Holtmann is the closest candidate at A-level because he was in the NCAA tournament with Oral Roberts at the no. Lost 15-position. The Buckeyes are 87-43 (.669) under Holtmann in four seasons, who have a good 46-32 record in the Big Ten (highest finish: second, in his first season). He has had an NCAA Tournament team every season since his arrival; he is the only coach on this list of which it is true, and therefore he is the highest position. Holtmann has yet to lead the Buckeyes on a Sweet 16 run and has not won a Big Ten title either. He is the right man for the job, but there is still room to grow. GRADE: B-plus.
The Fighting Illini hit their hopes of revival under Underwood. The 57-year-old led Illinois to a No. 1 college in the 2021 NCAA Tournament, going down to his grade. Illinois has been 71-56 (.559) over the past four seasons, and that was a strong turnaround after the first two sub-.500 campaigns. The 2021 tournament was the first time in the Underwood regime, but to be honest, Illinois would have also made the 2020 Big Dance. He also not only gets the credit for recruiting Ayo Dosunmu, but also for coaching him to First Team All-America status. Illinois ended the 2020-21 season with 20 consecutive weeks of rankings. It will be interesting to see how much transfer takes place in 21-22. GRADE: B-plus.
The only thing missing here is an NCAA tournament. The Aztecs would almost certainly have had it with a 2020 tournament. Dutcher is 96-31 (.756) in four seasons, and SDSU was a projected number 2 seed in 2020. Dutcher has done an excellent job of keeping the program relevant nationally and near or at the top of the mountain west, as it inherited the task from Steve Fisher. The school should be very happy that Minnesota did not push harder to lure Dutch away from Southern California. GRADE: B-plus.
VCU was hit hard when Will Wade bounced for LSU. Athletic director Ed McLaughlin made a smart choice to hire Rhoades, who was a former assistant at the VCU but was also familiar with the area due to his 13-year coaching career at Randolph-Macon (and an assistant in the 2011 Final Four Rams team). VCU has won 65% of its matches over the past four seasons (80-43) and made two NCAA tournaments. VCU has been robbed of the chance to play in the 2021 tournament due to multiple COVID-19 infections that prompted Indianapolis’ health officials to remove the team from competition before playing Oregon. If Rhoades has been employed for a long time, VCU is in good hands. GRADE: B-plus.
Another pandemic victim: Dayton did not make an NCAA tournament under Grant. If there had been one in 2020, the Flyers would probably have been a No. 1 seed. We give him as much as possible for the special season 2019-20. UD also had the Naismith (and CBS Sports) national player of the year, Obi Toppin, who was a top-10 NBA pick. Grant has been at his alma mater 78-41 (.655) for the past four seasons. The Flyers were only 14-10 last season, but that was enough to catch up with the NIT (with a quick exit). It was a difficult starting point to follow this work to Archie Miller. Grant was very good. GRADE: B-plus.
When Underwood left Oklahoma State after a year in 2017 to accept the Illinois post, Boynton is considered a long shot as the internal promotional hire. Athletic director Mike Holder made a great choice. The Cowboys have been 72-58 (.554) for the past four seasons, with 2020-21 the highlight so far. The state of Oklahoma finished 21-9, selected a No. 4, played the Big 12 title and was placed in the rankings for four weeks. Boynton is also recruiting Cade Cunningham, a program-changing player who could become the first Cowboy alumnus to become No. 1 in the NBA draft. Boynton was rewarded in April for his efforts with a seven-year contract worth $ 3 million a year. Now we are waiting to see what the phase after Cunningham will bring. GRADE: B.
It’s important to remember that I have weighed the same amount here all four seasons; there is no recent bias in my rating. Keatts may be listed surprisingly high for some, but its .668 winning percentage (79-47) is the fourth highest of any of the notable hires from the 2017 cycle. Problem is: NC State has only one single NCAA tournament under its supervision. The Wolfpack come off their worst season – ninth place in the ACC, 14-11 overall – but still reach the NIT quarterfinals. Keatts is 39-34 in the ACC; his career point in the conference is likely to stay above 0.500 in a year. GRADE: B.
The most difficult paper to grade here. LSU has been 82-39 (.678) for the past four years under Wade. These are the past two NCAA tournaments, have finished in the top three of the SEC three seasons and have won a league title. But unless you just came out of a cave, you know that Wade also damaged his reputation and LSU basketball through his own efforts. Wade was caught eavesdropping on paying players – an eavesdropping eventually obtained by an HBO documentary. You can not separate results from the court with the offense of the court. It affects my degree. Wade was in some ways disastrous for LSU, which awaits heavy penalties from the IARP. Many believe he is in arrears to be fired, albeit in a delayed manner, as Sean Miller was. GRADE: B-minus.
