You may remember I was planning on posting about coaching trees. Then Dana O’Neil went and blew my mind with this column. It had way more information then what I planned on presenting. About the only thing she missed was the fact that Scott Drew was a student manager at Butler when Thad Matta was a junior assistant there. You can argue that doesn’t really count, but if you want to Stump the Schwab, that’s the type of information you would need to stump him.
Even if much of this is redundant, let’s have some fun anyhow. It looks like I can hit 62 of the 73 active BCS coaches by starting with five active coaches who were already coaching in 1984-1985,
Jim Boeheim
Mike Montgomery
Bo Ryan
Gary Williams
Bob Huggins
and 12 historic figures,
Bob Knight
Dean Smith
Larry Brown
Eddie Sutton
Tom Davis
Pete Carril
Rollie Massimino
Jud Heathcote
Gean Keady
Jim Harrick
Joe Harrington
Jerry Pimm
I know what you are thinking. Who is Jerry Pimm? Unless you are an obsessed basketball fan (or a Pitt fan), you probably don’t know that he’s the start of the Ben Howland – Jamie Dixon tree.
Jerry Pimm
. 1) Ben Howland – former assistant at UC Santa Barbara
. 2) Jamie Dixon – Pimm assistant at UCSB, Howland assistant at Pitt
But there’s a bigger question here. What does a coaching tree really mean? I’m basing this on resumes available online. Since the start of 64-team era in 1984-85, what connections can you draw? But are those connections really meaningful? I list Rick Barnes as a Gary Williams disciple. But Barnes was only a William’s assistant for one season. And then Barnes returned to George Mason where he had been a long-time assistant under Joe Harrington. It hardly seems fair to put Barnes in Gary Williams coaching tree based on one season. But that’s what we do. Meanwhile, most of the Joe Harrington’s of the world get ignored. But the former Colorado coach is lucky. Seth Greenberg was also Harrington’s assistant. So Joe Harrington becomes a piece of trivia:
Joe Harrington
. 3) Seth Greenberg – former assistant at Long Beach St.
4) Gary Williams
. 5) Rick Barnes – assisted Harrington at GMU, Williams at Ohio St.
. 6) Frank Haith – Barnes’ assistant at Texas
My goal is to cover connections made after the start of the NCAA tournament era. I.e. after 1984-85. Williams, Ryan, Huggins, Boeheim, and Mike Montgomery were already head coaches at that time which is why they get to start trees.
7) Bo Ryan
. 8) Tony Bennett – remained assistant at Wisconsin after father left
9) Mike Montgomery
. 10) Ernie Kent – former assistant at Stanford
. 11) Trent Johnson – former assistant at Stanford
. 12) Mark Fox – Johnson’s assistant at Nevada
Thad Matta was also an assistant under Barry Collier who was an assistant under Mike Montgomery. But I put Thad Matta in the Rick Pitino tree.
13) Jim Boeheim
. 14) Rick Pitino
. 15) Herb Sendek – assisted Pitino at Providence and Kentucky
. 16) Thad Matta – assisted Sendek at Miami(OH)
. 17) Sean Miller – assisted Sendek at Miami(OH), Matta at Xavier
. 18) Todd Lickliter- assisted Matta at Butler
. 19) Scott Drew – student manager while Matta assisted at Butler
. 20) Tubby Smith – assisted Pitino at Kentucky
. 21) Billy Donovan – assisted Pitino at Providence and Kentucky
. 22) Travis Ford – played under Pitino, Sendek, Smith, & Donovan
. 23) John Pelphrey – played with Ford, Donovan assistant
. 24) Anthony Grant – assisted Donovan at Florida, Marshall
Pitino was in the NBA in 1984-1985 which was the intended cut-off of my coaching trees, but I couldn’t resist the connection to Boeheim.
Mick Cronin was also a Pitino assistant at Louisville, but I put him in the Bob Huggins tree.
25) Bob Huggins
. 26) Mick Cronin – former assistant at Cincinnati
. 27) Andy Kennedy – former assistant at Cincinnati
. 28) Frank Martin – assisted Kennedy & Huggins at Cinc., Kansas St.
Mike Krzyzewski was also already a head coach at Duke in 1984-85, but I couldn’t resist the temptation to put him under Bob Knight. But am I the only one who gets the feeling that Krzyzewski doesn’t appreciate the connection to Knight anymore?
