Occasionally the other team will have a good coach and we'll lose and I'll think "We got beat." And maybe I'll think part of it is the other team's coach doing good things. But the only 2 coaches over the last half decade or so that I've said "We are much better than this opponent, literally the only reason we are losing this game is because of their coach" was Kelvin Sampson and Greg McDermott.
Sampson it just felt like we were being strangled alive in the AAC games. We didn't just miss shots against them, I don't think we got a single good shot the whole game. Their guys were just literally always in the right spot on D, there were 0 driving lanes, and everything was contested heavily.
McDermott it was specifically the game 2 years ago on the road, I think
@HuskyHawk is referring to the same thing with the gameplanning. I also think he's done a good job with optimizing his scheme for his roster. He used to play 5 out with a small ball 5, now he plays PnR with Kalkbrenner. They lose guys to injury and the team doesn't get any worse. Always top 50, usually top 30 KenPom. Really good coach.
Sean Miller had some pretty good moments last season and he was the first I remember to really go full extreme on the Dorking of Jackson last season, but it wasn't quite the same feeling, probably at least partially because they had a lot of talent, too (and his players made a ton of shots against us).
Jay Wright it was hard to separate the development and talent he had when we played him. He gets credit for all that obviously, but felt like his structure/scheme and development was better than his Xs/Os and gameday planning. Same thing for Mick Cronin.
In 5 years, we're going to decide if Matt Painter is Jay Wright or Mike Brey. His D has let him down on a few really good teams, but he has had some good years on that side of the ball, too. In 18 years at Purdue, he's been top 30 in KenPom 14 times (missed his first year and then a 3-year stretch '13-15), and has been 8 straight years with a couple top 10 finishes. I do think he's the right answer to this question. Brey had a similar stretch, but the highs and average ere not generally quite as high
