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How would you rate the BT coaches now?

mushroomgod_1

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Apr 9, 2012
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How about something other than the coaching search? Only 1 BT team in the sweet 16......some seemingly bad work on the coaches' part. It does seem that the BT doesn't have as many big-time coaches as years ago. Look at 2010-11--Then we were talking about a younger Izzo, Matta, Tubby, Painter, Beilein, Bo Ryan, Weber & Carmody in an 11 coach league. Of course, we had Crean and Iowa had Fran so they weren't all big-time.

Anyway, considering their past work in the BT, their skill as recruiters, development of players, recruiting et al....how would you rate the current BT coaches (I'm including CAM & Patino) as of the close of this year? I'm not talking about who had the better coaching year, necessarily. I'd see it as follows:

1. Izzo--Looking a little ragged, getting an old man vibe, but still has a couple of years in him.
2. Howard--Has really been outstanding this year. How much of his freshness will wear off as he goes along? Will he transition as a veteran coach?
3. Painter--Hard to argue now that he's not a really good regular season coach, and a really poor tourney coach, at least when there are expectations. Always seems to make a bad decision when the chips are down.
4. Holtmann--Did a good job this year and has the program moving in the right direction. Did have a deer in the headlights look in the NCAA.
5. Gard--Hard guy to rank. The first couple of years it seemed like he was coasting on Bo Ryan's work. Then last year they were amazing. They come back this year, and never really got it going.
6. Pikiell--Has done a great job. Just doesn't 'feel' like a big-time coach, ultimately.
7. Holberg--He's been scrambling for two years. Probably hurt more by lack of fans than any other BT coach. They actually played better at the end of the year, and didn't quit when they were winless. They will be much improved next year when McGowen's 5* brother comes.
8. Turgeon--This seems like his best coaching year. Had no true center & no true pg. He got a lot out of those two 6'8" transfers. And he can recruit.
9. Underwood--For being such a tough guy, he never really seemed to bring mental & physical toughness to the team this year. He really needed to get a lot more out of Frazier. Does seem like a recruiter though.
10. Collins--NW wasn't too talented, but seemingly underachieved overall. He seems capable enough but the results aren't great.
11. Pitino--Another guy who scrambled around, one step ahead of the posse. I think they had it going fairly well until the injuries to Robbins & Gabe K. killed them. Was not able to keep Carr under control.
12. Fran--You have to give him credit for developing Garza & recruiting Weiskamp. And for having a nice offensive system. But so weak physically. So little effort on D. A much more dour Crean.
13. CAM
14. Farry--Outperformed CAM this year, but only prior HC experience was a failure.

Overall, a pretty damn weak collection, for all the $ floating around in this league. Only Izzo is a sure-fire big-time coach at this point.
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I don't think this is too far off. I'm not sure about Hoiberg though; i know he won at Iowa St., but it was all down hill from there. I suspect he'd get another job pretty quickly if he Nebraska cuts ties in a year two.

I always think IU fans underrate painter by saying his record is similar to Crean's, etc. Yes, but he's at Purdue. Purdue and IU are not equal in terms of budget, facilities, campus, location, history/tradition, recruiting prowess, etc. This makes it all the more disappointing IU can't manage to figure it out.
 
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How about something other than the coaching search? Only 1 BT team in the sweet 16......some seemingly bad work on the coaches' part. It does seem that the BT doesn't have as many big-time coaches as years ago. Look at 2010-11--Then we were talking about a younger Izzo, Matta, Tubby, Painter, Beilein, Bo Ryan, Weber & Carmody in an 11 coach league. Of course, we had Crean and Iowa had Fran so they weren't all big-time.

Anyway, considering their past work in the BT, their skill as recruiters, development of players, recruiting et al....how would you rate the current BT coaches (I'm including CAM & Patino) as of the close of this year? I'm not talking about who had the better coaching year, necessarily. I'd see it as follows:

