ESPN Ranks Top 50 NCAA Basketball coaches: Speculate on Beilein
ESPN launched a series today where they will count down the 50 men's hoops coaches based on the following question:
"Who is doing the best job right now?"
Numbers 50-26 are listed today and they will count down the rest over the next 5 weeks. Using the very specific criteria above, I think Beilein will slot in somewhere around the middle of the top 10, given his success at the B1G level, having the most tournament wins of any NCAA program the past 2 years, back to back B1G POY's and so on. He is clearly the best coach in the nation, but figure he will get bumped a bit for not yet winning a national title and ESPN's anti-Michigan bias, so I will guess he is ranked 6th. Your thoughts/guesses?
LINK: http://espn.go.com/ncb/notebook/_/page/top50coaches50-25/top-50-coaches
Pure coaching ability, he's top 5. But he hasn't won a NC yet, so they'll hit him on that. What I'm wondering is how many NC-winning coaches does ESPN put above him? I could see them putting K, Izzo, Calipari, Donovan, Pitino, Self, Williams, and Boeheim ahead. Ollie might be too new to the scene, Brown and Fisher are too far removed from their titles, and Tubby Smith has been terrible since he left UK.
I can't see many coaches without a title to their name being ahead of Beilein. Possibly someone like Ryan or Matta, since they've had a lot of success recently. So I'll say they put a few of the non-NC coaches in as well, and Beilein slots in around the 10-15 range.
When I first saw the title of this I thought it was a little silly, but after thinking about it more this was a surprisingly fun exercise. I'll be curious to see how close Brennan sticks to answering his question. If we're only considering the last couple years of results and how the team currently sits, Beilein should be top 5. My guess is he slips to the 7-10 range due to the author including more than just the recent past in his decision making.
I don't think Beilein will crack the top-5. I can already think of a few names that could probably make that list simply by default, whether they're warranted or not. Coach K, Calipari, Boeheim, Izzo, Donovan, and Pitino I think would all be names that would be placed before Beilein.
That having been said, if we're talking about top-5 in terms of an X's and O's guy, or top-5 in player development, Beilein would in all likelihood crack the top 5, and potentially even the top spot. His resume for the last 2-3 years speaks for itself, in terms of both team and individual player accomplishments.
As long as that asshat Tom Crean doesn't even sniff the top-50, then I'm happy.
#1!!! Ok now realistically,
Roy Williams, Bill Self, Billy Donovan, Jim Boeheim, Tom Izzo, Mike Kry, Calipari, Pitino, and now Kevin Ollie should all be ranked ahead of Coach Beilein. I still think winning a championship should seperate him from the elite. Top-20 sounds about right. The same arguement can be made for Thad matta and Bo Ryan. All excellent coaches with final fours but no championships. Either way there should be at least 4 Big ten coaches ranked in the top 20.
I didnt even consider Crean lol. Im sure he may also be in the top 20 just to suck up to IU
Crean is actually listed in the, "Just missed the cut" section, so they don't even consider him top-50.
Beilein is probably top 5 if it is who's the best right now.
Made Final Four in both 2013 and 2014:
- None
Made Elite 8 in both 2013 and 2014:
- Michigan (1 regular season championship, 1 national finals)
- Florida (2 regular season championships, 1 tournament championship, 1 final four)
Made Sweet 16 in both 2013 and 2014:
- Arizona (1 regular season championship)
- Louisville (2 regular season championships, 2 tournament championships, 1 national championship)
- michigan state (1 tournament championship)
Just another set of data points.
This is a rolling weighted average of the EOY Massey Power ratings for the last five years, weighted 5-4-3-2-1. There are always a few surprises (for me, anyway) on here as you move down the list.
The guy who's really getting screwed here is Scott Drew. That program was the worst cess pit in the history of college basketball when he took over; he's got them to #18 over the last five years and ESPN grudgingly lets him have an honorary #51 on their top 50.
Apologies to Shaka Smart, too, for leaving him out of the other list I did.
The top fifty:
- Louisville
- Florida
- Kansas
- Ohio State
- Michigan State
- Syracuse
- Wisconsin
- Duke
- Kentucky
- Wichita State
- Michigan
- Arizona
- Connecticut
- North Carolina
- Pittsburgh
- Gonzaga
- VCU
- Baylor
- New Mexico
- Cincinnati
- San Diego State
- Iowa State
- Virginia
- Georgetown
- UCLA
- Kansas State
- Memphis
- Villanova
- Marquette
- Indiana
- Creighton
- Oregon
- Minnesota
- St. Louis
- Missouri
- Tennessee
- Miami (Fla.)
- North Carolina State
- Illinois
- St. Mary's
- Brigham Young
- Oklahoma State
- Notre Dame
- Texas
- Stanford
- California
- Florida State
- Purdue
- Iowa
- Maryland