Who is the best coach in the country*?

[GoChips20]

Given the slow news cycle of the offseason, I thought this might be a fun way to keep discussion alive. Who would you nominate as the best coach in the country? I'm going to make a major caveat here and ask that we exclude Geno and Dawn from the conversation since this board already has coalitions of fans from each program that feel strongly about their leader. Let's look a little more broadly with the understanding that UConn and South Carolina are the elite of the elite right now.

Here are my contenders:

• Vic Schaefer: Love or hate his style, Vic still might be the most underrated coach in the country despite being generally regarded as one of the top 5. He's quietly made it to each of the last five Elite Eights, with at least two teams that on paper had no business being there. He's built a middling Texas program into a crown contender heading into his third year after transforming bottom-dweller Mississippi State (which has not fared well since his departure).
• Kim Mulkey: Much has been made about the incredible job she did elevating LSU to 26 wins, but what has impressed me most was that she went from winning with defense at Baylor to winning with offense at LSU. Kim has long been known as a defensive coach, but this LSU team struggled guarding the perimeter and yet overachieved based on offensive sets and schemes. Kim's ability to adapt was somewhat questioned prior to last year, but she seems to have figured it out and has LSU primed as an SEC title threat in her second year.

What do you think?

 

[SECbbfan24]

Geno
Dawn
Tara
Kim
Vic
Walz
Wes Moore
Brenda

This group has produced high level teams for years although I like what other programs are doing but still need a better sample size with more accomplishments (Adia- Arizona, Harper- TN, Ivey- ND, Banghart- UNC)

I am also extremely intrigued on what the future of OU looks like. Jennie Baranczyk had an outstanding first year and the future recruiting classes are absolutely loaded with talent from the state of Oklahoma.


As a LSU fan I think that was the oddest thing about Kim's first year. They won with offense with a team that was among the worst in the country over the years scoring. The team she inherited simply could not play man to man defense at all, it was brutal watching the defense at times but they played hard.

 

[Bone Dog]

Terri Moran tops my list. She’s been slowly building a special program at Indiana.

After her, in no particular order, I’d have Jeff Walz, Lisa Bluder, Megan Duffy, Denise Dillon. I’m focusing on coaches who build programs, not so much on in-game skills. I also ignore coaches who scrape together talented teams out of the portal for a season or two.

 

[meyers7]

Beyond Coach Jumper???

I mean is there really any question?

 

[nwhoopfan]

He might be a bit passe now, but Kelly Graves has accomplished much more than quite a few of the coaches who are being mentioned here.

 

[oldude]

Lisa Bluder at Iowa doesn’t get the credit she deserves. She’s built a powerhouse in Iowa City.

 

[schmendrick]

Dawn Staley, hands down.

 

[SECbbfan24]

He might be a bit passe now, but Kelly Graves has accomplished much more than quite a few of the coaches who are being mentioned here.

I personally think he has done a good job with Oregon. I do want to see one more successful run/season without Sabrina. Maybe I'm being too critical. He has done a good job turning Oregon around since he was hired. He recruits very very well.

Bluder/Moore/Graves/Moran all have done a nice job

For mid majors I do love the job Smesko does each year.

 

[TC22]

Tara has to be way up there.

 

[nwhoopfan]

I personally think he has done a good job with Oregon. I do want to see one more successful run/season without Sabrina. Maybe I'm being too critical. He has done a good job turning Oregon around since he was hired. He recruits very very well.

Bluder/Moore/Graves/Moran all have done a nice job

For mid majors I do love the job Smesko does each year.

You have to add in what Graves did at Gonzaga as well.

 

[KnightBridgeAZ]

Lots of excellent coaches here.

What largely seems to get folks on the lists is "consistency", as well as signature success. I would think that Tara simply must be among the top (with Geno and Dawn), and I also agree that Vic and Kim stand out.

I agree that Moran is doing a fine job, and Bluder as well. At issue with looking at the very top echelon would be the lack of "signature" accomplishment. I by no means think a coach has to win a NC, but a final four (for example) would be key. So far, they have Sweet 16 level success, and not consistently that. They both built programs up (or returned them to success), have had consistency and have had great success, just not at the highest levels.

 

[Monte]

It's a question that is difficult to answer, but: The best coach is the person with the best record with the LEAST number of highly recruited players.
I am not that well informed about the list of the best recruits, but I believe some of you on the Boneyard are. You may have the best answers to this question.

 

[JoePgh]

It's a question that is difficult to answer, but: The best coach is the person with the best record with the LEAST number of highly recruited players.
I am not that well informed about the list of the best recruits, but I believe some of you on the Boneyard are. You may have the best answers to this question.

I don't think that your criterion for best coach is the proper one to use. Recruiting well is a huge component of being a good coach, probably the biggest single factor. A good coach who is a mediocre recruiter (e.g., Doug Bruno?) Is not going to get to many Final Fours.

 

[Ozimoto]

It depends on what your criteria is for "best coach." In my view, it is the coach who has the technical skill strategically and tactically who can take a group of players, motivate and develop them, and create a team that plays up to their potential in an offensive/defensive schemes to maximize what they can do. (That's my engineer's bias I suppose).

Yes, recruiting is important so there needs to be a bit of a salesperson quality there as well, but to me that's less coaching and more marketing. If my wife were sitting next to me, I might get a slap upside the head for that sentence.

