DefenseBB
Snark is always appreciated!
- Joined
- Nov 10, 2016
- Messages
- 7,947
- Reaction Score
- 28,956
As we get hyped up over the 2021-22 Season, I thought I would do a "ranking" of the P5+Big East Coaches. I am starting off with the PAC-12 for 2 reason:
1. They are the best basketball conference
2. Our esteemed colleague, @CocoHusky and I are in a tiny disagreement over the proper designation of Cori Close's coaching acumen, which had me wondering where the word "mediocre" would place a coach within their relative conference or among the whole of D1. I have Cori at #5 in the PAC-12 and her "trend" as flat. At 213 wins and only 110 losses with a 115-63 conference record, I view that as good. Plus, she's qualified for 6 NCAA Tournaments out of 9 years. She would have qualified in 2020 for 7/10 and she did win the WNIT! Her fame is as a recruiter but she did beat Maryland AT Maryland in the 2019 NCAAT 2nd round game so her x's and o's are better than Brenda's. That said, she only belongs in the "Good" category.
Below, I have listed my ranking of the coaches 1-12 with an associated "category" option of "Elite", "Very Good", "Good" and "Suspect". For clarity- my "Elite designation" follows "Webster's" definition
"a select group that is superior in terms of ability or qualities to the rest of a group or society". I am using "ELITE" across ALL of society (all D1 schools) so that only a "handful" of coaches can meet this criteria-Tara (shown below), Geno (duh!), Kim and Dawn. This fits nicely given the multiple NCAA Titles and Conference titles each has won and the domination they have exerted on the rest of the teams in their conferences.
Listed is the Rank, Name, years as a PAC-12 Coach, PAC-12 overall/conference record, All schools record, # post-season tournaments, other division records/post-season. I also added a “trend” comment based on their last few years with "up" meaning a good year this year could elevate them next year, "down" means they could be demoted to the rank below, "flat means they either show no signs of improvement or are already in the last designation. For example, JR Payne needs to show something as she's 25-63 in the PAC-12 without an NCAAT appearance.
Elite
1. Tara VanDerveer-Stanford 35 yrs. 973-204, 531-91, 152-51 35 NCAAT, 3 Champions 1 AIAW (no need to comment on this all-time great)
Very Good
2. Scott Rueck-Oregon State 11 yrs 240-113, 121-70, 7 NCAAT, 1 WNIT; D-3: 288-88, 178-50, 7 NCAAT/1 D2 Title (trend is down as he has to show he can coach an offense to compete in 2022, defense can only go so far)
3. Kelly Graves-Oregon 7 yrs. 172-62, 82-43, 382-162, 12 NCAAT, 5 WNIT (trend is flat)
Good
4. Adia Barnes-Arizona 6 yrs 89-66, 39-50 1 NCAA, 1 WNIT (trend is up)
5. Cori Close-UCLA 10 yrs 213-110, 115-63, 6 NCAAT, 1 WNIT (trend is flat)
6. Charlie Turner-Thorne Arizona State 24 yrs 476-280, 243-181, 40-40, 14 NCAAT, 5 WNIT (trend is down)
7. Tina Langley-Washington 0 yrs. 126-61 68-31 1-NCAAT, 2 WNIT, 1 WBI (trend is unknown)
Suspect
8. Lindsey Gottlieb-USC 8 yrs, 179-89, 86-58, 7 NCAAT, 8 WNIT (She has a talented USC team but her last years at Cal weren’t good, trend is flat)
9. Kamie Ethridge-WSU 3 yrs. 32-53 17-38; 83-44 2-NCAAT; 1 WNIT (trend is flat, last year started great but finished poorly)
10. Lynn Roberts-Utah 6 yrs. 91-78, 40-68; 96-121, 7-WNIT; D-2 86-31, 4 NCAA (trend is flat)
11. JR Payne-Colorado 5 yrs. 72-75, 25-63; 101-113; 3-WNIT (trend is flat)
12. Charmin Smith-Cal 2 YRS. 13-35, 4-27 (trend is unknown but likely flat)
Open the discussion-particularly our few OSU, UW and Stanford fans.
