Who is the best current college basketball coach other than Coach K.?

Exactly. All due respect to Jamie Dixon, who has proven he is a pretty good coach on his own, Howland was the one who got the ball rolling when nobody wanted to go to Pitt. I know they are in the Big East and they get the exposure and attention that goes with that, but he took over a mess. Struggling program. Old facilities (the new arena was built during Howland's time at Pitt). Very little local talent.

I probably wouldn't put Howland in the top five, but give the guy a little credit.

 

Pretty hard to take you seriously based on that alone.

All Ben Howland has done is win and he's done it at Northern Arizona, Pitt and UCLA, none of which was exactly pissing excellence before he showed up. I am not a guy who defines success as national titles and Final Fours. It's about developing programs and taking them to the next level. Howland's done that.

 

And the fact that he has exactly one Final Four to his credit ... 17 years ago. Over-rated.

 

I don't think Kelly is a huge Lickliter fan either. I could be wrong, but even when he was at Butler, he struck me as a guy who let the success he had go to his ego.

 

Lester, stop making sense!

With equal talent, I'd take either one of those guys against anyone coaching a Final Four team this year, and think I had an even chance to win.

Talent will never be equal. No Gonzaga player has made an impact in the NBA, other than John Stockton, yet it continues to outperform 98 percent of the teams in the country who regularly send guys to the next level./

That's the mark of a well-coached team. I'd put Beilein in that category, too.
b

 

A follow-up question, which coach embodies the best combination of recruiting and X and O's acumen?

 

Not to try and boil some great resumes down to one game...but Izzo just completely outcoached Pitino a couple days ago. Louisville has way more talent, but that was in no way evident from that game. Goes back to the comment someone made about Izzo doing more with less. And this is coming from a guy that can't stand MSU

 

While I am not as vocal about it on here as they are, let me assure you, I am every bit the Kansas guy that Oz, KingCreole and some others on here seem to be. And I believe Bill Self has done a great, great job at KU.

But I saw him clearly outcoached by Tom Izzo on Friday. KU had a five-point lead with three minutes to play, and from that point forward, every time Izzo called a timeout, he came up with a play that produced points. And every time KU called one, he came up with a defense that kept the Jayhawks from doing so.

And while KU may be younger than Michigan State, you can't tell me Izzo had better talent to work with than Self. Izzo just knew how to use it a little bit better, at least on that one day.

 

Lester, I am intrigued by your beliefs and wish to subscribe to your newsletter. Few is reportedly a lock for the Oregon job when Kent wears out his welcome, and it will be interesting to see what he does when backed by all those Nike re$ources.

Also appreciate the love for Stew Morrill, another stand-up guy who does it the right way. I just don't see him taking a bigger job than the one he has now, so for all the BCS conference-centric debate, the world will never know what he can do with ungodly talent on his team.

 

Sean Miller does more with less than anyone in the country.

 

What about a branch of Morrill's coaching tree, Verlin (I think) at Idaho? The Vandals were laughably bad a season ago. While not stunningly great this year, they still finished third in conference and won a game in one of the silly post-season tourneys. I don't think he starts a guy who was on the team last season. Completely new group of kids.

 

Coaches don't have anything to do with how their teams play, you clueless idiots. [/zag]