Our college basketball coverage at The Student Section winds down this week. We’ll have occasional posts during the spring and summer, but this week marks our last concerted attempt to make sense of the just-concluded season and look ahead to November.
Let’s start with an assessment of the high-profile coaching hires in college hoops. One very simple point to keep in mind at the outset: This is not a ranking of the coaches, but a ranking of the hires made by various schools.
9 – DePAUL: DAVE LEITAO
The hiring of a former coach for a second go-round should only apply to icons (or near-icons) at programs. Think of Kansas State football with Bill Snyder’s second tour of duty.
Dave Leitao at DePaul, given the other candidates that were out there? No.
Just no. Let’s save some words for the more interesting (and debatable) hires on this list, shall we?
8 – ST. JOHN’S: CHRIS MULLIN
The one good thing Mullin has done since being hired is that he’s brought aboard assistants who can recruit the New York area. Mullin knows what he has to do.
The problem remains: Is Mullin ready to jump into coaching without any experience and succeed to an extent Steve Lavin did not? A more experienced and credentialed coach should have been the Red Storm’s play here.
Yes, Jason Kidd immediately revealed that he’s a very capable NBA coach. (Derek Fisher, though, not so much.) Some ex-players immediately demonstrate that they can guide players and handle the Xs and Os. However, one should not begin to use that as a working assumption. Generally speaking, experienced coaches should be brought to high-major programs.
7 – UTAH STATE: TIM DURYEA
The longtime assistant of just-retired coach Stew Morrill, whom we profiled a month ago after his last game, will lend stability to the Utah State program.
It should immediately be said that this is not a bad hire. Only DePaul and St. John’s fit that description. The rest of these hires are reasonable at worst. The top few hires are noticeably good. Put this one in the “reasonable” category. It’s not as though Utah State should expect to land a sexy name which would command a higher compensation package. Getting continuity and someone the players trust? That works.
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6 – ALABAMA: AVERY JOHNSON
This is easily the most fascinating hire of the bunch — it’s not necessarily an inspired choice or a terrible overreach, but it could easily wind up being either… and it’s very hard to tell which way the winds will blow over the next few years in Tuscaloosa.
Avery Johnson comes across as the kind of coach players will embrace. He has an NBA world championship to his credit as a player. He can gain instant respect in the locker room and at practice. He’s enthusiastic, and he’s reached an NBA Finals as a coach (with the Dallas Mavericks).
On the other hand, he bombed out of the NBA playoffs with Dallas as a No. 1 seed, becoming the first NBA coach to lose in the first round as a top seed in a best-of-seven-game series. (The 1994 Seattle Supersonics and 1999 Miami Heat lost as a top seed when the first round was only best-of-five.) Johnson’s tenure as the Brooklyn Nets’ head coach did not work out at all. Johnson is not particularly familiar with the college game. This could easily break in the wrong direction.
Ultimately, Johnson was and is an outside-the-box hire. He’s such an unexpected choice that it’s virtually impossible to predict how his tenure will unfold. Let’s just sit back and watch.
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5 – VCU: WILL WADE
The fact that Wade was Shaka Smart’s most trusted assistant before he took the job at Chattanooga makes his return to Richmond a perfectly logical choice. The Rams clearly want to retain the style of play they used — and used well — under Smart. It’s hard to knock that line of thought.
The only lingering question is whether the school could have landed a bigger name, given the fact that it reached the 2011 Final Four and enjoys a much bigger national reputation thanks to Smart. Yet, if VCU felt that Wade is the person best equipped to add to what Smart built, one really can’t find fault with this selection.
Speaking of Smart…
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4 – TEXAS: SHAKA SMART
The 5-7 selections here are “reasonable” ones. This hire is more than merely “reasonable,” but the question is whether it’s a home run or a double into the gap. I’d lean toward a double, and TSS colleague Joseph Nardone wrote a thought-provoking piece of analysis which suggested that this hire might amount to a lazy fly ball to shallow center.
The main reason this hire isn’t much higher on the list is that Gregg Marshall should have been the man Texas went for with guns a’blazin’. That the school didn’t make an aggressive move for Marshall is a head-scratcher.
Smart could very easily work out, and I’d say that he’ll get Texas to multiple Sweet 16s during his tenure. He’s more likely to succeed than fail. Yet, Marshall would have been the no-doubt, Miguel Cabrera bomb, a 480-foot shot into deep left-center at Yankee Stadium.
Texas isn’t supposed to settle for doubles into the alley.
3 – TENNESSEE: RICK BARNES
The point made just before the start of this list is worth repeating here: This is not a ranking of coaches so much as it is a ranking of hires. Shaka Smart is, on balance, a better coach than Rick Barnes — at least for my money. However, given both schools’ situations, Tennessee did a little bit better.
The point to make here is that Tennessee really botched the Donnie Tyndall hire. Dave Hart’s lack of vetting from his position as athletic director created a mess once Cuonzo Martin bolted for Berkeley to coach the California Golden Bears. Tennessee’s situation was so bad that — adjusted for circumstances — finding a regular NCAA tournament coach is a better get than Texas pulling in Smart when Gregg Marshall was available.
2 – ARIZONA STATE: BOBBY HURLEY
These last two hires are not just good, but “great.” It is very hard to see either one of these last two schools failing to achieve at a level which matches the performances of their respective programs in the past.
Arizona State has never made a Final Four, and the Sun Devils have generally found it very difficult to make the NCAA tournament in the post-Ned Wulk era (i.e., the last third of a century).
Bobby Hurley led the Buffalo Bulls to their first-ever NCAA tournament appearance this season. He has achieved something special, and in doing so, he has positioned himself as the Mike Krzyzewski student with the highest career ceiling as a head coach (at least in the present moment). Snagging Hurley is a coup for Arizona State athletic director Ray Anderson. It’s difficult to imagine the Devils gaining a better hire in their situation.
Arizona State’s football team defeated Duke in the Sun Bowl a few months ago. Now, the Sun Devils have picked up the greatest point guard to ever wear a Blue Devil uniform.
Devilish, no?
1 – MISSISSIPPI STATE: BEN HOWLAND
The Mississippi State program’s history of achievement is basically the two-year run under Richard Williams in 1995 and 1996, led by center Erick Dampier and guard Dontae’ Jones. Other than those two years, Mississippi State has never won a round-of-32 game in the NCAA tournament. The record of accomplishment is that thin in Starkville.
Ben Howland can change that.
He built Pittsburgh from scratch and turned that program into a regular NCAA tournament force, one which Jamie Dixon has generally been able to sustain for the past decade (though this past season represented a tumble for the Panthers). Howland is also one of a select few coaches who can claim three consecutive Final Fours on a resume. Had UCLA not run into Billy Donovan’s two great Florida teams in 2006 and 2007, Howland might have a national title to his credit.
It’s been bizarre to see school after school pass on Howland over the past few years. Mississippi State pulled in a coach with an ideal combination of competence and past credentials.
