[FONT="]We attempted the impossible: tiering college basketball coaches Menâ??s College Basketball Coaching Tiers 2022: Who is now on top in the sport? via @TheAthletic https://t.co/5oBVvqacFc— Dana O'Neil (@DanaONeilWriter) September 28, 2022 [/FONT]
Criteria:
Because tiering 350-plus coaches would be folly, we culled the list according to the following qualifications
â?¢ All head coaches from the ACC, Big East, Big Ten, Big 12, Pac-12 and SEC;
â?¢ Any head coach from a non-â??powerâ?� conference who has led his team to the NCAA Tournament or won a regular-season conference title in the last three seasons (so high-profile names like Archie Miller and Steve Prohm actually donâ??t qualify);
â?¢ Must have already coached a full season at the Division I level (Jon Scheyer and Jerome Tang, et al., wait â??til next year);
â?¢ Must be an active Division I head coach.
Tier 1: The Elite Eight. The active coaches that have won NCAA titles (minus one) plus Kelvin Sampson and Mark Few.
Tier 2: The guys who if they won a title would be in Tier 1.
Tier 2B: The two coaches that have coached the longest and suffer from longevity versus the what have you done for me lately syndrome: Boeheim and Huggins.
Tier 3: Solid coaches. A couple of whom (Moser & Smart) took teams to the Final Four.
Tier 4: Ascendant coaches with yeah buts. Penny Hardaway, Andy Enfield, & Andy Boynton are here are as are Steve Forbes of Wake Forest & Rutgers' Steve Pikiell.
Chris Jans is also in this tier and is mentioned:
In fact, put Mississippi Stateâ??s Chris Jans in the same company. Thoroughly successful in his second chance at coaching life at New Mexico State, and now an SEC job offers him a chance at undeniable legitimization. â??The only reason heâ??s not higher is because he got in trouble at Bowling Green and lost his job,â?� the industry source says. â??Chris Jans would be a Big Ten coach by now if heâ??d never got in trouble at Bowling Green. Nobody really knows how good a coach that guy is.â?�
Tier 5: Coaches who haven't been at places long and who show promise as well as coaches who have been at places for a while & who haven't delivered-- like Rick Stansbury:
Finally, there are the guys who have given a lot of time â?¦ without a lot of results. Rick Stansbury has six seasons under his belt at Western Kentucky, and brought in some eye-popping talent. The Hilltoppers have yet to make an NCAA Tournament. â??Whenâ??s the last time heâ??s achieved, let alone overachieved, with that group?â?� an industry source says. â??Heâ??s got really good players. Whatever criticism he gets, he really deserves.â??â??
Tier 6: Coaches with great basketball minds who can beat teams on any given night, e.g., Alcorn State's head coach Landon Bussie & Kermit Davis Jr. of Ole Miss:
Davis, particularly, might be one of the most complicated assessments. â??His team can lose a lot of juice by the end of the year,â?� the industry source says. â??I think heâ??s a very hard coach. Heâ??s a very demanding coach. But I think heâ??s a really good coach.â?� The results over the last half of his Middle Tennessee State tenure â?? six regular-season championships, two conference tournament championships, three NCAA Tournament bids â?? back that up. â??Heâ??s a really, really good basketball coach,â?� a former coach says. â??I wouldnâ??t want to play for him for five minutes. Screams and yells at them. Tough on them. I canâ??t imagine itâ??s much fun. But one losing conference record at Middle in 15 years. Four of his last seven years they were top 50 in KenPom. Thatâ??s darn good when you donâ??t have the kind of schedule that the Power 6 have.â?�
And yet: two sub-.500 seasons in the last three at Ole Miss, and a lot of uncertainty entering this year.
Tier 7: Folks who haven't produced consistently over a long or short time. Patrick Ewing is on this list, as is Bobby Hurley & Mike Fox.
