Ranking the Top College Basketball Coach of Year Candidates for 2016-17
Doing more with less.
That mantra makes the Coach of the Year debate fun, especially in college basketball. It's also typically the race's deciding factor. Well, that and having an amazing team.
But with no runaway dominance this season, it's more about who could MacGyver the best knife out of bubble gum and a broken stapler. Who laid down the full house after a rainbow rag flop?
Who is outstripping expectations? Who's overcoming the losses (scheduled and otherwise) of key players? Those are the questions, as much as the number of weeks a team has spent in the Top Five, that shape this discussion.
Let us now dive in and rank the top 10 candidates for this annual distinction.
10. Greg McDermott, Creighton Bluejays
1 of 10
Creighton toppled Butler and Xavier in the span of three games and then fell in consecutive contests to not-even-sniffing-the-rankings Marquette and Georgetown.
Sure, star guard Maurice Watson's season-ending knee injury had a lot to do with that, but hey, it's a cold game, and as such McDermott has fallen a few rungs in this debate.
Nevertheless, the Bluejays are 19-3, with the only other defeat coming to Villanova. One more win and they'll equal last season's total, which propelled them all the way to the NIT quarterfinals.
McDermott found a gem in Kansas State transfer Marcus Foster, who has averaged 21 points a game in the two full contests Watson has missed.
It wasn't enough either time, though. Freshman center Justin Patton needs to get tougher more quickly. Fellow freshman Davion Mintz and sophomore Khyri Thomas need to adjust to more playing time and more time with the ball in their hands, creating for teammates as well as themselves.
How or whether these dominos ultimately fall into place will dictate the rest of Creighton's season and McDermott's position in the coaching hierarchy.
9. Steve Alford, UCLA Bruins
2 of 10
Yeah, UCLA's great this year, and Steve Alford has a role in that. He recruited the players; he helms the ship.
But come on. Expectations were high for Lonzo Ball, but they weren't, you know, first-overall-draft-pick high. With T.J. Leaf, Bryce Alford and the rest, the Bruins are the nation's top offensive team, according to KenPom.com.
It's also worth remembering that UCLA, currently sitting at 19-3, amassed before this season a 65-40 record during Alford's tenure, dating back to 2013. Last season, they finished 15-17. They did make two Sweet 16s in this time, but for big, bad UCLA, that isn't the world's greatest win percentage.
Don't get me wrong, Alford's doing a great job. But he gets a big assist from his elite floor general.
8. Mike Brey, Notre Dame Fighting Irish
3 of 10
Mike Brey has hit his stride in South Bend.
Coming off an Elite Eight berth—and the loss of the team's two top scorers, Demetrius Jackson and Zach Auguste—media members projected Notre Dame to finish seventh in the ACC.
The Fighting Irish have had a rocky time of late, dropping three of four—most recently Saturday to a mealy Georgia Tech squad—but they still have a nice win over Louisville and a few others in their back pockets.
Brey has gotten big miles out of lightly regarded players like point guard Matt Farrell and forward V.J. Beachem. He also excels in finding players who fit his program and stay there. All four of the team's top scorers are juniors or seniors. You don't see that much anymore.
7. Chris Holtmann, Butler Bulldogs
4 of 10
Here comes the big theme we were talking about earlier.
Butler's preseason Big East ranking, according to the coaches' poll: sixth.
Current ranking: second.
Oh, and don't forget it's only one of two teams this season to beat Villanova. Oh, and it's ranked No. 11 in both national polls.
One of Chris Holtmann's Big East colleagues, DePaul head coach Dave Leitao, spoke about what makes the Bulldogs and Holtmann stand out, per Tom Davis of the Fort Wayne News-Sentinel:
"They don’t necessarily overwhelm you, but they are really good offensively because they do what they do. Everyday. There is no psychological, to me anyway, as an outsider, there is no physical variance. The same thing defensively. They play really good team defense. There are some holes that you try and exploit, but they do what they do, and therefore they don’t lose. You have to beat them.
"
That kind of consistency is going to give a coach a leg up over a lot of people.
6. Bill Self, Kansas Jayhawks
5 of 10
Bill Self is not the poster boy for overachievement. Regular, garden-variety achievement, though, year after year, now that he's pretty good at.
Superfrosh Josh Jackson gets most of the attention, but Self blends the blue-chippers seamlessly with veterans like Frank Mason, Devonte' Graham Sviatoslav Mykhailiuk.
Self put it all together again Saturday, when they beat No. 4 Kentucky in Lexington.
We'll see what happens with the alleged witness role players played in a recent reported rape on the KU campus.
5. Bob Huggins, West Virginia Mountaineers
6 of 10
Most hardcore fans are aware by now that this is Bob Huggins' best team since moving to Morgantown.
