Ranking the 10 Best Offensive Minds in College Basketball

For most watching college basketball, offense sells. Defense is more esoteric, whereas offense hits you over the head like Thor’s hammer. 

Some teams have the power to get down the floor in four second's time, running offenses at neck-cracking velocity. Others take a more methodical approach to draining the rock.

There's a lot of moving parts, not to mention strong teams, conference and defenses that make even these offensive minds punishing the dry-erase board. Adjusted offense and strength of schedule play major factors in ranking the following coaches.

With analytical help from KenPom.com, we take a rabbits-hole approach to finding out the Mad Hatters of offense in men's college basketball.

Tim Cluess, Iona

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Tim Cluess led the Iona Gaels to the fourth most productive offense in the country last season. For Cluess, the extra S is for scoring. 

Cluess has two words and a conjunction for his style of offense, “Run and gun.” His team's adjusted offense was seventh in 2014, but he did it in the MAAC where his strength of schedule was a dismal .5423, good for 114th in the land. In 2012, Iona ranked 17th in adjusted offense and 19th in 2013. Cluess has steadily improved his team's offensive output in a relatively weak conference.

When Mike D’Antoni coached the Phoenix Suns, he wanted a shot up in seven seconds. What about Cluess?

“That’s slow,” joked Cluess in The Columbus Dispatch. “We do a 10-second scrimmage, and [in] four seconds you have to have it down [at] the other end.”

Iona scored 83.5 points per game while finishing 22-11 overall and 17-3 in the MAAC and losing by one point in the first round of the NIT last season.

Fran McCaffery, Iowa

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Iowa, lead by Fran McCaffery, put up 81.5 points per game, though recorded just a 20-13 record (9-9 in the Big 10). He's lower on this list because his team's SOS was pretty weak in 2014 (45th), but being fifth in adjusted offense in the Big 10 draws McCaffery some attention as a strong offensive mind.

Not only that, but the Hawkeyes were seventh in rebounds (40.7), 11th in assists (16.2) and 66th in field goal percentage (.465). That’s about as well-rounded as it gets. 

Eammon Brennan of ESPN.com writes:

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The Hawkeyes average 73 possessions per game, according to kenpom.com, with an average offensive possession length of 14.3 seconds. That’s the third fastest in the country and the fastest of any high-major team. (Only BYU and Northeastern play at a faster pace.) This is head-turning stuff in any league. In the traditionally slow-paced Big Ten, it’s unheard of. 

"

It took McCaffery a few years to get this program running. It will be interesting if he can pair up last season's effort with this year to see if this wasn't just an abberation. 

Dana Altman, Oregon

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In Eugene, Oregon, head coach Dana Altman has the Ducks flying high.

Oregon scored 81.9 points per game using a high-post offense. In four seasons with the Ducks, Altman has amassed a record of 97-47 and was named the 2013 Pac-12 Coach of the Year.

His team mopped the floor with BYU in the second round of the NCAA Tournament in March before losing to Wisconsin.

His team was one of the higher-scoring teams in the nation and can boast a relatively high field-goal percentage too: .468, good for 54th in the nation.

And as Aaron Fentress of Comcast Sportsnet writes, “Oregon appears to be on the verge of loading its roster with the best collection of talent the program has ever seen through a process of signing transfers and allowing the recruiting of high school players to slowly progress. "

So, it appears, Oregon is just getting warmed up, this for a team with the 11th-ranked adjusted offense in the land and a 43rd-ranked SOS.

Lon Kruger, Oklahoma

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The Oklahoma Sooners put up the seventh-best scoring total in the country with 81.9 points per game. That and his record of 23-10 and 12-6 in the Big 12 earned head coach Lon Kruger a Big 12 Coach of the Year award.

Kruger has been coaching for 28 years. No small feat. Yet it’s his ability to adapt that has made him such a force for the Sooners. Due to rule changes that snuffed out on-the-ball defense, Kruger found a way around that.

Steve Henson, Kruger’s long time assistant, told the Tulsa World, “The thing that's special about the job Coach has done [in 2013-14] is how different it's been from the way we typically play. He knew this group could be so good offensively with their penetration and drive-and-kick, and with transition offense."

The Sooners will be a threat in the Big 12 with other high-rolling offenses like Iowa State this upcoming season.

Scott Drew, Baylor

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Baylor head coach Scott Drew has had one of the more consistent and productive offenses the past few seasons. 2014 saw Baylor rank ninth in adjusted offense with an eighth-ranked SOS. 

It wasn't just 2014. Drew's team was eighth in adjusted offense in 2012 and third in 2010 with a ninth-ranked SOS.

Drew has coached 12 seasons at Baylor and his schemes have it in the mix and competitive most seasons in the Big 12. 