Bob Knight
. 29) Pat Knight – assisted Knight at Texas Tech
. 30) Mike Krzyzewski – played under Bob Knight at Army
. 31) Mike Brey – former assistant at Duke
. 32) Jeff Capel III – played for Duke while Brey was an assistant
. 33) Johnny Dawkins – former assistant at Duke
Fred Hill was also an assistant under Tommy Amaker who was an assistant at Duke, but I put Hill in the Rollie Massimino tree.
Rollie Massimino
. 34) Jay Wright – former assistant at UNLV and Villanova
. 35) Fred Hill – Wright’s assistant at Villanova
Pete Gillen – former assistant at Villanova
. 36) Dino Gaudio – Gillen assistant at Xavier
. 37) Bobby Gonzalez – Gillen assistant at Xavier, Prov., & Virginia
Steve Lappas – former assistant at Villanova
. 38) Paul Hewitt – Lappas assistant at Villanova
Jud Heathcote
. 39) Tom Izzo – former assistant at Michigan St.
. 40) Stan Heath – former assistant at Michigan St.
. 41) Tom Crean – former assistant at Michigan St.
. 42) Darrin Horn – Crean’s assistant at Marquette
. 43) Buzz Williams – Crean’s assistant at Marquette
Buzz Williams was also an assistant under Billy Gillispie at Texas A&M so you could pencil him in another tree below.
Gene Keady
. 44) Bruce Weber – assisted Keady at Purdue
. 45) Matt Painter – played under Keady, assisted Weber at S. Ill.
. 46) Tracy Webster – assistant under Weber at Ill., Keady at Purdue
. 47) Kevin Stallings – assisted Keady at Purdue
Stallings was also an assistant under Roy Williams at Kansas. Tracy Webster was also an assistant under Billy Gillispie at Kentucky. Thus you could put both of them in another tree below.
Dean Smith
. 48) Roy Williams – former assistant at North Carolina
. 49) Jeff Lebo – played under Smith when Williams was an assistant
. 50) Mark Turgeon – assisted Williams at Kansas
Mark Turgeon also played at Kansas when Calipari and Self were assistants there.
Larry Brown
. 51) John Calipari – assisted Brown at Kansas
Eddie Sutton
. 52) Leonard Hamilton – assisted Sutton at Kentucky
. 53) Bill Self – assisted Brown at Kansas, Sutton & Hamilton at OkSt
Billy Gillispie – assisted Self at Illinois and Tulsa
. 54) Doc Sadler – assisted Gillispie at UTEP, Sutton at Arkansas
. 55) Norm Roberts – assisted Self at Illinois and Tulsa
John Pelphrey was also a one-year assistant under Eddie Sutton, but I listed him earlier because he was a long time assistant under Billy Donovan.
Pete Carril
. 56) Bill Carmody – former assistant at Princeton
. 57) John Thompson III – assisted Carmody and Carril at Princeton
. 58) Craig Robinson – Carmody’s assistant at Northwestern
Jim Harrick
. 59) Lorenzo Romar – former assistant at UCLA
. 60) Ken Bone – Romar’s assistant at Washington
Tom Davis
. 61) Bruce Pearl – former assistant at Iowa
. 62) Keno Davis – former assistant at Drake
The remaining active BCS coaches have no co-mingled resumes with other active BCS coaches since 1984-1985 as best I can tell.
63) Jim Calhoun
64) John Beilein
65) Kevin O’Neill
66) Al Skinner
67) Rick Stansbury
68) Oliver Purnell
69) Ed DeChellis
70) Sidney Lowe
71) Jeff Bzdelik
72) Gregg McDermott
73) Mike Anderson
A lot of these guys touched on the NBA or had other important mentors. You can’t ignore the fact that Mike Anderson is a former Nolan Richardson assistant because he brings 40 minutes of hell at Missouri. But with no other Richardson assistants in BCS leagues, there is no tree to draw.
So now can you connect Scott Drew to Matt Painter through Bill Self?
Scott Drew – Thad Matta – Herb Sendek – Rick Pitino – Billy Donovan – John Pelphrey – Eddie Sutton – Bill Self -
Now either take Bill Self - Mark Turgeon – Roy Williams – Kevin Stallings – Gene Keady – (optional Bruce Weber) – Matt Painter
Or Bill Self – Billy Gillispie – Tracy Webster – Bruce Weber – Matt Painter
What, you think you can do better?