PS. Cheer up Coco, I still think the world of you on almost all other things!
1. They are the best basketball conference
2. Our esteemed colleague, @CocoHusky and I are in a tiny disagreement over the proper designation of Cori Close's coaching acumen, which had me wondering where the word "mediocre" would place a coach within their relative conference or among the whole of D1. I have Cori at #5 in the PAC-12 and her "trend" as flat. At 213 wins and only 110 losses with a 115-63 conference record, I view that as good. Plus, she's qualified for 6 NCAA Tournaments out of 9 years. She would have qualified in 2020 for 7/10 and she did win the WNIT! Her fame is as a recruiter but she did beat Maryland AT Maryland in the 2019 NCAAT 2nd round game so her x's and o's are better than Brenda's. That said, she only belongs in the "Good" category.
Below, I have listed my ranking of the coaches 1-12 with an associated "category" option of "Elite", "Very Good", "Good" and "Suspect". For clarity- my "Elite designation" follows "Webster's" definition
"a select group that is superior in terms of ability or qualities to the rest of a group or society". I am using "ELITE" across ALL of society (all D1 schools) so that only a "handful" of coaches can meet this criteria-Tara (shown below), Geno (duh!), Kim and Dawn. This fits nicely given the multiple NCAA Titles and Conference titles each has won and the domination they have exerted on the rest of the teams in their conferences.
Listed is the Rank, Name, years as a PAC-12 Coach, PAC-12 overall/conference record, All schools record, # post-season tournaments, other division records/post-season. I also added a “trend” comment based on their last few years with "up" meaning a good year this year could elevate them next year, "down" means they could be demoted to the rank below, "flat means they either show no signs of improvement or are already in the last designation. For example, JR Payne needs to show something as she's 25-63 in the PAC-12 without an NCAAT appearance.
Elite
1. Tara VanDerveer-Stanford 35 yrs. 973-204, 531-91, 152-51 35 NCAAT, 3 Champions 1 AIAW (no need to comment on this all-time great)
Very Good
2. Scott Rueck-Oregon State 11 yrs 240-113, 121-70, 7 NCAAT, 1 WNIT; D-3: 288-88, 178-50, 7 NCAAT/1 D2 Title (trend is down as he has to show he can coach an offense to compete in 2022, defense can only go so far)
3. Kelly Graves-Oregon 7 yrs. 172-62, 82-43, 382-162, 12 NCAAT, 5 WNIT (trend is flat)
Good
4. Adia Barnes-Arizona 6 yrs 89-66, 39-50 1 NCAA, 1 WNIT (trend is up)
5. Cori Close-UCLA 10 yrs 213-110, 115-63, 6 NCAAT, 1 WNIT (trend is flat)
6. Charlie Turner-Thorne Arizona State 24 yrs 476-280, 243-181, 40-40, 14 NCAAT, 5 WNIT (trend is down)
7. Tina Langley-Washington 0 yrs. 126-61 68-31 1-NCAAT, 2 WNIT, 1 WBI (trend is unknown)
Suspect
8. Lindsey Gottlieb-USC 8 yrs, 179-89, 86-58, 7 NCAAT, 8 WNIT (She has a talented USC team but her last years at Cal weren’t good, trend is flat)
9. Kamie Ethridge-WSU 3 yrs. 32-53 17-38; 83-44 2-NCAAT; 1 WNIT (trend is flat, last year started great but finished poorly)
10. Lynn Roberts-Utah 6 yrs. 91-78, 40-68; 96-121, 7-WNIT; D-2 86-31, 4 NCAA (trend is flat)
11. JR Payne-Colorado 5 yrs. 72-75, 25-63; 101-113; 3-WNIT (trend is flat)
12. Charmin Smith-Cal 2 YRS. 13-35, 4-27 (trend is unknown but likely flat)
Open the discussion-particularly our few OSU, UW and Stanford fans.
PS. Cheer up Coco, I still think the world of you on almost all other things!
Last edited: