as a head coach there. He's a rising star, super young and working on a fourth straight NCAA tournament, but I want to see one good defensive team and a couple great high school recruits before he rises further.
12.
Scott Drew, Baylor (87-15-29-25-13): Drew took over Baylor when they were not only terrible on the court but also dealing with the immediate aftermath of the Dave Bliss fiasco. The NCAA doesn't give the death penalty anymore so knocking out Baylor's entire non conference season is as close as a team will get. Drew once got a lot of support from his "peers" as one of the
sport's biggest cheaters, and two years later the program found itself in hot water for text messages, phone calls - the standard violations. He's also had a weird trend of only making the tournament in even years, but that will end this season. A pair of Elite Eights and three trips to the second weekend in the times he's made it are good accomplishments for a 44 year old.
11.
Mark Few, Gonzaga (35-20-5-22-4): Ah, Mark. You coach at a small Catholic school in Spokane, Washington and people call you overrated when you only win one tournament game every. single. year. He's coached nine pros and has at least a couple more on the roster now. And seriously, he's 12-3 in the first round of the NCAA tournament and has yet to miss one. Few gets dinged points for being at Gonzaga since 1989. Maybe it's just the perfect storm for him that wouldn't translate if he had to build a program somewhere else.
