Athlon Sports ranks KO the 30th best NCAAB coach

[HooperScooper]

http://zagsblog.com/articles/athlon...re-they-smoking-at-athlon-sports/#more-124056

Athlon Sports on Wednesday published a list entitled, “The Top 50 College Basketball Coaches for 2014-15.”

On that list, Larry Brown of SMU was ranked No. 29 and Kevin Ollie of UConn No. 30.

All of which begs the question, “What are they smoking at Athlon Sports?”

When I passed this information on to my friend Jay Bilas of ESPN, his response was, “29th and 30th among coaches in what? Height?!”

 

[kcc1442]

Not many of these pundit ratings get me fired up, but this is absolute garbage......No way Ollie is 30th in country.....And even more no way that Brown is 29th.....

 

[amory]

Good Guy Bilas

 

[mcs333]

KO is 6-0 vs the top ten not named Rick Pitino.

 

[gwhuskyfan]

Tim Miles and Tad Boyle above those two...that's the crazy part

 

[Walker11]

Did Athlon rank UCONN #35 preseason or was that the other irrelevant hoops magazine?

 

[superjohn]

Coach K, Pitino and Donovan are the only guys you could realistically put ahead of Larry Brown. Ollie has only been doing it 2 seasons but anyone with half a brain knows only a handful of guys should be ahead of him. Also, I've always like Izzo but it's come to the point where I'm convinced he's the most overrated coach in the game. Naming him the #1 coach in the country is a joke.

 

[Stainmaster]

Did Athlon rank UCONN #35 preseason or was that the other irrelevant hoops magazine?

They also had UTEP in their Top 25.

 

[Huskies4ever]

Tim Miles and Tad Boyle above those two...that's the crazy part

WHO??????????

How about Robert Tagart, and Russ Falhager? ( I made up, just as relevant)

 

[Walker11]

Rick Barnes is a better coach than KO! Everyone with an Athlon Magazine needs to light that on fire.

 

[DogMania]

Wow! Frankly, there's not a single coach out there that I'd rather have than KO. Granted, I'm a homer, but good grief! The guy just took a team that seemed to be considered the underdog in every NCAA tourney game to the F4 and won the whole d*m thing. And that rag somehow found 29 better coaches out there. The only thing that mag is good for is help ignite the logs in my fireplace. Good Grief!!!!!

 

[amory]

Coach K, Pitino and Donovan are the only guys you could realistically put ahead of Larry Brown. Ollie has only been doing it 2 seasons but anyone with half a brain knows only a handful of guys should be ahead of him. Also, I've always like Izzo but it's come to the point where I'm convinced he's the most overrated coach in the game. Naming him the #1 coach in the country is a joke.

I don't think he's even close to the most overrated. Cal is probably the most overrated. Every year he gets a better recruiting class than the year before and we have to hear about what a wizard he is, and then he doesn't win the title. But that's ok, because he had a team full of freshman! What can you expect?!?!

Izzo consistently makes Final Fours. It's just a matter of time before he wins another ring.

 

[Walker11]

I don't think he's even close to the most overrated. Cal is probably the most overrated. Every year he gets a better recruiting class than the year before and we have to hear about what a wizard he is, and then he doesn't win the title. But that's ok, because he had a team full of freshman! What can you expect?!?!

Izzo consistently makes Final Fours. It's just a matter of time before he wins another ring.

Atleast half of coaching is recruiting. Cal has 3 Final 4's in 5 years. Results matter.

 

[amory]

Atleast half of coaching is recruiting. Cal has 3 Final 4's in 5 years. Results matter.

I'm not saying he's not a good coach (elite recruiter, good coach). I'm saying he's overrated even considering his accomplishments. The guy is a media darling.

And let's not act like recruiting is nearly as hard for him these days as it was in years past. The Kentucky recruiting machine is a perpetual motion device at this point. They'll get a bunch of the best players this year because they got the best players last year, who in turn went to Kentucky because they had the best players the year before.

 

[sdhusky]

http://zagsblog.com/articles/athlon...re-they-smoking-at-athlon-sports/#more-124056

Athlon Sports on Wednesday published a list entitled, “The Top 50 College Basketball Coaches for 2014-15.”

On that list, Larry Brown of SMU was ranked No. 29 and Kevin Ollie of UConn No. 30.

All of which begs the question, “What are they smoking at Athlon Sports?”

When I passed this information on to my friend Jay Bilas of ESPN, his response was, “29th and 30th among coaches in what? Height?!”

Brown at 29? Stupid, just stupid

 

[UConn990411]

Well this sucks.

How's UConn supposed to win a championship with the 30th best coach in the country?

 

[Walker11]

I'm not saying he's not a good coach (elite recruiter, good coach). I'm saying he's overrated even considering his accomplishments. The guy is a media darling.

And let's not act like recruiting is nearly as hard for him these days as it was in years past. The Kentucky recruiting machine is a perpetual motion device at this point. They'll get a bunch of the best players this year because they got the best players last year, who in turn went to Kentucky because they had the best players the year before.

While Billy G. was losing to Gardner Webb in his final season @ UK, John Calipari had the # 2, 3 and 6 recruits (Wall, Cousins, Henry) ready to sign scholarships @ Memphis. The Kentucky recruiting machine is a perpetual motion device because of John Calipari (and maybe William Wesley).

 

[CallMeBruce]

Yeah, Calipari makes my skin crawl, but the guy dominates on the recruiting trail and then he wins. 3 final fours and a title in the last four years is impressive no matter who's on your roster.