1. Izzo--Looking a little ragged, getting an old man vibe, but still has a couple of years in him.
2. Howard--Has really been outstanding this year. How much of his freshness will wear off as he goes along? Will he transition as a veteran coach?
3. Painter--Hard to argue now that he's not a really good regular season coach, and a really poor tourney coach, at least when there are expectations. Always seems to make a bad decision when the chips are down.
4. Holtmann--Did a good job this year and has the program moving in the right direction. Did have a deer in the headlights look in the NCAA.
5. Gard--Hard guy to rank. The first couple of years it seemed like he was coasting on Bo Ryan's work. Then last year they were amazing. They come back this year, and never really got it going.
6. Pikiell--Has done a great job. Just doesn't 'feel' like a big-time coach, ultimately.
7. Holberg--He's been scrambling for two years. Probably hurt more by lack of fans than any other BT coach. They actually played better at the end of the year, and didn't quit when they were winless. They will be much improved next year when McGowen's 5* brother comes.
8. Turgeon--This seems like his best coaching year. Had no true center & no true pg. He got a lot out of those two 6'8" transfers. And he can recruit.
9. Underwood--For being such a tough guy, he never really seemed to bring mental & physical toughness to the team this year. He really needed to get a lot more out of Frazier. Does seem like a recruiter though.
10. Collins--NW wasn't too talented, but seemingly underachieved overall. He seems capable enough but the results aren't great.
11. Pitino--Another guy who scrambled around, one step ahead of the posse. I think they had it going fairly well until the injuries to Robbins & Gabe K. killed them. Was not able to keep Carr under control.
12. Fran--You have to give him credit for developing Garza & recruiting Weiskamp. And for having a nice offensive system. But so weak physically. So little effort on D. A much more dour Crean.
13. CAM
14. Farry--Outperformed CAM this year, but only prior HC experience was a failure.

Overall, a pretty damn weak collection, for all the $ floating around in this league. Only Izzo is a sure-fire big-time coach at this point.
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Underwood has done a very good job rebuilding Illinois in four years—he would be way higher than 8 or 9.

Also, McCaffrey has to be ahead of Pitino. He’s made Iowa into a regular NCAA participant which isn’t something everyone can do.
 
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Hoiberg? Totally on rep; he's done little in his current job. Drop him about 4-5 spots and move Underwood up about that many. Has to be above Piekell and possibly Gard.
 
Better put Steve Fisher at #1 if Juwan Howard is #2.

What has he had, 7 seniors now in 2 seasons? Let's see what happens when his freshmen are down 20 next year on the road before we crown him.

No need to rank anyone who doesn't have 4 years in the league.
 
Better put Steve Fisher at #1 if Juwan Howard is #2.

What has he had, 7 seniors now in 2 seasons? Let's see what happens when his freshmen are down 20 next year on the road before we crown him.

No need to rank anyone who doesn't have 4 years in the league.


I get what you're saying, but I was really impressed with Howard last night.

Did you see the game? LSU, which is ultra-talented but underachieving (this year) played brilliantly the first 32 minutes or so. Michigan found a way to hang on and keep it close, and grabbed the mo back with 7-8 minutes left in the game.

The thought came to mind that that was exactly the type of game Painter losses in the tourney. I was very impressed with Michigan's tenacity.
 
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I still like Collins quite a bit. This years team was sophomore dominated and the year before they were even younger (obviously) with a Lacrosse player running the point. This is easily the most heavily recruited group of kids Northwestern has ever had and they are moving into their upperclassmen years.

Also, the three frosh coming in next year are all top 150 kids, which is just unheard of in Evanston. For the first time the Wildcats are almost on equal footing with the bottom third of the league from a talent perspective. Qualifying for the Tournament will still be an accomplishment, but I think they might be able to make a run at it the next 2 years,
 
Group one: Izzo, Holtman, Martelli/Howard
Group two: Painter, Turgeon, Hoiberg, Gard
Group three: The rest
 
There is one coach in the BT that has been to a FF, and this same coach is the BT's only coach that has won a national championship (which happened over 20 years ago). As a whole, Big Ten coaches aren't anything great. Maybe one of the newer coaches does something big in the near future, who knows.
 
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There is one coach in the BT that has been to a FF, and this same coach is the BT's only coach that has won a national championship (which happened over 20 years ago). As a whole, Big Ten coaches aren't anything great. Maybe one of the newer coaches does something big in the near future, who knows.
Dumbo has spoken, consider the poll closed.
 
Everyone loves Fred H but he better start winning some games in that trillion dollar facility in LIncoln. The honeymoon is ending.

Unfortunately I think the Mayor is going to be that coach that gets the program on sound footing (albeit not winning in any big way) and sets up the next coach for success.
 
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