I see where youāre going, but Mark Pope was a guy who lost the announcement, but won the press conference. Unique situation, though, for sure.
Will think on my actual answerā¦
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For how rabid Kentucky fans are, they certainly were willing to be sold a bill of good by Calipari year over year. Not sure why - bad hoops IQ or what. Either way, that explains the luke warm Pope reception more than anything.
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My earnest thought is that this is cool, and I think Wade is a total hoophead. I just think he has bad judgment and questionable ethics and if he had more experience, he wouldāve learned the mafia boss technique of not really knowing what is going on with funds flow.
My jokey thought is that is a low key hilarious thing to do to another coach. āHey Coach! Great strategy last night. I have to learn more about that innovative offense you ran that was totally futile, but seemed kinda cool.ā
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Wait, Iām thinking about this, and now Iām confused. Are you looking for guys who seemed the best at the time of the press conference? Or who were the best post-hoc? Feels like the latter would just be a list of best coaches.
Looking for a list of guys who were great at the time of the press conference and the top-3 and bottom-3 within that list if you rank by performance at their job.
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My 6 are:
- Roy Williams
- Bill Self
- Chris Beard
- Penny
- Chris Mullin/ Patrick Ewing
- Rick Pitino
I think Roy and Self were both HRs at the time and both arguably aged even better. Roy had the hiccup with the investigation but won a natty after it. And Self has also exceeded his expectations.
Penny and Pitino are both TBD. Penny keeps re-inventing himself and the program; letās see if works this time. Pitino has already brought positive attention, but letās see if he can bring results.
Mullin/Ewing both were really bad and show the pitfalls of a nostalgia / rally the base hire.
Beard is obviously a unique situation. He was a HR until he screwed up one night (allegedly) and set that program back multiple years and still likely counting.
(Edit - I guess I really need to add Cal at KY if Iām going back to Self and Roy. Heād be #3 behind those guys. I donāt think any of the recent blue blood hires have āwon the press conferenceā with the possible exception of Pope who I discussed above)
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Iāve already taken seven bites at the apple, so Iāll leave this one for someone else, but Chris Mack belongs on the list. Heād be ahead of only Mullin and Ewing, given how his tenure ended and where it led.
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Theyāre not.
The problem is there are mid-major guys who are better basketball coaches.
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Both Kenpom and Torvik have DePaul ranked above UVA. So thereās that.
I canāt pretend Iāve watched enough to have an opinion though.
Anyone have a David Riley take? Could go back to the Wazzu well. I just regret we canāt hire Ken Bone. All time name (that he shared with that random debate questioner)
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I will add Juwan Howard too. Kinda similar to Mack; had some high points but the end definitely colors how his tenure should be viewed.
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DePaul is really trending the wrong direction. Granted, so are we, but i would expect us to end up being a better team than them despite what current analytics might suggest. The wildcard is if we just complete quit. We clearly have a better team than DePaul on paper but that only means so much.
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Until about 2019, Cal had a really great run at Kentucky. Itās not that they were willing to be sold a bill of goods. The big issue was that Calās buyout was somewhere around $60 mil.
The lukewarm reception was because Pope didnāt come with the resume of their teir one wish list - Bruce Peral, Scott Drew, Rick Pitino etc.
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Itās going to be really hard for this team to stay engaged. Itās just human nature. The reality is that they know a change at the top is almost certain, and most of the players on the roster are probably already entertaining thoughts about where they are going to be next year.
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Itās impressive that heās in his 4th year as a HC at age 36. He brought over a decent chunk of his Eastern Washington team with him and itās working out well. Washington State is a magical place that apparently is amazing at IDing coaches (please ignore the Ernie Kent tenure).
Also, timing is everything. The coach who he was under at EWU left for a worse job at Portland than what Riley got (though in the same conference now), despite having somewhat better results at EWU.
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Not to armchair psycho analyze too much, but Iām not sure Ron has the right vibe to navigate how the guys are probably feeling.
Theyāre likely pissed and he sometimes seems anesthetized. āNothing is promisedā¦ hold it loosely.ā
Yeah, Coach, but Iām 20 years old and pissedā¦
I know heās not exactly in practice like he is in his pressers but stillā¦.
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Yeah, why did Shantay Legans leave for Portland? Better city I guess (at least, Iād pick it), but not much of a better jobā¦
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Waitā¦ is this something that Tony and Ron actually said or am I misremembering a 38 special song? In any event, Iām posting too much. Let me go and try to be productive.
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If you cling too tightly, youāre going to lose controlā¦
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