Thursday, February 4, 2010
Wednesday, February 3, 2010
Surprise, Surprise, the Bulls are 5-5
A lot of people are going to look Georgetown’s home loss to USF and say that Georgetown overlooked South Florida. Georgetown played USF sandwiched in between Top 10 opponents Duke and Villanova. But that’s not true and that’s not fair to USF.
A lot of people are going to see that Greg Monroe fouled out for only the 2nd time this season and say that Georgetown lost because of foul problems. But that’s only part of the story and that’s not fair to USF.
A lot of people are going to see Chris Wright struggled and say that’s why Georgetown lost. And while Chris Wright remains the perfect predictor of Georgetown’s success this year, even that’s not fair to USF.
South Florida was flat out the better team on Wednesday night.
John Thompson the 3rd said in pre-game that Georgetown didn’t have to worry about overlooking USF because Dominique Jones was playing so well and the team knew he would be a real challenge. And after watching the Pitt game this weekend, I was thinking about Jones too. Jones can get to 30 on any night if he wants to, just like Seton Hall’s Jeremy Hazell. So this afternoon I asked myself how many coaches would take Jones over Hazell. I thought the answer was “Everyone but Bobby Gonzalez”. (But after the way Hazell was loafing late in the Villanova game last night, the answer might be everyone.) And this game was the perfect example. Georgetown was double and triple teaming Jones early in the game and leaving other players open. And Jones did what Hazell doesn’t. Jones set up his teammates. And while his teammates were missing open shots, he showed he was willing to pass and Jones made the defense respect the pass.
Then at the start of the second half, USF ran two straight plays that picked up fouls number two and three on Greg Monroe. That was huge. Monroe had been dominating the game to this point on both ends of the court. But now Greg Monroe started playing tentative to avoid his 4th foul. And the light went off for USF. Stan Heath said it in the post-game. “We knew they were more aggressive in the first half, and we knew if we had a chance, we had to become the more aggressive team in the second half.” South Florida began to take the ball to the basket relentlessly, and South Florida quickly erased a 9 point deficit and built an 8 point lead on the Hoyas.
Make no mistake. Georgetown was not overlooking USF. Georgetown came out with intensity and was making shots. Early in the game Austin Freeman was fouled on a three point attempt and still hit nothing but net. At halftime Georgetown led by 9. This was not a Georgetown team that overlooked USF. USF simply played better basketball.
In his 3rd year at Arkansas, Stan Heath turned the Razorbacks into contenders. But it was too early in the process. His team was still missing pieces, and all he did was raise expectations. All he did was get himself fired. And I’ll admit, in Heath’s 3rd year at South Florida, I did not expect the Bulls to arrive. They had too many players that had struggled previously. They had too many transfers who didn’t fit in elsewhere, and couldn’t seem to find a role. It wasn’t that USF had no talent, but it didn’t seem to have the right talent. Well, in year three, Tom Izzo disciple Stan Heath is finally putting it together.
That’s not to say that USF fans should book NCAA tournament tickets. The mistake at Arkansas was that the fans expected too much too soon. But USF is finally showing the progress Stan Heath needs to build this program. For the first time since joining the Big East, we can say it. The Bulls have won 4 conference games in a row. The Bulls have arrived.
(Incidentally, Dominique Jones went a little crazy taunting the crowd after the win. I’d tell him to act like he’s been here before, but this is new territory for USF, so I’ll let him off the hook for now.)
-One of my running Illinois jokes while watching the games is that Brandon Paul can’t make a fast-break basket. He just seems to have a mental block about it. Tonight against Iowa was the best yet. After a steal gave him a 1 on 0, Paul missed a finger roll. Luckily for Paul there were still no Iowa defenders in the picture, so he was able to put in his own miss. You just can’t make this stuff up.
-Flipping back to my Pulse column, I want to point out two other errors. I called Duke’s horrible defense against NC State a fluke and Minnesota’s horrible defense against Indiana a fluke. Both Duke and Minnesota proved me wrong this weekend.
A lot of people are going to see that Greg Monroe fouled out for only the 2nd time this season and say that Georgetown lost because of foul problems. But that’s only part of the story and that’s not fair to USF.
A lot of people are going to see Chris Wright struggled and say that’s why Georgetown lost. And while Chris Wright remains the perfect predictor of Georgetown’s success this year, even that’s not fair to USF.
