This has to be the worst list of this type I have ever seen. Sean Miller and Shaka ahead of CKS??
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In Shaka’s defense…they were talking about the VCU hire…which was a great hire. Had he stayed there, he might be in the middle of a Gonzaga-esque type run.
Others on the list, though, I did a few double-takes at.
I don’t have an issue with Shaka being hired at VCU being ahead of our hire of CKS right at this moment. UH was probably in worse shape than VCU when each took over their respective programs because Capel had VCU trending upwards and we were a dumpster fire with a below average team and our best players ready to transfer. However, that 6 year run Shaka had there was extraordinary for a program like that.
Agree Miller is too high. He’s done a good job in terms of on court results but Arizona is a school where any good coach would have done well. Plus the potential sanctions thing.
I think this board is too hard on Penny, but having him at 24 is laughable. He might turn out great but an NIT and what likely would have been a second NIT this year at a program with the infrastructure Memphis has isn’t remotely worthy of this list. I’d put us hiring Penders ahead of him at this moment, even though I expect Penny will probably get it figured out. The Calipari at Memphis hire is light years better.
Other stuff like Tony Bennett behind Roy Williams and Calipari seems really bad.
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Miller has underachieved at Arizona imo as far as the tourney. He can get any level of recruit he wants and is a terrible in game coach.
I missed it was Shaka at VCU and not UT since I saw his name and shook my head lol. I like Penny as a coach but he has only been there 2 years so how does he make this list?
I wouldn’t say he’s underachieved and he can’t get “any” recruit he wants. He loses plenty of players to Cal, Roy, Coach K and sometimes others.
Arizona on the whole has done really well under him. I think he’s been “good” but not “great” there so far.
And yeah, Shaka at UT would be preposterous. If they missed the tourney this year (very possible) he’d have as many years missing the tourney in his five years there as Barnes and Penders did in their combined 28 years at Texas.
Probably a poorly written comment on my part. I meant Arizona can recruit 5 stars down. Not every school can do that. His tourney record is spotty considering the talent he has had.
Agree that the expected performance of Arizona based on regular season performance would have been higher than what they’ve actually accomplished in the tourney under Miller. I try not to get too worked up about tourney performance in small batches because there’s a lot of randomness, but at some point you can start to draw trends and Miller is probably there. Though if you look at his Elite 8 losses they lost by 2 and by 1 in OT in 2 of their 3 appearances. Sometimes it’s just the way the ball bounces.
But coming off Lute’s last couple of seasons then Kevin O’neill, Russ Pennell and light sanctions with the loss of a scholarship, if you showed an Arizona fan at the time that this would be the next 11 years of results Miller has achieved under your next coach they probably would have said that’s pretty solid. In their entire history they have 3 total final four appearances, winning it all in one of those.
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I forgot about Russ O’Neill lol. He was a horrible hire. All in all Miller has been solid but he is a bad in game coach. He can’t adjust to save his life.
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