the escalator is for cowards

[ConnHuskBask]

After watching the Ollie speech from the press conference it has eased some of my main concerns going forward.

While I can't comment on how his head coaching ability will be, the one thing I can say for sure is that I know Kevin Ollie will give us everything he has and more. KO has been a part of the UConn family and truly gets what Jim Calhoun and UConn Basketball is all about. Those two things are highly important to me and I'm not sure an outsider can fully appreciate the magnitude of UConn Basketball to the school, coaches, players, fans and alums.

Will Ollie work out for UConn? Nobody knows, but I feel a lot more comfortable giving the first crack at post-Calhoun UConn to someone already in the family.

 

[caw]

Is it really shocking to anyone that there are tons and tons of examples of failures in hiring coaches? There are very few great coaches and only a handful at the level of Calhoun (literally if you go by NC's won). The odds are not in UConn's favor.

Very few programs don't go through some pain finding the next great coach, let alone legendary coach. Using NCAA championships as the criteria (which UConn's fanbase likes to do), I think is a good illustrator of what I mean.

14 Schools with multiple NCAA championships, you have 4 categories:

Found their coach "smoothly":

1. Michigan State went from Heathcoat to long time assistant Izzo, though it took 21 years from the first to the second and Izzo was in his 5th year
2. UK actually stands out for it's ability to find coaches who are able to win, they went from Rupp (4) to Assistant Hall (1) to HC elswhere Sutton (0) to NBA HC Pitino (1) to HC elsewhere Smith (1) to HC elsewhere Gillespie (0) to HC elsewhere Calipari (1).

Eventually found another coach to win a national championship:

1. UCLA took about five coaches to get another NC after Wooden and is on #2 after Harrick (maybe soon at #3)
2. UNC took three from Smith to Williams, though went straight from McGuire to Smith
3. Indiana is on number 4 after Knight and had 3 coaches between McCracken and Knight
4. Kansas went through 3 between Allen and Brown but only 1 between Brown and Self, which isn't bad
5. NC State is at #4 after Valvano, though they did get from Sloan to Valvano

Still waiting:

1. Cincy is at #7 since it won a NC
2. OK State is on #7
3. San Fran. - it's been awhile.
4. UL has only gone from Crum to Pitino (11 years so far at UL)

Hasn't replaced NC coach yet, or successor has yet to coach:

1. Duke
2. Florida
3. UConn

Of the single time winners you have two categories:


Still waiting:

1. Maryland (2002) on it's first replacement
2. Arizona (1997) on it's 3rd with Miller
3. Arkansas (1994) on it's 3rd with Anderson
4. UNLV (1990) on it's 7th or 8th coach, I lost track
5. Michigan (1989) on it's 3rd coach
6. Villanova (1985) on it's 2nd coach after Rollie
7. Georgetown (1984) two already after Thompson
8. Marquette (1977) on #7
9. I refuse to go further back, but you get the idea

Hasn't replaced NC coach yet:

1. Syracuse (2003)

If someone asks why I don't expect a NC every year, or from the next coach, this is why. It's extremely rare and very few schools are lucky enough to have two coaches win a NC let alone after the previous NC coach left. You have UK, NCState, MSU and UNC. UK has done it twice.

I hope Ollie can pull UConn up to that level, but it's not an easy feat.