South Florida was flat out the better team on Wednesday night.
John Thompson the 3rd said in pre-game that Georgetown didn’t have to worry about overlooking USF because Dominique Jones was playing so well and the team knew he would be a real challenge. And after watching the Pitt game this weekend, I was thinking about Jones too. Jones can get to 30 on any night if he wants to, just like Seton Hall’s Jeremy Hazell. So this afternoon I asked myself how many coaches would take Jones over Hazell. I thought the answer was “Everyone but Bobby Gonzalez”. (But after the way Hazell was loafing late in the Villanova game last night, the answer might be everyone.) And this game was the perfect example. Georgetown was double and triple teaming Jones early in the game and leaving other players open. And Jones did what Hazell doesn’t. Jones set up his teammates. And while his teammates were missing open shots, he showed he was willing to pass and Jones made the defense respect the pass.
Then at the start of the second half, USF ran two straight plays that picked up fouls number two and three on Greg Monroe. That was huge. Monroe had been dominating the game to this point on both ends of the court. But now Greg Monroe started playing tentative to avoid his 4th foul. And the light went off for USF. Stan Heath said it in the post-game. “We knew they were more aggressive in the first half, and we knew if we had a chance, we had to become the more aggressive team in the second half.” South Florida began to take the ball to the basket relentlessly, and South Florida quickly erased a 9 point deficit and built an 8 point lead on the Hoyas.
Make no mistake. Georgetown was not overlooking USF. Georgetown came out with intensity and was making shots. Early in the game Austin Freeman was fouled on a three point attempt and still hit nothing but net. At halftime Georgetown led by 9. This was not a Georgetown team that overlooked USF. USF simply played better basketball.
In his 3rd year at Arkansas, Stan Heath turned the Razorbacks into contenders. But it was too early in the process. His team was still missing pieces, and all he did was raise expectations. All he did was get himself fired. And I’ll admit, in Heath’s 3rd year at South Florida, I did not expect the Bulls to arrive. They had too many players that had struggled previously. They had too many transfers who didn’t fit in elsewhere, and couldn’t seem to find a role. It wasn’t that USF had no talent, but it didn’t seem to have the right talent. Well, in year three, Tom Izzo disciple Stan Heath is finally putting it together.
That’s not to say that USF fans should book NCAA tournament tickets. The mistake at Arkansas was that the fans expected too much too soon. But USF is finally showing the progress Stan Heath needs to build this program. For the first time since joining the Big East, we can say it. The Bulls have won 4 conference games in a row. The Bulls have arrived.
(Incidentally, Dominique Jones went a little crazy taunting the crowd after the win. I’d tell him to act like he’s been here before, but this is new territory for USF, so I’ll let him off the hook for now.)
-One of my running Illinois jokes while watching the games is that Brandon Paul can’t make a fast-break basket. He just seems to have a mental block about it. Tonight against Iowa was the best yet. After a steal gave him a 1 on 0, Paul missed a finger roll. Luckily for Paul there were still no Iowa defenders in the picture, so he was able to put in his own miss. You just can’t make this stuff up.
-Flipping back to my Pulse column, I want to point out two other errors. I called Duke’s horrible defense against NC State a fluke and Minnesota’s horrible defense against Indiana a fluke. Both Duke and Minnesota proved me wrong this weekend.
Coaches Part #5
Quick quiz: Can you lose all Four Factors and still win the game?
Answer: Yes
How: If your opponent edges you only slightly in each factor, in a foul-heavy game you can still win by making a higher percentage of free throws. Example: You are 14 of 15 from the line and your opponent who has more possessions and shoots better from the field shoots 5 of 20 from the line. It’s unusual, but it does happen. As listed, none of the four factors accounts for the percentage of free throws made.
Another coaching post? I’m not done just because I broke down the Four Factors. Ken Pomeroy still has more stats to summarize. Today I average shooting percentage over the last 7 years, both at the FT line and from 2 or 3 pt range. These are some of the only “traditional” statistics to show up on kenpom.com, but they are still worth a quick summary.
Notes:
Cal’s Mike Montgomery leads the way on FT shooting, but notice the limited sample size. If you went back to 2002-2003 at Stanford, you’d see his team shot 67.8%. So he’s not the greatest FT percentage teacher of all time, but he does look good over Ken Pomeroy’s sample. Also looking good for a short time: Virginia’s Tony Bennett and Colorado’s Jeff Bzdelik. And at the slow pace those teams employ, every point is important.
