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Big Ten Coach Ranking: Tom Terrific
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November 24th, 2008
by Jeff Fox
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Tom Izzo - Michigan St
It doesn't appear that too many Big Ten teams are going to light the college hoops world on fire this season. However, more than likely this will only be a temporary slump. With the level of coaching talent roaming the sidelines in the league, its teams are sure to be competing for national championships again sooner rather than later.
1) Tom Izzo - Michigan State
Tom Izzo is untouchable at the top of this list. Why? A national championship, four trips to the Final Four, four regular-season Big Ten titles, four National Coach of the Year awards. That's why.
2) Thad Matta - Ohio State
The trip to the 2007 title game was nice, but Thad Matta has built the Buckeyes program into more than just a one-year powerhouse. A serious bidder for all the top recruits in the country every year, Matta has also led the squad to 37 conference wins over the past three years, second best over this period behind Wisconsin.
3) Bo Ryan - Wisconsin
Speaking of the Badgers, Bo Ryan has led Wisconsin to a conference best 38 wins over the past three seasons. Despite always being overlooked and underrated, Ryan's squads get the job down year in, year out.
4) Tubby Smith - Minnesota
The much-maligned Tubby Smith has done nothing but win at every stop he has made in his coaching career. Minnesota shouldn't be any different.
5) Bruce Weber - Illinois
A few years back Bruce Weber probably could have given Izzo a tough run for his money for top spot on this list. However, his program has been in a steady decline since its 2005 peak.
6) Tom Crean - Indiana
It's going to take awhile to fix the mess Tom Crean inherited, but if he could recruit and win big time at Marquette, doing the same at Indiana shouldn't be a problem.
7) Matt Painter - Purdue
Matt Painter definitely has the Boilermakers back at the level the program was used to under his mentor Gene Keady. They should be at or near the top of the Big Ten at season's end and are poised to make some noise in the NCAA tournament.
8) John Beilein - Michigan
John Beilein is another coach who inherited a mess of a program. It'll probably take a few more years before he gets the Blue up to the level of success he enjoyed at West Virginia.
9) Todd Lickliter - Iowa
Todd Lickliter proved he could win big at a small-time school (Butler). Can he win in the Big Bad Big Ten though?
10) Ed DeChellis - Penn State
After posting seven conference wins last season, maybe Ed DeChellis has Penn State headed in the right direction.
11) Bill Carmody - Northwestern
The Wildcats won one conference game last season and two the year before. Enough said.
Comments
Crean
Submitted by Elliott (not verified) on Mon, 2008-11-24 15:46.
You also need to qualify your statement regarding Crean being able to "recruit and win big time at Marquette." He's had one player there -- EVER-- and could only win while he was there. Not sure how that qualifies him as a big time coach.
I'm not a big Crean fan and
Submitted by Shawn Siegel on Mon, 2008-11-24 16:15.
I'm not a big Crean fan and I mostly agree with you here. Outside of Wade, Crean has only won a single tourney game. Pretty weak.
I think Beilein is better.
As a huge Marquette fan who
Submitted by Dan Daitchman on Mon, 2008-11-24 17:16.
As a huge Marquette fan who has seen Crean day in and day out over the last several years, one thing is certain is that he is a terrible in-game coach. Take last year for instance. MU's two biggest games of the year were at home to G-town and against Stanford in the Sweet 16. Marquette was winning the entire way in both games, and then blew both leads at the end. As a fan this was incredibly tough to watch. He also never been able to recruit a dominant big man. The lure of Indiana may be a big plus in his recruiting efforts though.
I agree with Shawn, Beilein is a better coach. He inherited nothing last year which attributed to Michigan's abysmal record, but he's already made some early noise this year in beating UCLA, and has a proven record from West Va.
This is funny
Submitted by Boilerz94 (not verified) on Tue, 2008-11-25 09:48.
Matt Painter has built the Purdue program back up from the ashes in just 3 years, and has it poised to contend for Big Tne and national titles year in and year out and you list him as the seventh best coach in the Big Ten?
Bruce Weber is a great guy (former Purdue assistant) but hasn't proven he can win with his own recruits
As noted elsewhere, Tom Crean's reputation was built on Dwayne Wade's shoulders. A question, how many NCAA tourney games has Tom Crean won without D-Wade on the court?
Tubby Smith was run out of Kentucky because he couldn't sustain the success they were accustomed to even with the tremendous inherent advantages of being Kentucky's coach. He's yet to take Minnesota to even a single NCAA tournament.
There is no doubt Thad Matta can recruit McDonald's All-Americans, but can he coach them? He couldn't even get them to the NCAA tourney last year with a roster that included more talent than likely every other Big Ten team (Butler, Koufas, Lighty, Hunter, Turner, Deibler, etc.)
I'll give you Izzo and Ryan. I might even give you Matta. But beyond that, there's no way Matt Painter is any lower than 4th on this list and with another sweep of Wisky this year, he may just pass Ryan by as well.
My Picks
Submitted by Shawn Siegel on Tue, 2008-11-25 21:33.
I'd go:
1 Izzo
2 Ryan
3 Matta
4 Smith
5 Beilein
6 Crean
7 Painter
8 Weber
9 Lickliter
10 Carmody
11 DeChellis
Thoughts?
I understand that this was
Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Wed, 2009-02-11 19:02.
I understand that this was made earlier this year ... but Weber needs to be higher. In his first year at Illinois, the Illini won the Big Ten outright, got second in the Big Ten Tournament and advanced to the Sweet Sixteen. We all know what happened in '05. In '06, they were still in the top 10 all season and finished second in the Conference. He had TWO down years (big deal!), and now UI is back in the top 20, and he has the number 8 ranked and number 2 ranked recruiting classes in the nation coming in to a program that's three leading scorers are SOPHOMORES. Illinois back for sure.
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About Jeff Fox
Columnist
NBA Draft & International Hoops
Contact
foxyjj@sympatico.ca
Background
Jeff Fox is a freelance journalist based an hour outside of Toronto, Canada. While attending University of Waterloo (Canada) earning a B.A. in Economics and Management Studies, Jeff managed to walk onto the school’s varsity basketball team, the Warriors, for 2 seasons. His final year riding the pine for the Warriors saw the team make it to the CIS (Canada’s NCAA equivalent) Final 8 tournament. In addition to this site, he is a regular contributor to SLAM magzine (& online) and The Hoops Manifesto. When he isn’t planted in front of his computer he spends the rest of his time with his wife, Lisa, his son, Adam and his dog Jeannie.
Location
Toronto, CA
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Small-Time?
What's with the small-time jab? butler's a better program than half the BigT teams. NW, PSU, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota. Butler's better than all those team. Even purdue hasn't done as much as Butler. Also, Bo Ryan is way batter than Thad Matta, not even close/