Mizzou is the fourth head coaching position in Martin’s career and the first to last more than three seasons. He is 66-56 (.545) and has spent his time up to this point with two NCAA Tournament appearances, both one-offs. The Tigers’ two seasons in between were less than .500. Martin was bitten a bit in the first season as Michael Porter Jr. played only three games due to injury. If he was healthy, the trajectory of the program could be changed a little for the better. But the Tigers are still in solid shape on their way to Martin’s fifth season. GRADE: B-minus.
If I do not have an NCAA Tournament in 2020, I will influence the way some of these programs and coaches are viewed. Butler would have been a number 5 or 6 if we had a Big Dance in 2020. What if it made a Sweet 16 run? Definitely possible. And then the momentum under Jordan would have been so much better. All in all, he was good, not good. Butler has been 69-55 (.556) with two NCAA tournament teams over the past four seasons. BU was bad last season, walking 10-15 and finishing 10th in the Big East. If the pattern holds, the Bulldogs will bounce back to more than 20 wins in 2021-22. GRADE: B-minus.
Sixth, ninth, 10th, 10th. It was Indiana’s finish in the Big Ten under Miller, and that’s what got him fired after four seasons. The Hoosiers won 67-58 (.536) overall. Remember, Miller was considered the security lease among all other four years ago. Landing Romeo Langford – a high school legend in the state – did not lead to the change of the competitive landscape in the Big Ten as IU fans had hoped. There were a few other recruitment losses that made matters worse. I was expecting Miller to get a fifth season, but deep buoy boosters paying the buyout proved me wrong. He will be head coach again, perhaps as early as 2022, but let it be a lesson that no one hired for any job should be relentlessly trumpeted as a ‘home run’. There is always a chance for underperformance. GRADE: C.
Before you go any further, I want you to guess out loud how many games you think Hopkins has won in the last four seasons in Washington. I will even write one more sentence to spoil it too soon. You will probably be surprised to see that the Huskies record is 68-60 (.531), which is 8-10 games more on the W side than I would guess. But that’s what a terrible season will do for your reputation, and Washington is coming to an abysmal 2020-21. The Huskies won 5-21. And the previous year 15-17. Hopkins’ first two seasons, however, were good. UW won 48-22 with an NCAA tournament hosted in year two. He will undoubtedly enter the hot seat in 2021-22 – probably an NCAA tournament is needed to stay on. GRADE: C.
A magical Big East championship this year has achieved an overwhelming thing in Washington, DC, in the short term. Ewing’s record is 62-59 (.512) with three eighth places and one third place in. the league ledger. Winning the 2021 Big East Series was one of the best stories this past March … and then Georgetown hit Colorado in the first round of the NCAAs. The Hoyas have also experienced serious roster deviations over the past two years, including Qudus Wahab who left for Maryland earlier this month. Ewing needs to work better to stabilize the program going forward. GRADE: C-minus.
There has been some noise over the past few weeks about whether Gregory would be fired or not, but it looks like he’s getting a fifth season to try and fix the ship in Tampa. The Bulls are 58-66 (.468) and did not finish better than seventh in the U.S. Athletics Conference. Gregory had a good second season – USF won 24-14 – but the other three years were less than 0.500. Another perspective: USF has had no more than 0.500 seasons since 2001-02. This is a difficult task. GRADE: D-plus.
New Mexico is a school that keeps its coaches at a high standard. Weir was fired in March after four seasons and a record of 58-63. He went 28-43 in the Mountain West. Fans of the state of New Mexico feel contemptuous when Weir, who was a longtime NMSU assistant before spending a year as chief, fled for the hated rival in 2017. They undoubtedly felt some satisfaction in Weir’s failure, but the good news for Weir is he’s 41 and he’s many, many miles ahead in this business – including a final stop on a day as head coach. GRADE: D-plus.
Unfortunately, it was an eruption. Jones lasted two seasons and was fired with a record of 16-47. Cal’s athletics division and the ongoing financial issues did not help. Jones was promoted from within after Cuonzo Martin left for Missouri, and the closet was bare. Jones is back in the Pac-12; he had just joined Mike Hopkins’ staff in Washington. He is replaced by Mark Fox, who is 22-37 after two seasons at Berkeley. GRADE: D-minus.