G.O.A.T.?

[cullaville]

John Wooden or Dan Hurley?

Discuss among yourselves.

Coach Reeves of Carver High

 

[McLovin]

If we are just being objective based on career accomplishments, up to this point, I don't think Hurley is even in the top 10 of modern era coaches, let alone the top 5...

K
Calhoun
Williams
Donovan
Self
Wright
Pitino

All are modern era coaches with at least 2 titles, 4+ Final Fours, 500+ career wins and are in the HOF. Hurley only has 1 of those boxes checked off (he hasn't even reached 300 career wins, which is kind of wild).

Guys like Izzo, Boehiem and Calipari would also probably currently rank ahead of Hurley...

Although if Hurley continues his trajectory for another 10-15 years, he is a lock for the HOF, 500+ wins, very likely multiple additional Final Fours, possibly more titles and could end up being the best modern era coach.

 

[FfldCntyFan]

John Wooden was an all time great coach but his overall legacy does have some questionable items to mix in with the good (in sort of chronological):

• (Bad) He ran the program at UCLA for roughly a dozen years before making the tournament
• (Bad) It took another five years before he won it all for the first time
• (Good) With his first championship squad (Hazzard/Goodrich/Erickson, back to back) he introduced the 2-2-1 press to make it difficult for the opponent to slow down the game (no shot clock). An up-tempo pace of play greatly benefitted his team’s talents.
• (Good) For his next run of champions he assembled what could easily be argued as the best multi-year starting lineup ever (Alcindor [Jabbar], Shackleford, Warren, Allen) without assistance (Kareem claims he first met Sam Gilbert during his sophomore year) and began a seven year run of titles.
• (Bad) Basically every star that played for UCLA under Wooden post 1967 benefitted from Sam Gilbert, whether he was planning on attending with or without Gilbert’s influence.
• (Good) Regardless of how he ended up with the talent, his work in practices, stressing preparation and fundamentals, led his teams, with massive individual talents, to put team play first and perform almost to script while constantly sharing the basketball.
• (Bad) On the flipside of the time spent on preparation, he did almost no coaching during games. While this had little impact for the bulk of the seven year run plus the bulk of the 1973-1974 season, he sat still during the closing minutes of the first loss any of his then players were involved in at the collegiate level, when the blew a late double digit lead at Notre Dame, then limped through the final couple of P-8 games and eventually lost in OT in the national semifinals to NC State.

 

[prankster]

In my defense...

I heard some guy on TV, yesterday, bring up Wooden as the GOAT.

My immediately reaction was."that's bullsquease!". " If Hurley brings home a 3 peat, he would be the GOAT.

Which led to my post.

Modern NCAA being what it is, as well as the system/structure that Hurley has defined and implemented, would render him the GOAT because of the staggering impact he is having on the college game (not just players and their development, but the entire game planning/design no of his offense, etc.) but the enormous success he is bringing. All the while looking at modern day sized player losses to the NBA....

Quite extraordinary.

 

[Luna]

Hurley.. by far

 

[uconngb]

Nothing will ever happen that will make me think someone is better than Calhoun.

Couldn’t possibly agree more

 

[uconngb]

If we are just being objective based on career accomplishments, up to this point, I don't think Hurley is even in the top 10 of modern era coaches, let alone the top 5...

K
Calhoun
Williams
Donovan
Self
Wright
Pitino

All are modern era coaches with at least 2 titles, 4+ Final Fours, 500+ career wins and are in the HOF. Hurley only has 1 of those boxes checked off (he hasn't even reached 300 career wins, which is kind of wild).

Guys like Izzo, Boehiem and Calipari would also probably currently rank ahead of Hurley...

Although if Hurley continues his trajectory for another 10-15 years, he is a lock for the HOF, 500+ wins, very likely multiple additional Final Fours, possibly more titles and could end up being the best modern era coach.

According to the record books Pitino only has one title, so Slick Rick does not belong on this list. Nor do Williams or Self as both cheated bigly, but the NCAA doesn’t have the sack to go after its protected children.

So that leaves K, JC, Donovan and Wright. Danny has a little ways to go to surpass Donovan and Wright, but a long way to go to catch K and JC.

 

[AZHuskiePop]

Wooden but Hurley is starting to make a case to be the best since. Wooden didn’t have to deal with NIL, the transfer portal, guys going pro early, or even having to win 6 games to win the title. But it’s incredible what he built there. And they’ve only won sporadically since he left, and not recently.

The transfer portal for the haves makes coaching easier not harder you unload recruiting failures and go shopping to fill holes with proven players.
With the portal in Woden’s day they might not of ever lost a game.grabbing whoever they wanted and unloading their failures .
The transfer portal and NIL have made it almost impossible for have not school like 1980’s UConn to make a leap forward by building a program through recruiting . You can buy a team however which has little to do with coaching
Look at ECU who had managed to recruit 2 diamonds in the rough to a point where they actually beat FF Houston . They then lost their leading scorer to UVA and their all conference PG to UConn and the coach was fired the next year . Thats portal hell . However .UConn has won two NC because of the portal . and maybe a third because we can keep who we want and shop to fill the holes . Overall its a case where the rich can stay on top and the poor are fighting a constant battle.

 

[Luna]

Hurley has built UConn into a dynasty..he is by far the greatest coach ever

 

[TheHorde]

The transfer portal for the haves makes coaching easier not harder you unload recruiting failures and go shopping to fill holes with proven players.
With the portal in Woden’s day they might not of ever lost a game.grabbing whoever they wanted and unloading their failures .
The transfer portal and NIL have made it almost impossible for have not school like 1980’s UConn to make a leap forward by building a program through recruiting . You can buy a team however which has little to do with coaching
Look at ECU who had managed to recruit 2 diamonds in the rough to a point where they actually beat FF Houston . They then lost their leading scorer to UVA and their all conference PG to UConn and the coach was fired the next year . Thats portal hell . However .UConn has won two NC because of the portal . and maybe a third because we can keep who we want and shop to fill the holes . Overall its a case where the rich can stay on top and the poor are fighting a constant battle.

It’s a plus for the staffs that do it right but not for the bulk of schools. You’re also recruiting your own guys to stay besides trying to recruit on the portal. That’s less time spent recruiting high school kids. Wooden built stacked rosters and never had to worry about those kids going pro or immediately transferring to another school. Kids transferred but had to sit a year, which was a major deterrent to leaving. It was like being an NFL coach before free agency and the salary cap in some ways.