 

[caw]

Yeah, Calipari makes my skin crawl, but the guy dominates on the recruiting trail and then he wins. 3 final fours and a title in the last four years is impressive no matter who's on your roster.

Completely agree and to be honesthe's had a better run the past five years than any of the other coaches who get tons of top guys every year. Calipari has been to Championship game, NIT, Champion, FF, E8. That's good.

Duke has been R64, E8, R64, S16, Champion
UNC has been R32, R32, E8, E8, NIT
Zona has been E8, S16, NIT, E8, NT
KU has been R32, S16, Championship game, E8, R32

UConn has been NC, NT*, R64, NC, NT

*UConn would have at least a R64 if eligible in 2013, but then maybe Napier doesn't come back so hard to judge that.

Now UK usually gets higher talent than the other four but, the other four all get top tier talent (and better than any other program out there by rankings) and none come close to what UK has done with Calipari.

He's a sleazeball but he's doing pretty well and if he is overrated then so are K, Self, Williams and Miller (and I might agree on two of those).

 

[superjohn]

I don't think he's even close to the most overrated. Cal is probably the most overrated. Every year he gets a better recruiting class than the year before and we have to hear about what a wizard he is, and then he doesn't win the title. But that's ok, because he had a team full of freshman! What can you expect?!?!

Izzo consistently makes Final Fours. It's just a matter of time before he wins another ring.

I think he's a very good coach but the guy is lionized, it gets to be a little much when people are saying he's the greatest coach and he was consistently talked about as a better coach than Calhoun, which is absurd.

 

[TheChamps990411]

Lol! There are not 29 coaches in basketball history better than larry brown nevermind in college today. There DEFINITELY arent 29 better coaches then Kevin Ollie in college right now just ask Izzo,Cal or Billy D.

 

[MilliniumPrince]

These things are done to spark this type of reaction. Don't feed to beast. Forget KO's ranking...Larry Brown has socks that could out coach most in the business. Any ranking that has him outside the top of 5 should be dismissed on sight.

 

[Huskybass]

I wouldn't trade KO for any coach in the country. Honest.

 

[imno1]

Atleast half of coaching is recruiting. Cal has 3 Final 4's in 5 years. Results matter.

And if it weren't for UCONN he probably would have 3 NC.
Having LB and KO at 29 and 30 is contradictory. If they rated Brown that low because of he hasn't done much lately then KO should be ranked much higher. Even though Ollie has only coach 2 years he already has more big wins then many ranked ahead of him. I don't buy the posters remarks that Athlon did it to get a rise out of it's readers. They did it cause they're clueless. Besides the big names how many of these college coaches are coveted by NBA teams.

 

[Doginaus]

I must admit, I bought this mag. my bad. I looked at several others college basketball magazines and wasn't satisfied with them and then time got away from me and I had to make a quick decision and forgot what they all said (one of the privileges of growing old!) and bought this one. yea, I was surprised at; UCONN's ranking in the 30's, no mention of our backcourt as being one of the better ones in the country, and the frontcourt wasn't even mentioned either. It's not like this years teams is made up of all newcomers and greenhorns, but for crying out loud, they should have at least been in the arguments.

Ryan Boatright, Amida Brimah weren't even mentioned as one of the better players at their positions. Daniel Hamilton is called out and a small blurb about Rodney Purvis as one of the better transfers is the only other mention our players got. While I'm on my rant, the tournament wasn't even mentioned nor was there even an article of UCONN winning the national championship. If you're considering buying this magazine, don't.

Their top 50 rankings are nothing but a beauty/popularity pageant. The same names mentioned at the top year after year and what do they do when it counts, lose in the first round (my shout out to Puke). It's like these sports writers don't do their homework (who liked doing homework, it takes work and sacrifice!) they see and listen what everyone else is doing and they do the same thing.

I understand we lost a lot from last years team, but so did alot of others which doesn't explain why a team like Florida, which lost alot from last year is ranked in the top 15 with practically a new team. This isn't rocket science for sure, these polls are built on alot of guess work and potential, but it's not like we got a bunch of scrubs coming in this new year and UCONN is an unexperienced team, we did win the NC last year!

I'll admit, I get frustrated but at the same time, I loved the final results. Last year, beating Kentucky was fantastic, we were a major underdog (just like the '99 season) and all the hype Kentucky was getting like there was no way they were going to lose that game. We were a 7 seed (with some good wins) with no hype, Kentucky was an 8 seed with hype coming out their (insert your description here) and they lost! I think I read somewhere that of all the brackets that were filled out, only 1/10th of 1 percent picked UCONN to even make it to the final four. Yea, I'm a homer, I chose them!

Sorry about my essay, I apologize for my long winded rant.

 

[CallMeBruce]

When I was a teenager, I used to buy every magazine that did a CBB preview, including Athlon, Lindy's, and Street & Smith's, not to mention subscriptions to SI and ESPN the Magazine. Athlon was always the weakest one, generally rife with factual errors and really poor, unsophisticated analysis.

 

[uconnell]

Wow! Frankly, there's not a single coach out there that I'd rather have than KO. Granted, I'm a homer, but good grief! The guy just took a team that seemed to be considered the underdog in every NCAA tourney game to the F4 and won the whole d*m thing. And that rag somehow found 29 better coaches out there. The only thing that mag is good for is help ignite the logs in my fireplace. Good Grief!!!!!

This is why I don't buy or read ANY sport related magazines.