1) Hurley - winning the NC gets him top billing.
2) Holloway - He has done as much with as little as any coach in the country. He has a roster with one guy that can actually shoot (Dawes), a center he found in the discount rack (Bediako) and a bunch of tweener 1990's street ballers (everyone else). Richmond and Addae-Wusu are terrible from outside (23.5% and 27.4%) and that is with teams not even defending them on the 3 point line. They can't hit wide open 3's. The team also doesn't have a point guard. And while the team's defensive scheme and fundamentals are pretty good, they aren't a lock down defense this season. Seton Hall does one thing well, take it to the hole, and that should be hard to do given that everyone knows they are going to do it. This team should suck, and yet it is going to finish 4th in the Big East. Holloway has done an amazing job this season, and I would not object if Holloway won BE COY. He might cut down the nets in April some year once he is running a big time program.
3) Smart - put together a good team quickly in Milwaukee, but feels like he is treading water a bit this season. We will see how they do in March.
4) McDermott - Building a national program in Omaha is no small feet, so McDermott gets props for that. And Creighton's "A Game" is as good as any team's in the country. Their "C Game" shows up a little too often though.
5) English - Providence could have nose dived when Hopkins got hurt, and yet they are still in the mix for an NCAA Tournament bid. And they do it without all the drama queen nonsense of the Cooley era. Good job by the new coach.
6) Miller - He is a great game coach, but he gets dinged a little for roster construction this year. Freemantle is a big with foot problems who has played a lot of minutes early in his career. That situation is not going to improve, and Miller should have found another forward in the transfer portal to protect him in case Freemantle's injury was serious or Hunter got hurt. Providence, Butler and Seton Hall found quality bigs in the transfer portal, and Xavier struck out.
7) Pitino - He took a college rotisserie team and has coached them into the tournament, so I will give him credit for that. I wouldn't say he has had a great year though.
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8) Matta - I feel like he has been mailing it in since he has come out of retirement. Put together a few mid-20's low major players that could score, and Butler was fun to watch this season, but this team has a long way to go to be actually competitive, and he is going to have to rebuild much of the team again this offseason. Also, he looks like death warmed over on the bench.
9) Cooley - he has always been an overrated coach that people think is great but is really just mediocre. Whiffed in the Transfer Portal despite being at a program that has resources. This season should be unacceptable if I am Georgetown's AD.
10) Neptune - I could tell this guy was not a big time head coach by the middle of last year. He reminds me so much of Lappas in that he seems to know his stuff, but is just small time. Not a winner. Villanova should cut him loose at the end of the season. This is not going to get better.
11) Depaul - It will be interesting to see what the administration does in the offseason. I think there is a meaningful shot Bobby Hurley takes this job.
