Great College Hoops Coaches Who Can't Coach

Here's one of the best-kept secrets in college basketball: some of the best "coaches" in college basketball, including those in the Hall of Fame or destined for it, can't coach. Every year, college coaches should be up for two different awards: Coach of the Year and Recruiter of the Year. That way, we wouldn't have to sit there and watch bad coaches get trophies, just because they are capable of assembling the second coming of the Fab Five.

Many coaches are genius recruiters. And that's nothing to be ashamed of -- it's a skill, just like coaching is. And Kelvin Sampson's text-messaging craziness aside, most of the great recruiters, I am convinced, recruit responsibly. But just because 17-year-olds decide you'd be a good guy to play for doesn't mean you know jack about the Xs and Os, how to manage players with foul trouble or the clock in the final minutes, or how to adjust to changing defenses.

With that in mind, here are three "great coaches" who, in my opinion, can't coach their way out of a paper bag. This is by no means an exhaustive list. Frankly, there are a lot more great recruiters out there than great coaches, and rarely can a coach do both (three that CAN do both are John Thompson III of Georgetown, Ben Howland of UCLA, and Jim Boeheim of Syracuse).

1. Roy Williams. I know, I know, he just got into the Hall of Fame, has one of the greatest winning percentages of all time, fastest to 500 wins -- whatever. I have never seen a coach so consistently underperform in the post-season (except for possibly the next guy on this list). Remember those great Kansas teams, with Paul Pierce, Jacques Vaughn, Raef LaFrentz, and Greg Ostertag (kidding about Ostertag, of course)? Way too many first- and second-round exits. Yes, Williams won a championship, but he did it with a team that would have been one of the all-time busts if they HADN'T won a championship (McCants, May, Felton, etc.). And considering they had been playing together for three years by that point, UNC looked too often like chickens without heads that year. They won ugly. And if you watched UNC this year -- maybe the most talented team in the country, except for possibly Florida and Ohio State -- they could never get into a rhythm, because Roy would take players out every five minutes so that they could have a lot of energy. Young guys in the prime of their athletic lives don't need energy -- they need rhythm. Roy's offense is run-and-gun, and I can't for the life of me see a half-court offense ever being run (that may be why his guys need so much energy). And that loss to georgetown? Disgraceful. Up by 11 with 8 minutes left, with Hansbrough being his usual monster self inside, Roy stands around watching his players jack up 15 -- 15! -- threes en route to a 2-23 shooting finish. It made me want to jump through the TV set, and yell out the maxim from Hoosiers: "How many passes are we gonna make before we shoot? 4!" Great recruiter. Lousy coach.

2. Lute Olsen. I'm not going to waste too much time on this, because it's so obvious. Suffice it to say, Arizona had the 4th most talented roster this year, and Lute couldn't get them to play two minutes of defense all season. That's bad coaching. Lute oversaw one of the biggest chokes in NCAA history (the 15-point collapse against Illinois in the 2005 Final Four). His team consistently undeperforms (remember losing to 15-seed Santa Clara in the first round?). Only one reason why a team where Gilbert Arenas was the FOURTH option should lose to Duke in the 2001 Finals -- because Coach K's a better coach than Lute. Nuff said, because my third pick will likely generate some controversy....

3. Billy Donovan. I won't say he can't coach, but I think he's gotten way way overhyped. I don't care what he's won. Florida was the best team in the country this year. Good job winning it all, but those players were so smart, they should have been able to coach themsleves. Nobody remembers all the underperforming Florida teams, the teams with absolutely no heart, between 2001 and 2006. Teams with good players like David Lee and Anthony Roberson, who kept getting knocked out in the first round. And the thing that drove me crazy this year was that every time I watched Florida, they would ballpark it the whole first half. No energy, no cohesion, no fire -- untilt he second half. To me, when that happens game after game, that's just bad preparation, and ti's the coahc's fault. Florida tried really hard to lose this year -- see the first 8 minutes against UCLA, but they just couldn't. Their players were just too good, and too smart. Maybe the coach gets to take credit for that, but not in my book. Donovan's the classic flavor of the month -- like Tubby Smith was in 1997-1998. Those days are over for Tubby, and I wouldn't be surpirsed to see Billy the Kid replacing Tubby in Minnesota, or go to South Dakota, someplace like that, in 10 years.

-- Justin

First, I wholly agree with (2) and (3) and partially agree with (1). (2) The worst piece of college basketball coaching was in Arizona's loss to Illinois, even discounting the total collapse of the more talented team. With ten seconds left, the Wildcats were down by two. Lute called a full timeout. The play he drew up DID NOT EVEN CALL FOR SALIM STODAMIRE AS AN OPTION! That's like if you were running for president and had the outgoing president, with a 70% approval rating raring to go stump for you, and you tell him no thanks. Only an idiot would do something like that.

(3) Apparantly we have all forgotten that Florida was, for five years, a consistent two or three seed which lost in the second round of the tourney. There is no doubt Billy can recruit. But when he does not have one of the best lineups in the history of college sports, he's a choker.

Finally, this category lends itself to college football coaches. Since they have to recruit seven times the amount of players basketball coaches do, one would expect a disparity between recruiting and coaching. And there can be no doubt on this count: Lloyd Carr is amazing at recruiting and horrible at coaching. Do you really beleive Ohio State has had the superior team for the last six years? Lloyd might as well cash his chips in and go coach the Raider when Lane Kiffen gets fired halfway through the season for statutory rape ("but I thought she was 18, and she thought I was 17).

--Paul



I'd like to respond to "Dook," who commented on my posting, by calling my criticism of Roy Williams "asinine." First, definitely read his comment before reading this. It was well written, and I appreciate that Dook has agreed to be my foil, making points that most of the fans in this country would make. Here's my response:

Thank you for your comment, Dook. But here's the problem with it: Roy Williams HAS underperformed in the postseason. He's a great recruiter, and in my book, that's proven by the number of top seeds he took into the tourney in his time at Kansas (9 of his 15 years, Kansas was either a 1 or 2 seed). But I'm not sure how many great coaching performances he needed to have to get those 1 or 2 seeds, given the talent level on those 1990s Kansas teams. Remember, Kansas, in the Big 12, probably has to play 6 or 7 top-25 teams a year (including conference games). Of those, the team probably needed good coaching from him in a few of them.

But no question, when it comes time to the tourney, you've got to start coaching. And look what he did in his time in Kansas:

-- in his 15 years at Kansas, he OVERachieved (i.e. got further than where his seed would dictate if there were never any upsets) 3 times (1991, 1993, 2003)

-- in those 15 years, he UNDERachieved 5 times (1990, 1992, 1997, 1998, 2002 -- yes, he made th eFinal 4 in 2002, but was a #1 seed and lost in the semis)

-- in those 15 years, he had the #1 seed 5 times. In those years, he went to the Final 4 once, and lost in the second round TWICE.

These are just a few of the stats I can throw at you. I don't deny he went to the Final 4 four times, but I think the stats can tell any story you want them to tell. And I didn't hear you explain to me what Roy Williams was doing letting his team chuck up 15 threes in the last 8 minutes of the game against Gtown.

My friend, don't let yourself be swayed by stats. Otherwise, you're just another ESPNNews Anchorman. Go with your instincts. Watch the games, and tell me if you've ever really thought that a Roy Williams team was actually disciplined in any way. I'd love to hear back from you on this, if you're still interested.

-- Justin