Does Coach K suck?

[Palatine]

In 2019, I am watching Zion being announced as a basketball God. Transformative. Two other Duke players are expected to go in the top 10. Year after year K puts the best talent in college basketball on the floor. And year after year he comes up short. In 2018 he had three NBA first round picks. In 2017 he had four. You have to go back to 2010 to find a year where Coach K only had one first round pick in the NBA draft. Poor guy.

The embarrassment of riches on the Duke bench is an embarrassment to Coach K. Last time he made he Final Four 2015. In the last nine years he has made the Final Four once. This with a collection of talent that dwarfed the rest of college basketball.

This raises the question. Could a guy off the street do better? How about a marginally talented coach? Say Pete Gillen?

And please, don't tell me his real value is what a great recruiter Coach K is. Dick Vitale and ESPN have been his recruiters since the last century. K has just had to pick and choose.

 

[UConnNick]

I guess it means there is such a thing as having too much talent. It's a nice problem to have.

 

[JimHurley]

Does he suck? I don’t think you can say that. He has the most wins in CBB history and 5 NCs. But should he be doing more with the talent he brings in? Absolutely.

 

[polycom]

Stop this right now. I'm not even reading this OP, this is horrible.

 

[superjohn]

Yep, coach K is terrible. Did we really need another idiotic thread on this?

 

[Guapo]

Does the pope poop in the woods?

 

[uconndogs]

I get the whole rivalry thing and "rat face" and ..........I mean I get it. But to the OP I simply say.......REALLY???

His first three seasons at Duke they were just under .500 and since then they have been on rocket fuel.

- Duke's last season under 20 wins was 1995 (18), almost 20 years ago
- Final top 20 AP in all but 6 seasons (3 were the first 3 mentioned above), or said another way, top 20 AP in 22 of the last 25 years (19 were top 10)
- 12 regular season conference championships (15 tourney)
- NCAA tourney record is .763 with 12 final fours and 5 NCs

I mean c'mon...........

 

[mdkhusky]

Haters

 

[HanDurley]

Typically, one and done's don't win championships. That's the reason. Not because he's a bad coach lol, that's ignorant. When he won he had veterans like Quinn Cook, Plumlees, Kyle Singler, Nolan Smith, Jon Sheyer, and JJ.

 

[UConnNick]

I get the whole rivalry thing and "rat face" and .....I mean I get it. But to the OP I simply say..REALLY???

His first three seasons at Duke they were just under .500 and since then they have been on rocket fuel.

- Duke's last season under 20 wins was 1995 (18), almost 20 years ago
- Final top 20 AP in all but 6 seasons (3 were the first 3 mentioned above), or said another way, top 20 AP in 22 of the last 25 years (19 were top 10)
- 12 regular season conference championships (15 tourney)
- NCAA tourney record is .763 with 12 final fours and 5 NCs

I mean c'mon......

Hehehe...Ratface the weasel got the NCAA to conveniently erase that 1995 season from his record because he missed most of it due to his mysterious back injury. The losses all went on Pete Gaudet's record. Then they fired Gaudet.

I hate the diminutive cheese gnawer as much as anybody, but saying he's a lousy coach is about the same as saying Calhoun is. You'd get your head chopped off here for even suggesting that.

One bad game in the NCAAs and you're gone. It's the great equalizer. You run into the wrong red hot team at the wrong time and it's over in 40 minutes. It happens, even to the most elite of elite coaches. It pains me to have to admit it, but he's an elite coach worthy of mention along with Wooden. You can argue that he cheated to get there, but so do his elite competitors.

I take solace in the fact that Calhoun closed the deal 80 percent of the time in his FF appearances. That's one record Ratface won't ever touch.

 

[Ewekon]

He is now living and dying by the one and done recruiting philosophy. Squid does the same with similar results. This why there is almost always an upperclassmen composed team in the FF.

 

[Caronimo]

He might suck something but he obviously doesn't suck. He is a winner.

Typically, one and done's don't win championships. That's the reason. Not because he's a bad coach lol, that's ignorant. When he won he had veterans like Quinn Cook, Plumlees, Kyle Singler, Nolan Smith, Jon Sheyer, and JJ.

