Top 10 Coaches of all time - CBS article

[CTbball990411]

There was a 12:30 show on CBS today. Good to see Calhoun ahead of Boeheim.

http://www.cbssports.com/collegebas...asketball/21675637/top-10-coaches-of-all-time

 

[uconnforlife]

Should at least be 6.

 

[HuskyFan32]

Does anyone know why Bobby Knight is always difinitively ahead of Calhoun? They each won 3 titles. Knight has more wins but Calhoun built an also ran program into a national power. Knight's Indiana teams also didnt win a title in his last 15 years or so. He also has the Texas Tech years where his teams did nothing. Seems to me Calhoun has better pros too. Im not saying Calhoun should be ahead of him, but it always confuses (and annoys) me that any mention of top college bball coaches and Knight always comes up right behind Wooden and K yet Calhoun never does.

 

[RoderickSpode]

JC's temper was never quite as sensational as Knight's. Getting heated at a few press conferences is one thing, but throwing chairs, kicking your son on live TV and punching players in the throat (wait a minute, that sounds familiar) is the stuff legends are made of.

 

[Huskybass]

Does anyone know why Bobby Knight is always difinitively ahead of Calhoun? They each won 3 titles. Knight has more wins but Calhoun built an also ran program into a national power. Knight's Indiana teams also didnt win a title in his last 15 years or so. He also has the Texas Tech years where his teams did nothing. Seems to me Calhoun has better pros too. Im not saying Calhoun should be ahead of him, but it always confuses (and annoys) me that any mention of top college bball coaches and Knight always comes up right behind Wooden and K yet Calhoun never does.

In addition to the 3 titles, Knight had the highest win total for a very long time. I think JC should be in the top 5, but the same things that made him a great program coach probably hurt his relations with the media. He was simply too tough for the media to embrace.

 

[mauconnfan]

I'm good with Knight ahead of JC as he was a great coach. Now I do have a problem with Dean Smith who somehow won only 2 NC's with the absolute best players out of HS almost every year. Top 10 for Dean but below JC for sure and even JB.........

 

[Kemba Time]

Surprised to see John Thompson on the list. Not that he wasn't a great coach but 596 wins, 3 FF and 1 title with a good but not amazing winning percentage for the ninth-best coach ever? Pitino, Roy Williams and Lute Olson have all far exceeded that and two of the three are still coaching.

 

[Kitaman]

Calhoun the best BE coach ever, BE the best conference ever (when he was coaching) its simple math. National titles involve a huge element of luck. But regular season games and Conference tourneys require elite coaching skills. Put the other coaches in the BE and I wonder...........

Anyway, top 10 is fine. Its all interchangeable anyway.

 

[mauconnfan]

Surprised to see John Thompson on the list. Not that he wasn't a great coach but 596 wins, 3 FF and 1 title with a good but not amazing winning percentage for the ninth-best coach ever? Pitino, Roy Williams and Lute Olson have all far exceeded that and two of the three are still coaching.

I can see it either way but you make good points.......most of his success was with Patrick and he had many other real good teams who could've gone further........Pete Carrill exposed him but he did that to many!

 

[sledog]

JC needs a stint on ESPN to rais.e his visibility.

 

[Marty Jackson]

Does anyone know why Bobby Knight is always difinitively ahead of Calhoun? They each won 3 titles. Knight has more wins but Calhoun built an also ran program into a national power. Knight's Indiana teams also didnt win a title in his last 15 years or so. He also has the Texas Tech years where his teams did nothing. Seems to me Calhoun has better pros too. Im not saying Calhoun should be ahead of him, but it always confuses (and annoys) me that any mention of top college bball coaches and Knight always comes up right behind Wooden and K yet Calhoun never does.

agree... Calhoun and Knight are not too far apart. Realistically, I think they are maybe top five, and at worst 5-6. I think you could make a clear argument for either to be ahead of the other because they are that close.

John Thompson was good, very good, but not Top 10 all time.

 

[seanmc94]

Knight has last undefeated team. He took TT from total irrelevancy to top 25.
Dean Smith is overrated
JT gets credit for being a trail blazer as an African American coach.
JC should get credit for building a national program from nothing

 

[PhilG]

I'm guessing these guys get a lot of credit for running clean programs. Granted the NCAA was not as powerful back then as it is now.

 

[Hugo]

I'm good with Knight ahead of JC as he was a great coach. Now I do have a problem with Dean Smith who somehow won only 2 NC's with the absolute best players out of HS almost every year. Top 10 for Dean but below JC for sure and even JB.........

Agree with you on Smith. Any coach who introduced, or if not introduced, popularized the 4 corner ofense doesn't deserve to be that high.

 

[CL82]

Should at least be 6.

Yep

 

[Jerry1714]

Surprised to see John Thompson on the list. Not that he wasn't a great coach but 596 wins, 3 FF and 1 title with a good but not amazing winning percentage for the ninth-best coach ever? Pitino, Roy Williams and Lute Olson have all far exceeded that and two of the three are still coaching.

Roy Williams and great coach should never be used in the same sentence. Unless that sentence includes the word "isn't".

 

[huskyblooz]

One only needs to watch Michael Jordan's last college game.
UNC had about 9 guys that played in the NBA and Indiana had Steve Alford and Uwe Blab.
Watch the game and tell me which team was better coached.

 

[Husky]

calhoun is the greatest talent evaluator of all time. countless diamonds in the rough

 

[Ts5034]

Knight's undefeated season carries a lot of weight as it should because thats a great and rare accomplishment. One thing i kind of have an issue with is the old coaches on the list. I have no problem with Wooden at the top but Iba, Phog Allen, and Rupp are a little different. Dont get me wrong they are great coaches but i think something should be said about the era they each coached in. Right now you can say its a lot harder to reach the final four and win a championship then it was during the 30's,40's, and 50's. There is a lot more competiton now, more teams that are capable, and most of all the NCAA tournament didnt consist of 65-68 teams back then so teams had a shorter and easier road.

The fact that K, Knight, and Calhoun each won at least 3 championships in the era where the tournament was 64-68 teams says a lot. You have to win 6 games vs tough competition to bring home a title. Back in the day it only took half the amount of wins to be crowned champion. All 3 of UConn's championships are from the 64+ team field and compared to the other schools during the 64 team era, UConn is top 5.

 

[huskyblooz]

To me the things most impressive about Calhoun were :
he did it in Storrs, CT
and the three Championships were won more than 5 years apart.
He didnt have one great team like Billy Donovan. JC developed 3 separate teams.

 

[tzznandrew]

Wooden
K
Knight
Calhoun

Everyone else--who cares.

 

[SubbaBub]

Mentoring future top coaches factors in this list a lot. Particularly with Smith, Knight and the older names. JC and K don't have that, but with 4 titles and the all time wins record, it doesn't hurt K at all.

For me it's hard to rank the older guys higher than those from the 64 era. There was a lot less competition and the system heavily tilted to the named schools back then.

Wooden
K
Knight
Smith
JC

Personally, JC has it all over Smith for the reasons others have stated, but no one outside CT will ever acknowledge that. His coaching tree and UNC legacy are too much to overcome.

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