It's that time of year: College coach carousel!

I don't think that Stevens is going anywhere, although if Purdue really is opening up, you know they are going to make a hard, hard run at him. As for Smart, unless VCU comes up with a Stevens-like deal, he's out the door. Unlike Stevens and Butler, Smart has no ties to the school and area (he's from Wisconsin, played college ball and got coaching start in Ohio).

Also, with Stevens and Purdue, if Stevens does look at it, he's got to ask why Painter is leaving so soon after being anointed as Keady's successor. I know Painter has been there since 2005, but it seems odd to me that a guy from Indiana who played at Purdue is suddenly so quick to head out the door.

 

If someone says Villanova over Georgetown is the biggest upset ever I wouldn't argue, but those were two teams that were pretty familiar with each other. 2006 UConn is probably better than 2011 Kansas, but I think George Mason that year, entering the tournament was a lot more highly regarded than VCU was entering the tournament this year.

 

If this ends up being the case, it's pretty interesting.

Gregory has done decent work at Dayton, though nothing of the Stevens/Smart variety or even Mooney. Still, he was an assistant until Izzo at East Lansing and will probably bring that physical, never-back-down style if he's the pick in Atlanta.

Thing is, I seem to recall Oliver Purnell doing much better work at Dayton before moving to Clemson. But no further second-guessing ... those who get second-guessed seem to have an amazing success rate lately. See also: Shaka Smart.

They seemed to be undermanned as a whole. Sure, he got Chris Bosh, Derrick Favors and Jarrett Jack, but where were those under-the-radar recruits who develop into valuable role players, if not standouts in their own rights? Those are the guys who always seem to come into their own under Gary Williams and Leonard Hamilton. Bosh and Favors were one-and-done. More understandable given the current climate in major college basketball, but obviously it doesn't help continuity and probably left Hewitt and his staff scrambling for talent moreso than many of his peers.

Hewitt got the occasional super-stud recruit, but never seemed to have enough of them at one time the last few years. That could be a recruiting issue, a coaching issue or both. When the school cannot announce a single sellout in an arena the size of the Thrillerdome last year, that spoke more loudly that the fanbase had quit on Hewitt a long time ago, justfiable or no.

Some closer to Atlanta and the ACC will say that Hewitt was there 2-3 years longer than he should have because of the six-year rollover contract he got after leading the Jackets to the tournament championship game a few years into his tenure. It cost the athletic program about $7 million to make the change.

 

I'm a little young so my judgment may be clouded, but didn't NC State need to win the ACC Tournament just to get into the tournament in 1983? If that's the case, and given how much more talented Houston was going into the championship game, that has to be in the top 2 alongside Villanova-Georgetown for biggest tournament upsets ever.

Back to the coaches, I'm not disputing that what Smart has done in this tournament is phenomenal. But is he getting too much of a free pass for his team underachieving during the regular season? If the last 2 weeks show what this team is capable of doing, shouldn't it have been far better than to wind up a bubble team that many people believed shouldn't have been in the tournament in the first place?

 

To play devil's advocate, after watching VCU in this tournament, how did that team ever lose 11 games playing a CAA schedule? It could be argued they massively underachieved during the regular season.

 

I agree with you. That's all the more reason why he needs to leave while he stock is high.

 

It's easy to say that VCU underachieved by using this run to compare, but that's not entirely fair. VCU was third in the preseason coaches poll behind ODU and George Mason. They had four starters coming back, but Larry Sanders' early departure left them without their best player from last season. So it's not as though they were expected to be worldbeaters in the preseason. Sure, losing to Georgia State and Northeastern looks awful when compared to de facto road wins against Kansas and Purdue, but they performed about as expected this season. Save the last two weeks, of course.

From the "Want to make God laugh? Tell Him your plans" files: http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2010/basketball/ncaa/11/08/preseason.crystal.ball/index.html

 

The 1982-83 NCSU team had 10 losses. In that era, that meant no chance at an at-large bid. It had to win the ACC Tournament to get into the NCAAs and did. That may have been a bigger upset if for no other reason than at least Rollie Massimino and his staff had more game tape and experience against Georgetown than Jim Valvano and Co. had against Houston.

On the coaching issue, that's a good point, but some teams really are caterpillars starting the season and end up using the season to develop, learn, grow and take those lumps. Some are much closer to being butterflies, if they're not already so, by Thanksgiving. Sure, all teams learn and grow during the year, but that's more true for some (Chapel Hill and perhaps VCU) than others (Duke, Butler ... the major missing piece for the Bulldogs was Gordon Hayward ... Shelvin Mack and Howard are still there).

 

I'm sure this has been mentioned on another thread, but two entries (out of 5.9 million on ESPN.com) picked the Final Four correctly.

 

I don't think Stevens ends up at Purdue. If Purdue is willing to pay the big bucks it would take to lure Stevens away -- I don't see Stevens making a lateral move, either in terms of prestige or salary -- why not use that money to keep the coach you have? If Purdue isn't going to match Mizzou's salary offer, they aren't going to shell out to land Stevens.

 

It sounds like Buzz Williams is staying at Marquette.

Who will get the OU job?

 

That might be, but it lost 4 of 5 between Feb. 12-26, by which time the loss of Sanders should have been more than compensated for, and three of those losses were at home.

They probably just hit a plateau, and it's a credit to Smart that they've taken off from there, because it's obvious they are very good, for the second-best team in the city. .