 

[Cuango]

While it is certainly correct that recruiting is a big part of being a good coach, there is unfortunately (for some) another aspect to recruiting that is not so easy to overcome. Some schools are simply more (or less) attractive to those being recruited. Whether due to campus beauty, academics, party atmosphere, quality of existing sports programs, or location, or currently, NIL opportunities, the school itself has a great deal to do with recruiting success or lack thereof. Of course, a truly great coach can change that perception but it takes time to do so.
My list:
Geno
Tara/Dawn
Kim
Walz
Vic
Berube
Banghart
Barnes/Graves/Frese

 

[Ex Nutmegger]

Vic doesn’t have the campus draw that Tara benefits from or the female character advantage Dawn has. I suspect his X’s and O’s Capability is right up there with Geno and that’s how he beat the Huskies in the 2017 NC Semi-final with less talent.

 

[Bigboote]

Vic's team went to the national title game two years in a row with zero McDonals's all-Americans. That impresses me. He's not quite one level down from Geno, but let's see what he does in a couple more years in Austin.

 

[KY Card Fan]

Geno and Dawn at the top, obviously. Tara certainly belongs in the conversation.

I'm a Louisville homer, but Walz has done what I think is as good a job as anyone other than those three. He doesn't have a NC yet (still thinking about the no-call on Hines-Allen's drive to the basket in Columbus, happened right in front of me) but he took a program that had never made it to the Sweet 16 and made them nationally relevant almost immediately. Angel McCoughtry had a little something to do with that. With a few exceptions (Durr, Hailey Van Lith, maybe Evans) he has done that without getting the "name" recruits that have gone to UConn, South Carolina, Stanford, Baylor, etc.

 

[cbraarj]

Tara has done more with less over the years and then Vic.

 

[Jmsdawg]

Beyond Coach Jumper???

I mean is there really any question?

GREAT POST!

 

[diggerfoot]

The two coaches I would exempt from this conversation would be Summitt and Auriemma. Auriemma first got to the Final Four with a lack of national high school talent similar to Schaeffer, with even greater handicaps at the time to work with That, plus the fact that I am a UConn fan, places him in an elite category for me, but it’s apples to oranges trying to compare best coaches when throwing these two legends that built programs that could consistently recruit so well for so long.

As for the others, my number one criterion is with how many different squads could they win an NC. Mulkey stands alone with three entirely different squads, and the first one did not have the kind of elite talent that SC or Stanford had for their three (with an asterisk for SC’s ”third”). Plus two out of three for both SC and Stanford were close together and could be viewed as similar squads. So for right now Mulkey is clearly ahead in my mind over Staley and Vanderveer.

I would put VanDerveer second with an acknowledgement that her NCs came in totally different eras, and that longevity should count for something. Staley and McGraw are then tied for third based on this multiple NCs, different squads criterion.

It the becomes apples to oranges trying to compare these four coaches with all others again, because other coaches have not had the talent of these coaches that enabled them to win multiple NCs. Walz? Some great talent, but never the best talent, Scaeffer? Even less talent to date. These two might be in the same conversation of the other four with their results if they had the same level of talent. Graves as well. Blair and Frese have won NCs, but Frese gets consistently better talent than Waltz, etc … and loses it as fast as she gets them. Blair won after playing Baylor for the fourth time that year.

Then come the coaches like Banghart who just need more time to show what they can do. My top ten would go:

Mulkey
…….
VanDerveer
Staley
McGraw
…….
Waltz
Schaeffer
Graves
…….
Frese
Blair
Rueck

 

[JellyBean]

He might be a bit passe now, but Kelly Graves has accomplished much more than quite a few of the coaches who are being mentioned here.

Huge fan of Coach Graves. Folks forget about his work at Gonzaga how he put that program on the map, for WBB, and they are still going strong with Coach Lisa Fortier. So those two are on my list of best coaches in the country.

 

[CL82]

Geno and Dawn at the top, obviously. Tara certainly belongs in the conversation.

I'm a Louisville homer, but Walz has done what I think is as good a job as anyone other than those three. He doesn't have a NC yet (still thinking about the no-call on Hines-Allen's drive to the basket in Columbus, happened right in front of me) but he took a program that had never made it to the Sweet 16 and made them nationally relevant almost immediately. Angel McCoughtry had a little something to do with that. With a few exceptions (Durr, Hailey Van Lith, maybe Evans) he has done that without getting the "name" recruits that have gone to UConn, South Carolina, Stanford, Baylor, etc.

Put Mulkey, in between Geno, Staley and Tara and Walz and I think that’s a good list. The fact that Walz, who I agree is a very good coach, hasn’t won a national championship is a good testament to just how hard it actually is. There are some others like Vic Schffer that I would cluster right around Walz.

 

[JellyBean]

Great topic. For me, best coaches are the ones who do the best with the least. They aren't getting 4- & 5-Star recruits. They are developing those 2- & 3-Star recruits. Kelly Graves might be the only expectation. My list includes:

Lisa Fortier-Gonzaga
Kelly Graves-Oregon
Mike Neighbors-Arkansas
Denise Dillon-Villanova
Teri Moren-Indiana
Jeff Judkins-Former BYU Coach
Amy Williams-Nebraska

 

[Bone Dog]

I’m reluctant to include Mulkey in my list, though she has won championships and built great teams. I said from the beginning that I favor coaches who build programs, not just teams. That’s why I favor folks like Terri Moran and Lisa Bluder. Another feature of these coaches is that they instill comradeship and a culture of generosity in their players. This is not what I think of with Kim’s teams.

In particular, I was disappointed with her last Baylor team — though it included many fine players — but the team as a whole seemed rudderless to me. That game was a brawl, even smash mouth basketball, and yet when a call didn’t go their way at the end Kim was the loudest complainer. I’d have said, if you play that type of game, you shouldn’t expect the refs to bail you out at the end with a call. Instead of a tantrum in the sidelines and in the press conference, she might have said — as Geno and Tara have often done — “we lost the game because we couldn’t contain their best scorer.” A coach sets an example of sportsmanship for the team at moments like that and she failed. Even Abrahamson was better than that after UCF lost to us last year.