And on we go...
75. Chris Holtmann (N/A) - I don't know anything about this guy. His resume is odd. He was the head coach at Gardner-Webb for three years, going 11-5 in his final season, before leaving to become an assistant at Butler under Brandon Miller. Then when Miller went on a leave of absence this year, Holtmann got promoted to head coach in the Big East. His wikipedia page is filled with quotes so flattering it reads like a Chris Holtmann press release, so maybe he knows how to work the internet.
74. Rick Ray (250-218-208) - Again, not much to go on here. Mississippi State was in bad shape when he arrived...and it's still in lousy shape. The guy has a degree in Applied Math, apparently, so I give him points for that, but the 'Dogs have to at least show signs of competing in this weak league in Ray's third season for him to escape the bottom of the list.
73. Jim Christian, Boston College (177-158-83-135-118) - Christian probably doesn't belong here in this category. He actually has a long track record as a head coach in competitive conferences, but this is the reaction to anyone hired by Boston College to coach their basketball team. The only ones who know anything about that guy are the couple hundred that show up to Alumni Hall to watch bad basketball every night.
72. Kim Anderson, Missouri (N/A) - This is a guy with an odd resume. He had a successful career at Missouri as a player, followed by a brief cup of coffee in the NBA, and then returned as an assistant for most of the '90s. He's won tons of games at Central Missouri, but that's a DII school. He's a 59 year old getting his first crack at the big time. He's an interesting hire at Missouri, but not one that would be hired elsewhere at a major conference level in all likelihood. Time will tell whether the Tigers' gamble pays dividends. For now, it's too early to tell.
71. Pat Chambers, Penn State (169-127-148-82-122) - Penn State isn't an easy place to win. That's probably one of the recurring themes this low on the list, but Chambers is 12-48 in B1G games there. He's got a few big wins to his credit, beating national finalist Michigan in 2012 and sweeping a good Ohio State team last year, but there just aren't enough overal wins.
70. Brad Brownell, Clemson (22-76-124-50-117) - This is one I waffled on this one. Clemson is fairly awful this year, and it's Brownell's fifth year. Flip side is that he's been at or above .500 in the ACC three times in his first four years and they've shown at least some signs of life in the recruiting game. In the end, you can probably split the difference and put him here. The ACC is strong, but there doesn't seem to be any reason for a program like Clemson not to make moves towards respectability. We'll see if Brownell to see if he can be any more than average.
69. Mark Fox, Georgia (59-108-103-72-29) - Georgia went 12-6 in the SEC last year and didn't really even spend time on the bubble. That's how empty those 12 SEC wins were and how bad they were out of conference. Fox did make a tournament back in 2011, his second year on the job, and this year's team looks reasonably competitive, if you believe in that sexy kenpom number. My only other thought is that he looks like a guy who wears glasses to look smart. A Tom Crean.
68. Trent Johnson, TCU (244-97-264-234-50) - Johnson was in some respects a rising star at Stanford, going 45-27 in the Pac-10 at what was then something of a premier program nationally. Then he jumped to LSU and didn't do much of anything, so he jumped to TCU ahead of the train that was probably soon to run him out of town, and now after two abysmal seasons in Fort Worth he's kind of turned them around, only not really because they're still going to finish ninth-ish in a ten team league. Johnson has finished last in his division or conference four of the past five years. I'm not betting on him.
67. Donnie Tyndall, Tennessee (83-183-66-56-79) - Tyndall has climbed the coaching ladder very fast, going from the OVC to Conference USA to the SEC in just a couple years, and surprisingly has Tennessee at 4-1 in the SEC in his first season on the job. Not bad for a program that lost everyone from last year, including two NBA draft picks. There's also the news that Southern Miss, Tyndall's last stop, is self-imposing a postseason ban for God Knows What, so I probably would decline to hire this guy right now. Better to focus efforts on the known SEC cheaters rather than the suspected ones.
66. Fran McCaffery, Iowa (92-89-25-28-48): McCaffery is 55 and his career highlight remains back to back first round tournament wins at Siena over Vanderbilt and Ohio State back in 2008 and 2009. He's never made it to the actual (round of 64) tournament in four seasons with Iowa and it's unclear that he will this year.
65. Billy Kennedy, Texas A&M (127-119-105-121-75) - Kennedy somewhat quietly put together a 2015 recruiting class with three consensus top 40 prospects. He'll need them because his improvement in College Station has been incremental yet. After six straight tournament appearances under Billy Gillespie and Mark Turgeon, the Aggies are still looking for their first in Kennedy's four seasons. The best recommendation for Kennedy at this point is his time at Murray State. He went 31-5 in 2010 and left the roster that went 31-2 in the first year after he left.
64. Anthony Grant, Alabama (47-27-60-92-45) - It's amazing what a difference a few years makes. Four or five years ago, Grant would have rated 50 spots higher on anyone's list. Easily. He was one of the hot names in coaching after guiding VCU to the tournament twice in three seasons, including a memorable upset of Duke in 2007, but since then he's missed the tournament four out of five years at Alabama while Shaka Smart has taken VCU from plucky underdog to perennial top 25 program. Grant and the Tide slid backwards last year, but went 33-17 in conference the three years before, making one tournament and winning 12 conference games in the other two seasons. The recruiting mojo hasn't been there either after top recruits like Devonta Pollard and Trevor Lacey didn't work out.
63. Kevin Stallings, Vanderbilt (41-12-95-112-58) - Stallings is somehow only 54, but with 15 years at his current job, he's one of the coaching deans on the list. Vandy was a regular in the NCAA tournament under Stallings for awhile, and just three years ago his team won then SEC Tournament by defeating the Anthony Davis-led Kentucky team that would go on to win the National Championship. This looks to be the third straight year that Vandy won't be dancing though.
62. Dana Altman, Oregon (86-56-28-29-88) - In the last twenty years, spent mostly at Creighton, Dana Altman has had a losing conference record twice. He's got nine NCAA tournament bids and 15 appearances in a major postseason tournament, but only five NCAA tournament wins. Altman has done a good job constantly bringing in transfers at Oregon to keep his roster stocked, but the mass exodus and personnel issues might be reflective of some of the pitfalls in that approach.
61. Leonard Hamilton, Florida State (29-25-121-41-142) - Hamilton has the reputation as a guy who recruits well but never does anything with the talent, a real "roll the ball out there" coach, but that's unfair. Hamilton has only made four NCAA tournaments at FSU, but had four other teams finish 42nd or higher in kenpom's rankings without making it and the program hasn't missed the postseason since 2005. Hamilton's career record is only so-so, but he took over three massive rebuilding (or perhaps just building) jobs at Oklahoma State, Miami, and Florida State, but a look at his records shows steady progress. Unfortunately, steady progress doesn't move the needle much in the rankings and at age 66 his best days may be behind him.
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