I was emailing a friend of mine on Saturday and telling him who my top five coaches in college basketball are right now. Here is my list in order: 1. Rick Pitino 2. Coach K. 3. Billy Donovan 4. Tom Izzo 5. Cal. I’d put Roy Williams sixth and Jim Boeheim seventh. You might think that Pitino pick over Coach K is kind of strange, but for the complete resume with all he does, and even though Coach K has four national titles and two Olympic Golds, and Pitino has two national titles, I just think Pitino is the complete package. To me, he does more with his talent than any coach in America. Coach K is incredible and I know there are plenty who’ll disagree with me on Pitino-Coach K order, Billy is outstanding, Izzo always gets it done at Michigan State. You can’t argue with what Cal does , though I feel like he’s a better recruiter than he is an actual strategic coach. But he’s won it all and has taken every program he’s had (UMass and Memphis along with UK ) to the Final Four and had Memphis in the championship game in 2008 only to lose on two free throw misses by Derrick Rose. He also took his Wildcats to the Final Four in 2011 before winning it all in 2012. Cal’s resume is outstanding. Roy gets it done. Carolina is on fire right now after beating Duke Thursday night in Chapel Hill and posting 105 on Wake on Saturday.
Boeheim does a good job, but his ballistic reaction to the charge call on his player, C.J. Fair, Saturday night, with 10 seconds left and his team down 60-58 to Duke, cost him two technical fouls and an ejection, and cost his team the game, as Duke was awarded four free throws (sinking three-of-four), the ball which led to them closing out the game. Boeheim was his typical sarcastic self in the postgame. He’s not my favorite. It was a close call as Fair was driving to the basket and the Duke defender looked set with his feet firmly planted and his body stable. It looked like the charge call was the right call by official Tony Greene. Boeheim was talking about the new rule where the offensive player gets the call on the block/charge 50-50, but the Duke defender was set. Boeheim acted like an idiot about it, running out of the coaching box (first technical) then just berating Greene (second technical). It was very much out of line, and deserves a look by the ACC on whether they should suspend Boeheim for a game. Anyway, those are my top guys. John Beilein of Michigan, Sean Miller of Arizona, Bill Self (number seven on the list) of Kansas, and Jay Wright of Nova are my first four in.
My best football coaches in the country are 1. S, 2. Jimbo Fisher, 3.Gus, 4.Spurrier and 5. Urban Meyer, though Urb is not my favorite guy.