Ranked 18th in the AP poll but fifth on the KenPom scale, Press Virginia is reaching cult-icon status for the rate at which it forces turnovers (a nation-leading 22.7 per game) and converts said turnovers into useful offensive energy (88.1 points per game, good for seventh overall).
This season, the Mounties also are better at taking care of the basketball (they also lead the nation with an 11.2 turnover margin). Problem: They're still not the greatest shooting team, with a 137th-best 35.8 percent clip from beyond the arc and a 66.3 percent success rate at the charity stripe.
They've stumbled with some losses of late, but that's conference play for you. As long as they keep beating Top 10 teams (three such wins this season in three attempts), the flaws of Press Virginia and the Huggy Bear who put it in place aren't going to seem like that big of a deal.
4. Tony Bennett, Virginia Cavaliers
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Tony Bennett in Charlottesville is even more impressive now that the Cavaliers don't have an offensive out-valve like Malcolm Brogdon or Anthony Gill.
London Perrantes is good and all, but their dismal, 265th-in-the-nation 69.6 points per game tells you all you need to know.
It all just serves to bolster the notion that Bennett's pack-line defense is one of the most formidable forces in the sport. They lead the country with 53.3 points allowed per game. I mean, forget about it! That's crazy! They just held No. 14 Notre Dame to 54 points. They held Grambling to 34. They held Yale to 38. That must be why they're 16-3 and No. 12 in the AP rankings.
Bennett is the straw that stirs this drink, repeatedly hammering home the three overarching tenets of the pack line: don't let the ball get behind you, keep people out of the paint, limit opposing possessions to one shot. No matter which players come and go, those tenets, thanks to Bennett, remain vital.
3. Jay Wright, Villanova Wildcats
8 of 10
It's not conflicting to vote Villanova as the nation's best college basketball team this season. Currently topping the AP poll and second in the ESPN version, the Wildcats fell into a trap at Marquette earlier this week but looked to rebound Sunday against Virginia.
It's the familiar theme we've been extolling throughout. Jalen Brunson and Donte DiVincenzo were hotly recruited out of high school. Josh Hart and Kris Jenkins weren't. Together, they're the nucleus of the nation's fourth-most efficient offense, per KenPom.
The methodical, make-the-extra-pass approach to the game is part of it. But another interesting piece, according to Dana O'Neil of ThePostGame, is his use of things like "attitude points" during practice.
"Every time the Wildcats compete, a staff member charts attitude points and a winner is declared after each practice, each game, and at the end of the season. Leading in attitude points is more coveted than leading the team in scoring. To Wright—and now by extension to his players—attitude, not points, wins games. How a player prepares himself and supports his teammates, how he carries himself in victory, in defeat, and especially in the most difficult times, is the difference between winning and losing.
"
It's pretty remarkable a whole team bought into this, and it speaks to the culture Wright has created and preserves around the defending national champs.
2. Scott Drew, Baylor Bears
9 of 10
As you know, Baylor hit the top of the AP rankings earlier this season.
Before the season started, they were picked fifth. In the Big 12.
Ranked eighth in KenPom's overall rankings and fifth in adjusted defense, the Bears rebounded from their only loss of the season to win their last five, including a Texas three-step over UT, TCU and Texas Tech in succession.
But the most impressive number? Zero. That's how many top-50 recruits Baylor has on its current roster. Drew may not run the most dynamic team, but as evidenced by the program itself, slow and steady progress is winning the race in Waco.
1. Sean Miller, Arizona Wildcats
10 of 10
“I think what Sean Miller has done [in Arizona] is the best coaching job I’ve seen all this season. I think he’s the Coach of the Year and someone would have to take it away from him.”
Who said that? None other than Jay Bilas on Arizona Sports 98.7 FM, possibly the best basketball mind in the media today (and that's coming from an avowed Duke hater).
It's hard to argue. Their recent win over then-third-ranked UCLA turned plenty of heads in Miller's direction.
This team was left for dead before anyone even carved a turkey. Star guard Allonzo Trier was suspended for the first 19 games of the season, though he made his presence felt upon return, putting up 12 points, seven boards and four assists in his first game back, against the Bruins.
Elite recruit Ray Smith tore his ACL for the third time, ending his playing career.
Chance Comanche sat out for academic issues.
"We don't have any depth," Miller lamented.
Behind Finnish big man Lauri Markkanen, the Wildcats rallied and rallied some more. Now under Miller, they are excelling on both ends and doing plenty with what they do (and don't) have. Who would have thought three months ago that they had the cards to outduel UCLA? Not me.
But thanks in large part to Miller's steady hand, it looks like a full house after all.
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