Pater, this stuff is great, really great.
I've always said the measure of an outstanding coach was some kind of combination of a 70% winning percentage, consistent conference performance (bonus if the program becomes the face of the conference) and lastly performing at a level strongly above the program's norm (the Billy Donovan at Marshall or Chris Collins at Northwestern rule in case). Basically does this coach give a smaller program what will be considered a golden age for the program.
Alford at New Mexico knocked those numbers out of the park. He did. I'm not an Alford as a coach guy. I wasn't terribly impressed with his stint at SW Missouri and his Iowa stint was awful...but I thought he'd disappear at New Mexico and he came back, strong.
I didn't know of the previous six years performance. That was an awesome tidbit and makes that New Mexico turnaround even that more impressive.
I can't throw out his Missouri and Iowa stint though, and it makes it tough to evaluate.
Do the same with Greg McDermott at Creighton and he looks like a coaching superstar. He was really good at UNI. However he was a disaster at Iowa State.
Do the same with Gregg Marshall and...He's the extreme with how crazy good he's turned programs around.
Anyway, Marshall is my number one guy and I still have Archie as number two (he's so young, his record and his program has consistently gotten better over the years and he's fought though insane adversity. A starter died on him. One year he was down to just six scholarship players and none were over 6'6" and he still made the tourney and had a great year by Dayton's standards).
This definitely helps alleviates some doubt I have with Alford the coach (again I didn't know of the previous six years so thank you) but the Pierce thing showed such a horrible lack of judgement and such an out of touch, pretentious/pompous and reckless behavior under the guise of faith that I could never fully back him as the steward of the program.
So I'm hoping we go after Marshall or Archie.
I think you're going to get your wish though. Alford is my bet on who Glass would target.
Here's Gregg Marshall's first 6 years at Wichita St. using the same format used with Miller and Alford.
Gregg Marshall
119-71 (.6263) WSU's record the 6 years prior to G. Marshall
139-70 (.665) WSU's record in Marshall's first 6 seasons
Conference Record 66-40 (.6223)
Regular Season Champs 1
C-Tourn Rec (7-6)
C-Tourn Champs 0
NCAA Seeding (#9,#5)
NCAA Tourn Rec 4-2 (.667)
Final AP Top 25 Rankings- #18
Record vs Top 25 teams (8-8)
Archie Miller
130-72 (.6435) UD's overall record the 6 years prior to A. Miller
139-62 (.6915) UD's recorde so far under A. Miller
Conference Record 68-34 (.667)
Reg Season Champs 2
C-Tourn Rec (5-6)
C-Tourn Champs 0
NCAA Seeding (#7,#7,#11,#11)
NCAA Tourn Rec 5-3 (.625)
Final AP Top 25 Rankings- None
Record vs Top 25 teams (7-7)
Steve Alford
98-83 (.5414) UNM's overall record the 6 years prior to S. Alford
155-52 (.7487) UNM's overall record under S. Alford
Conference Record 68-26 (.723)
Reg Season Champs 4
C-Tourn Rec (8-4)
C-Tourn Champs 2
NCAA Seeding (#3,#5,#3)
NCAA Tourn Rec 2-3 (.400)
Final AP Top 25 Rankings- #8, #10, #21
Record vs Top 25 teams (15-6)
Here are Marshall's Off Eff rank-Def Eff rank (Turnover % rank) for his first 6 seasons at WSU
yr1- 176-139 (#243)
yr2- 173-118 (#264)
yr3- 79-65 (#182)
yr4- 32-50 (#110)
yr5- 10-26 (#40)
yr6- 34-20 (#140)
I really like Marshall, but my concern is that he's great at growing a program past the level of it's conference peers. Once he's done that his numbers are awesome, but it's against much less talented opposition, much like Few at Gonzaga. Can he do that in the Big Ten?