SB Nation's Jonathan Tjarks writes, "Part of what makes finding a great college basketball coach so difficult is they need the skill-sets of both a GM and a coach. Scott Drew has the players capable of winning the Big 12, but he's going to need to improve as a coach to overcome Self and the Jayhawks."

Maybe Drew isn't an A+ coach, but his offense is productive enough to keep him in the conversation.

Fred Hoiberg, Iowa State

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The state of Iowa knows offense.

Iowa State was a No. 3 seed in the NCAA tournament a year ago and reached the Sweet Sixteen, where the Cyclones lost to eventual champion UConn.

Iowa State scored 83.0 points per game to make them the fifth most prolific scoring team in the country. Fred Hoiberg, head coach and a native son, will take his chances with his smaller lineups. His 91 wins in his first four years are the most of any Cyclone coach ever.

SB Nation’s Ricky O’Donnell writes:

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Hoiberg's system is simple: open up the floor by playing five shooters and push the ball at every opportunity. The Cyclones rank No. 13 in adjusted tempo this season, per Ken Pomeroy. They aren't jacking as many threes as last year's team, but every starter is a threat from the outside. Sag off any Cyclones player and you're liable to give up three points. That includes center Dustin Hogue.

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The Cyclones had the seventh strongest schedule in 2014 and was sixth-highest adjusted offense (118.4). They were also a top-10 team in adjusted offense in 2013 (116.6). Playing in the same conference as Baylor and Kansas, among others, makes Iowa State's accomplishments that much more impressive.

John Calipari, Kentucky

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Kentucky has the benefit of great, precocious talent. John Calipari knows a thing or two about using his nitro-fueled freshman to score big.

Last season, Kentucky's title run came up a game short as the 10th best team in adjusted offense with 117.6. The Wildcats were only beaten in SOS by two teams: Kansas and Wisconsin. Not bad. Dribble Drive Motion, baby.

Coach Cal writes: 

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The motion offense I’d been running wasn’t necessarily a bad lesson plan, but it was getting moldy and musty. Making the switch to DDM reinvigorated me because it got me to rethink the game and to study it anew. It challenged me as a coach and as a teacher. The kids really took to it; despite the fact that it took a while for most to truly understand it, they all rave about it once it’s being run at an optimum level—it challenges them, but it also prepares them for most anything they will see on the court.

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He adapted his approach and that has served Calipari well. In 2011 the Wildcats were 10th in adjusted offense and second in 2012. 

Bo Ryan, Wisconsin

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Bo Ryan's approach to offense is a bit contrarian. In an era of suicidal pace, Ryan would rather use the shot clock instead of fight it. It appears to work. 

Last season, Ryan's Badgers were fourth in adjusted offense with a rating of 120.8 with the second strongest schedule in the land (.7445). Despite those numbers, not everyone is impressed. Take Grantland's Bret Koremenos. He writes:

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Basketball is being played faster and more aggressively than ever before, yet here is Ryan gaming the system with his über-conservative approach. Go slow, don’t turn the ball over, play defense. Ryan champions smashmouth in the era of the spread. It leads to wins, but basketball doesn’t get more unappealing than that.

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Even if Koremenos has his reservations or disagreements, Ryan's results have been undeniable. Even in 2011, Wisconsin was third in the land in adjusted offense with an 11th-ranked SOS.

John Beilein, Michigan

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John Beilein is one of the more tactically proficient coaches in the game today. He can boast the best offense in the country based on an adjusted offense rating of 124.1. Throw in that his Wolverines had the fourth hardest strength of schedule in the 2013-14 season, and Beilein earns himself a spot on this list.

Andrew Kahn of Sports on Earth writes, "Seven of Beilein's last 10 teams finished in the top 15 in turnover percentage; the last two have been in the top three in opponents' free-throw rate. In other words, they don't beat themselves."

The Wolverines were No. 1 in adjusted offense in 2013 as well so consistency is key in Ann Arbor.

Mike Krzyzewski, Duke

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Adjusted offense is our big stat in the slideshow and nobody has been more consistent over the past five years than Duke's Coach K. Sure, his name triggers many gag reflexes across the country, but his team's production can't be denied.

Going back to 2010, his team's adjusted offense has been ranked first, fifth, 10th, fifth and second. The SOS isn't the strongest, averaging a rating of 17.4 over the past five years, but it has been as high as second in the land.

ESPN.com's Beckley Mason writes, "Coach K was also one of the first coaches to emphasize the importance of 3-point shooting, and the motion-based, ball-screen-heavy spread offense that the Blue Devils now run has roots in Mike D’Antoni’s famous system." 

Maybe it's not as pretty or as dynamic, but Coach K's teams have been remarkably efficient and consistent, making him the greatest offensive mind in the land.