Couldn't win with Corey Maggette, Trajan Langdon, William Avery, Elton Brand, etc. tho

 

[Robertelamin]

I just liked how Pal referenced Pete Gillen.

 

[NJHoops]

No.
The question kind of sucks, though.

 

[UConnNick]

I just liked how Pal referenced Pete Gillen.

The guy who never could figure out how to pronounce Kevin Ol-EEE. Thank God he got fired, so we hopefully never have to hear Gillen butcher his name again.

 

[Travelman6]

I get people saying they dislike the guy, sure...But wow, this is too much.

 

[imno1]

No

 

[Husky1964]

Vv you’re

 

[DrZzzz]

Among other things, he loses with talent for the same reason the Dream Team has lost in the Olympics. The players are new to each other.

 

[jibsey]

In 2019, I am watching Zion being announced as a basketball God. Transformative. Two other Duke players are expected to go in the top 10. Year after year K puts the best talent in college basketball on the floor. And year after year he comes up short. In 2018 he had three NBA first round picks. In 2017 he had four. You have to go back to 2010 to find a year where Coach K only had one first round pick in the NBA draft. Poor guy.

The embarrassment of riches on the Duke bench is an embarrassment to Coach K. Last time he made he Final Four 2015. In the last nine years he has made the Final Four once. This with a collection of talent that dwarfed the rest of college basketball.

This raises the question. Could a guy off the street do better? How about a marginally talented coach? Say Pete Gillen?

And please, don't tell me his real value is what a great recruiter Coach K is. Dick Vitale and ESPN have been his recruiters since the last century. K has just had to pick and choose.

You’re catching flak because K has had a bankload of success which can’t be denied but I agree with your premise. Duke is a tremendous school academically and desirable on its own but also the ESPN hype train and prime time game exposure is non stop. The kind of players they get in large numbers every year most schools would drool to get even one of them. In most cases Duke has them stacked like cordwood on their bench. This is why there was no contest between him and Calhoun on who did best with what they had. As we speak we are desperately trying to get some kind of quality in a big to go with Josh Carlton. Other school have the same deal. K doesn’t lose sleep over this kind of stuff. Many coaches could do as well and better with his talented recruits IMO.

 

[auror]

Continuity is important. Talent is important.

Unfortunately, talent wants to go to the NBA and disrupt that continuity.

The best teams have a combination of talent and continuity, through luck or persuasion or a perfect storm.

 

[Austin316]

Coach K is an OG. There aren’t many left.

Calhoun was an OG.

I can see Hurley get to OG status soon. So much swag. I wanna get to the point when he walks into the gym the opposition has tears running down their face and piss running down their legs. Coach K has it... he doesn’t suck.

 

[Hans Sprungfeld]

He might suck something but he obviously doesn't suck. He is a winner.

Couldn't win with Corey Maggette, Trajan Langdon, William Avery, Elton Brand, etc. tho

He got that team within 3 points of UConn. Mighty impressive, if you ask me.

As to the OP, I'm surprised he didn't alternatively post a query as to whether K is perhaps the luckiest coach ever. Maybe that's next.

 

[Sphinx]

I have disliked Coach K since the TV ad where he would say, "I don't consider myself a basketball coach. I consider myself a leader who happens to coach basketball." I would shout at the screen, "You're a basketball coach, you self-important little twerp."

 

[Madmannsucks]

I am guessing someone has a little free time.

 

[Hey Adrien!]

He sucks and he blows.

 

[CL82]

Yes, of course he does.

He's also the greatest college basketball coach of his generation.

 

[JeepCSC]

He is the most accomplished coach this side of Wooden with a huge chunk of his record coming in a 9-year period from ‘86-‘94. His tourney record based on seed since 2000 is somewhere around Steve Alford and Herb Sendak.

Tourney Stats, PASE (Performance Against Seed Expectations) and PAKE

 

[Hogoff]

Does the pope poop in the woods?

You can’t be certain he doesn’t.

 

[tentoes4rings]

The guy who never could figure out how to pronounce Kevin Ol-EEE. Thank God he got fired, so we hopefully never have to hear Gillen butcher his name again.

Funny that you’re listing that over the 427 better reasons he should have been fired.