Ollie 10th on ESPN's Coaches Countdown

[3uconn]

http://m.espn.go.com/general/blogs/...{"ref":"http://post original url/AZ8djgw2Za"}

 

[Huskyforlife]

Don't worry guys, he'll be top 5 next year...

 

[Final4 42]

I thought he would be 9th ahead of Gregg Marshall, but it doesn't really matter anyway.

 

[huskiesouth]

I'll take the quality of the man, his care of his players and staff and a NC ever so often and ESPN can rank him wherever they choose.

 

[amory]

That's probably fair.

With the basketball rankings, I always like UConn to be ranked a little lower than we probably deserve. Gives us a chip on our shoulder and gives us somewhere to climb toward. Same thing here, really.

 

[Kitaman]

Top 10 is fantastic, especially after only 2 years at the helm and the 1st time coaching.

Its only 'their' list anyway.

 

[noeynox]

No problem on the ranking, but they made that whole article about his Ollie isms. How about the fact that the man outcoached Jay Wright, Fred Hoiberg, Tom Izzo, Billy Donavan and the squid in five consecutive NCAA tournament games. He didn't have a rigid system in place throughout the tournament, he adjusted to his strengths and the other teams weaknesses. When Florida went Zone UConn was ready for it. He went small for long stretches against Villanova. He managed foul trouble of his bigs perfectly in the final four.

Again no problem with where he is, but to make that whole thing about the things he says and not mention his brilliant coaching was weak sauce.

 

[Inyatkin]

Again no problem with where he is, but to make that whole thing about the things he says and not mention his brilliant coaching was weak sauce.

That's actually a sidebar, there's a whole piece on him and the job he did

 

[noeynox]

That's actually a sidebar, there's a whole piece on him and the job he did

Thanks

 

[Inyatkin]

I'm not the biggest Eamonn Brennan fan but this is a great line:
"The NCAA tournament is characterized by its last-second madness. Our most recent national champion's best quality was how it wrung the life out of crunchtime comebacks before they ever had a chance to begin."

 

[Jimmy Serrano]

Who cares about the ranking but it exposes that the criteria they stated from the beginning is a crock of .

 

[AZHuskiePop]

I'm not the biggest Eamonn Brennan fan but this is a great line:
"The NCAA tournament is characterized by its last-second madness. Our most recent national champion's best quality was how it wrung the life out of crunchtime comebacks before they ever had a chance to begin."

Absolutely runyonesque.

 

[Peacefrog]

I'm not the biggest Eamonn Brennan fan but this is a great line:
"The NCAA tournament is characterized by its last-second madness. Our most recent national champion's best quality was how it wrung the life out of crunchtime comebacks before they ever had a chance to begin."

Yes, we'll stated and so true. By and large the team didn't leave itself vulnerable to any last second prayers.

 

[tcf15]

 

[Kitaman]

Technically speaking it would have been nice if ESPN would note the assistants (for all the coaches) in these write-ups. All coaches have a team, other than players. Sure they are in the background, but execution is their task as well. Done wrong or bad leads to losses, no matter how good the head coach is.

I suspect in Ollie's case (new to coaching) that his crew were essential to his early success.

 

[Rocktheworld]

Who cares about the ranking but it exposes that the criteria they stated from the beginning is a crock of .

Exactly.

You got it ESPN, the coach who, after his second year of head coaching period during which he won the NCAA tournament as a 7 seed against 1, 2, 3, 4 seeds, along with "DERP THE GREATEST RECRUITING CLASS OF ALL TIME" with no more than a late first-rounder, is allegedly drawing serious interest from NBA teams is the tenth best coach right now. Meanwhile Jamie Dixon would be top 5 if he actually made it to an elite eight for the first time in 5 years.

 

[Rondogg]

Who cares about the ranking but it exposes that the criteria they stated from the beginning is a crock of .

This. According to their website "Which coaches are doing the best job right now? This isn't about legacy. It's all about the present."

With that as criteria, it seems impossible that he wasn't #1, particularly since there will be people ahead of him that he has beaten, UF he beat twice!

 

[PcketknfNiels]

Didn't expect him to sniff the top of the list, but still somewhat disappointed he wasn't like 4-6 range. Oh well, espn can do this again in a few years when we're knee deep into a john wooden (for the new millennium!) run.

 

[intlzncster]

With that as criteria, it seems impossible that he wasn't #1, particularly since there will be people ahead of him that he has beaten, UF he beat twice!

Well it can't be just this year or you'd simply use the result of the NCAA tournament and call it quits.

If it's the last few years, the Calipari is #1 hands down. 3 Final Fours and 1 Championship. No one can match that.

 

[Huskybass]

I wouldn't trade KO for any of the 9 ranked higher. He is simply the best.

 

[champs99and04]

Ollie won more NCAA Tournament games this past season than K has in the last four years combined. If we're going to say Ollie has to "prove he can do it over the long haul", fine, but the inconsistencies in the rankings are noticeable. If somebody like Roy Williams is going to be ranked #16 because he had a couple of down years, then how do we explain K being ahead of guys who have been much better recently? The same thing could be said about Izzo. Those two seem to be skating by on name more than current performance.

 

[Walker11]

This article was the first I have seen which stated that the rankings were based on a 2 year period. I have no problem with KO's ranking but I sure do with K's inevitable top 3.

 

[champs99and04]

This article was the first I have seen which stated that the rankings were based on a 2 year period. I have no problem with KO's ranking but I sure do with K's inevitable top 3.

Where does it say that? And I agree.

 

[Walker11]

Where does it say that? And I agree.

It appears I have reading comprehension issues.

 

[champs99and04]

haha, you wouldn't be the first on this site.