What’s more impressive, Back2Back as a player or coach?

[WeAreUCONN]

Comparing Danny to Bobby, which is more impressive? I’ll actually go with Dan on this because he did it with two completely different rosters while Bobby did it with relatively the same teammates.

 

[nelsonmuntz]

Back-to-back as a coach in the transfer portal and NIL era is incredible. It feels like winning the Kentucky Derby back to back years with two different unicorns.

 

[boog204]

Back-to-back as a coach in the transfer portal and NIL era is incredible. It feels like winning the Kentucky Derby back to back years with two different unicorns.

This... We legit lost three starters to the NBA and 5 of our top 8 scorers and came back and were better. This year we will lose perhaps 4 starters to the NBA and are primed to give it a go for a three-peat. In this landscape, the coach aspect is far more impressive.

 

[QuickDraw]

Back-to-back as a coach in the transfer portal and NIL era is incredible. It feels like winning the Kentucky Derby back to back years with two different unicorns.

kinda like the triple crown really

 

[UCFan1513]

You can go back to back as a player while riding the bench. So definitely the coach

 

[REB1094]

In the modern day, definitely coach. Rosters turn over pretty much every year. Hurley lost his 3 best players to the NBA and two key bench pieces to graduation or transfer

He bet big that his sophomore bigs would make a jump, his bench guys who were out of the rotation would make a jump, his inconsistent PG would make a jump, his freshmen would perform, and that 1 quality transfer would plug the gaps. He hit on all of those bets, and then some

 

[Palatine]

Since the coach comes back after every single national championship, they have more opportunities to go back to back. Players have a much shorter window to go back to back especially with the turnover in college basketball. And you best players will go pro, so you really have to step up your game to do it twice. So would say it is harder for a player.

But it is difficult for both coaches and players and it really is splitting hairs, no player can do it without a very good coach and no coach can do it without very good players.

 

[HuskyFich]

The only coaches to ever go B2B are/will be Hall of Famers. The coaches get all the credit, deservedly so, but the players row the boat.

If players stuck around for 15-20 years, the conversation changes (Brady/Belicheck), but with constant roster reconstruction, a coach is the President, GM, Head Scout, Coach, and Mentor.

There's really no comparison

 

[Waquoit]

This has been a coaching job for the ages and we've had a front row seat.

 

[Fishy]

Both are amazing accomplishments, but you have to credit the coaching staff for finding a group of players with the talent and the mindset to completely buy into a system and execute it almost perfectly.

Annnnnd then doing it again the very next year.

That’s God-level coaching.

 

[auror]

By far it's player. You only have 4 chances to win a title, which means you have to win the title in half your years (or 2/5 in some cases,). And your first title can't be in your last year, which means you need to win a title in one of your first 3 years.

 

[dogpause]

Back-to-back is definately a coaching achievement, except in football where one could argue that the QB is the key component. However, I think that the transfer portal and NIL can actually make the task easier, not harder, because you're able to reload with more experienced players. This is especially true for teams with adequate NIL money.

 

[nelsonmuntz]

Back-to-back is definately a coaching achievement, except in football where one could argue that the QB is the key component. However, I think that the transfer portal and NIL can actually make the task easier, not harder, because you're able to reload with more experienced players. This is especially true for teams with adequate NIL money.

All the other teams are able to reload with experienced players too. The NIL makes it so much more difficult.

If a team won a title in the pre-NIL/Transfer Portal era, it became a question of how much of the lineup was coming back. Donovan put together a great team in 2005-2006, and the hard part of winning the second title was getting them to stay another season. I will not speculate on how he got that to happen but once they all came back in 2006-2007, the odds were decent that they were going to win another title. He already had the best team, and they only had two options: leave or come back. Transfer was not on the table.