Cant help but wonder if this thread had been ask last year would a Billy D turned up in alot of posts

Cant help but wonder if this thread had been ask last year would a Billy D turned up in alot of posts

 

That's exactly what I was thinking. :thumb:

TWO YEARS? He won a championship (his third) in 2001, went to the Final Four in 2004, has been ranked in the top 5, at some time, in 9 of the last 10 seasons.....Roy missed the tourney what, two years ago. Ben hasn't won anything real, just YET. If he wins it all, this season he cna be brought into the equation.

 

Let me start by Saying that K is still a great coach IMHO. However to cite the 2001 NCAA title is interesting. That is only 3 years younger than UK's last NCAA title and some on here harped about how that was "ancient history" to include in discussions about Tubby or the UK program.

 

There was a discussion on another thread about UK not defeating a seed higher than 5 since 1998. When I went back and looked Duke had only defeated 3 in the same time frame and 2 of those were in the Final Four of 2001. (The other was in the Final Four of 1999)

 

If we want to see who the best coach is an interesting barometer might be how often has he led his team to an upset in the NCAA tourney and/or wins over higher seeds?

I think Coach K has lost a step or two in the past couple years. He's either stretched himself too thin or lost his recruiting edge, but he's no longer the best in the business.

 

Ol' Roy or Ben Howland would get my vote, as well.

 

It maybe the USA basketball stuff. I think recruiting has fallen off some for Duke. Duke has good players, but to play man to man defense in your face like Coach K does a great job teaching, he has to have quicker athletes. This year the only great athlete Duke had was Henderson.

I still say Billy D is Top 5.

Ben Howland

 

:thumb:

 

That's my pick as well. That's why I've picked UCLA to win the title for 3 straight years...

 

...against better judgement last year. Florida was a no-brainer. :lol:

 

Seriously, though, I like Howland. I rate him at the top.

Rick Pitino

Rick Pitino

 

Time capsule 1996:creepy:

Time capsule 1996:creepy:

I would put Pitino #2 or #3, Pitino is a ridiculously GREAT coach!

I would put Pitino #2 or #3, Pitino is a ridiculously GREAT coach!

 

It doesn't happen often, but I have to agree with you. Pitino is no doubt a top 5 coach.

Billy Donovan has to be in this discussion. He turned Marshall into a Southern Conference contender almost overnight and has won two National Championships at Florida. In only 14 seasons as a head coach he has 320 wins, that means he is averaging 22.8 wins per season. He has back-to-back SEC Tournament titles and is a 3 time SEC Regular Season Champion.

 

To put that in perspective Coach K had only 302 wins in his first 14 seasons (21.7 WPS '74-'89) as a head coach, only 1 ACC Regular Season Title, 2 ACC Tourney Titles, and no National Titles.

 

If Donovan is able to continue the success he has had at Florida he HAS to be considered one of the greatest Coaches in the game.

I think there are definitely a handful of guys but as of right now I would have to give the nod to BCG... I mean Roy Williams. After him you would have Howland, Pitino, Coach K, and Billy D. as well as others.

Ben Howland

 

:thumb:

Time capsule 1996:creepy:

 

No, I think he still does a good job today. I think he did a good job with UL and had them tourney ready. They just lost to a better team.

 

Same is true when he took them to the Final Four in 2005.

 

I've always thought there were few coaches that had their teams tourney ready (conference and NCAA) like Pitino. When I think of what he did with the pre '96 UK teams he had them ready to go until the late rounds.

There are a lot of great coaches in college hoops and it's really hard to just pick one, or a top 5. The guys at the big schools, like Duke and UNC (Williams and K) are great coaches and being at elite schools their numbers are astounding. However, there are other great coaches as "lesser" traditional schools. Like Boeheim at Syracuse...great coach, IMO, but Syracuse isn't on the level of Duke and UNC so he can't consistently produce like those guys do. Is he any worse than them because of that? I don't know.

 

There are some guys right now that are just getting their chance at a bigger school who could end up being in the discussion. They've had success at smaller schools, but until you get to the highest level, you're not going to get the credit. What about a guy like Mark Few at Gonzaga? I think he's a great coach. He's taken Gonzaga and put them in the national picture...he's likely never going to win a title or post the numbers a guy like Roy Williams will at UNC, but he's still a good coach.