and you would be wrong. With Beilein, Ryan and Matta gone coaches moved up due to attrition not accomplishments. I posted it to point out the lack of accomplished coaches in the B1G. Although I am happy CMP is the coach at Purdue its kinda an indictment of the B1G coaches that a coach without a FF in 15 years would be rated #2.
Your a HS kid looking for a program besides MSU that will give you a chance to compete for a BT title and a chance to go to the sweet 16 each of your four years in college. Which COACH do you trust to accomplish this?
I think Painter is the only one that has earned that trust.
You are a betting man. You can pick one BT basketball program (excluding “State”) to put all your money on. The bet? highest conference winning percentage over the next 10 years. You are a data based risk adverse gambler. Which program do you bet on?
The B10 hasn’t won a title in almost 20 years. Izzo and MSU give our conference a shot every year. He’s as good at getting to the final four as anyone. But the rest of this list? Looks pretty awful to me.
I’d say that Painter had built the second best program in the B10. But, it probably isn’t a top 20 National program. There are other programs (Michigan, OSU, Wisky), that may be currently better programs, but they have question marks at the coaching position, coaches matter. PU basketball is a known commodity. Say all you want about their NCAA ceiling, but I’m betting on their floor with Painter as their coach. Especially in a league with so many coaching and program question marks.
What other program looks to make the tournament every year and compete against MSU? Maryland? I’ll put my money on the coach that does less with more and fade the guy that does less with all the talent. OSU? Seems to have a good young coach, on paper, for now. Wisky? Questions that will continue to become more pressing as they distance themselves from the Bo Era. Meechigan? Big time questions. Illinois/Iowa/Minny ? More questions, though I expect them to all be perennial BT MID tier programs. Nebraska/Rutgers/PSU/NU , are who they are until they prove they’re not.
Don’t misunderstand and confuse program with team. I’m not saying PUke doesn’t finish 10th this year. But it seems that Pu has a program right now that is stronger than the Keady years. Its Keady plus a solid chance at a sweet 16 every year. At least until They stumble. But, they keep exceeding my expectations.
Indiana? I’d say we have above a 75% chance of having 2 “good” seasons in a row. But, do we go 2-10 in the next 10 years for tourney bids? No idea. Is Miller even our coach in 2 years, I have no idea. If we have a coach that makes 9/10 NCAAs, has a few sweet 16s, a few top two conferences finishes over the next 10 years, there’s a good chance he’s retiring as our coach. Now, of course that could change, but I don’t believe the powers to be at IU (NOW) have expectations that are higher than that.
Looking at this list, it’s a pretty dumb list as 1-2 are obvious and the rest could have been pulled from a hat. Still, for IU fans it looks like good news / bad news.
(Bad) I will predict that if MSU doesn’t win it all, the conference is staring at another 20 year NC drought. On paper at least (I know, on paper doesn’t mean anything)
(Good). It’s a wide open conference. If Painter can build what I am arguing is currently the 2nd best program in the conference, surely Miller can do the same at IU. And maybe he can do it being half the coach that Painter has proven to be. In fact, I’d argue that there is no excuse if he doesn’t.
