Since weâre all bidding our time anyway. Hereâs a question for the board: Whatâs the best basketball coach factory out there? A couple candidates:
- VCU: Capel, Anthony Grant, Shaka Smart, Mike Rhoades, Ryan Odom
- Butler: Thad Matta, Brad Stevens, Chris Holtmann
- Providence: Rick Pitino, Rick Barnes, Pete Gillen, Ed Cooley
- Xavier: Gillen (again!), Skip Prosser, Thad Matta (again!), Chris Mack, Sean Miller
- Marquette: Rick Majerus, Kevin OâNeill, Tom Crean, Buzz Williams, Shaka Smart (again!)
- Cincinnati: Huggy Bear, Andy Kennedy, Mick Cronin, Wes Miller
- Dayton: Oliver Purnell, Brian Gregory, Archie Miller, Anthony Grant (again!)
- Utah State: Larry Eustachy
, Craig Smith, Ryan Odom (again!), Danny Sprinkle, Jerrod Calhoun - Nevada: Trent Johnson, Mark Fox, Eric Mussleman, Steve Alford
- Illinois: Lon Kruger, Bill Self, Bruce Weber, Brad Underwood (odd for a HM to be on this list, but some big names here)
- Drake: DeVries, Niko Medved, Keno Davis, Ben McCollum
- Army: Knight and Krzyzewski, if youâre only going to have 2, hard to do much better
I like your list, but attributing credit is hard. Does Utah St get credit for Sprinkle when he was only there for 1 year? Should Creighton get partial credit for DeVries? I think coaching trees is a different question but a little easier in my mind to think about because itâs easier to factor in time as an assistant.
yeah, my standard was If I was a college AD doing a blind coaching search, which schools would I check out first without even knowing who their current coach was.
Basically if youâre the coach at schools like VCU, Xavier or Butler you end up on coaching search lists before youâve even coached your first game.
My own personal (not at all fair) name association game:
- Rick Carlie â Al Groh
- Bucky McMillan â Mike Sanford, Jr (if you remember that name from the coaching search after Mike London)
- Mark Byington â Curt Cignatti
- Buzz Williams â Yosemite Sam
Not name association, but random thoughts
- Odom, Richey, Medved â I would prefer someone whose career highlight doesnât involve knocking Tony Bennett out of the first round.
- Jeff Capel is the perfect stalking horse. If Iâm the AD office, Iâm going on background to make sure his name is on every list out there. Big name, former Duke heir apparent, ACC coach who likes the UVA job to move in conference? Its a great decoy while you go out and get your preferred choice.
My answer:
- providence back in the day
- Xavier for a while, esp right after Mack moved to Lville
- Utah St is the current darling, but nobody has reached super high heights
- Overall, I think itâs VCu right now
I donât think you can attribute it all to Florida, but Billy Donovanâs coaching tree is pretty impressive. Anthony Grant, Shaka Smart and Richard Pitino were all assistants to him at UF. And Mark Daigneault with OKC. Lots of others too. https://www.coachesdatabase.com/billy-donovan/
- Ryan Odom
- Mike Young
Also had Rob Lanier (who was at UVa prior). Current HC at Rice, SMU before.
Also Rick Pitinoâs tree (Donovan is one) is awfully impressive.
Bucky McMillan is my #1 choice. Heâs probably going to have other opportunities.
I would like to write in None of the Above.
That writer doesnât know what they are talking about. Using winning percentage as the main metric .. smh.
Byington was a great hire by Vandy standards.
VT is a nomad. Canât give them legacy Big East status. If they get any tag, itâs legacy Metro Conference.
Interesting to me, VPI conference affiliation since joining the Metro in 1978 (previously independent since 1965)
- ACC: 21 seasons (incl. current)
- Metro: 17
- A-10: 5
- Big East: 4
Gee, thanks for burdening the ACC with two decades of Southwest shittiness, Mark Warner.
I swear like 70% of his appeal to fans is because his name is Bucky (âBuckyballâ). If he was Bert McMillan, I donât think weâd be talking about him.
Legit think you are on to something.