Jay Wright wins the prize for consistent FT success over 7 years. And with a consistently guard heavy lineup, I’m not surprised. Wright just doesn’t recruit many 6’10” bruisers who can’t shoot. But what about Tom Izzo’s teams? Can you believe his hard-nosed squads have averaged such a high rate at the charity stripe? Well let’s just say Paul Davis and Drew Neitzel had something to do with this.
Among teams in the top 10 in free throw rate (FTA/FGA), the best FT coaches have been Sean Miller and Mike Krzyzewski. Meanwhile, John Calipari’s teams have a great free throw rate, but don’t convert those opportunities. That hasn’t cost Kentucky yet, but DeMarcus Cousins and Patrick Paterson are both shooting in the 60% range at the free throw line this year. No one sees this as a real problem since John Wall is so dependable at the charity stripe, but it still is a weakness for this year’s Kentucky team.
Also, keep in mind that it is often as much about who gets fouled as what the coach does. Jim Boeheim has had some great shooting guards, but the guys in the paint are the ones that get fouled, and they’ve been horrible for several years. Rare are the guards who can’t shoot, but does anybody remember former Clemson guard Vernon Hamilton? He shot 49% or 49 of 100 on FT attempts as a senior and is a big reason Oliver Purnell’s teams are at the bottom of the FT % list.
When it comes to 2 Pt %, we see most of the same coaches that were mentioned in the eFG% discussion. But UCLA’s Ben Howland’s teams have been surprisingly better inside the arc. The same could be said for John Beilein, Keno Davis, and Al Skinner. Now if only their teams would take more twos.
On the other end of the spectrum is Buzz Williams, whose teams have been so bad at 2 point shooting (too many jump shot and not enough lay-ups), that you wonder if his team should just shoot exclusively threes. The same could be said for Notre Dame’s Mike Brey whose teams avoid turnovers but also don’t get many lay-ups. This year's Notre Dame squad is a little different with Tim Abromaitis finding his groove alongside Luke Harangody, but traditionally the two point shot has been a bad shot for Notre Dame.
Sadly, shooting percentage isn’t as informative as I hoped. Perhaps next time I’ll delve into shot selection or bench utilization.
Answer: Yes
How: If your opponent edges you only slightly in each factor, in a foul-heavy game you can still win by making a higher percentage of free throws. Example: You are 14 of 15 from the line and your opponent who has more possessions and shoots better from the field shoots 5 of 20 from the line. It’s unusual, but it does happen. As listed, none of the four factors accounts for the percentage of free throws made.
Another coaching post? I’m not done just because I broke down the Four Factors. Ken Pomeroy still has more stats to summarize. Today I average shooting percentage over the last 7 years, both at the FT line and from 2 or 3 pt range. These are some of the only “traditional” statistics to show up on kenpom.com, but they are still worth a quick summary.
Notes:
Cal’s Mike Montgomery leads the way on FT shooting, but notice the limited sample size. If you went back to 2002-2003 at Stanford, you’d see his team shot 67.8%. So he’s not the greatest FT percentage teacher of all time, but he does look good over Ken Pomeroy’s sample. Also looking good for a short time: Virginia’s Tony Bennett and Colorado’s Jeff Bzdelik. And at the slow pace those teams employ, every point is important.
Jay Wright wins the prize for consistent FT success over 7 years. And with a consistently guard heavy lineup, I’m not surprised. Wright just doesn’t recruit many 6’10” bruisers who can’t shoot. But what about Tom Izzo’s teams? Can you believe his hard-nosed squads have averaged such a high rate at the charity stripe? Well let’s just say Paul Davis and Drew Neitzel had something to do with this.
Among teams in the top 10 in free throw rate (FTA/FGA), the best FT coaches have been Sean Miller and Mike Krzyzewski. Meanwhile, John Calipari’s teams have a great free throw rate, but don’t convert those opportunities. That hasn’t cost Kentucky yet, but DeMarcus Cousins and Patrick Paterson are both shooting in the 60% range at the free throw line this year. No one sees this as a real problem since John Wall is so dependable at the charity stripe, but it still is a weakness for this year’s Kentucky team.
Also, keep in mind that it is often as much about who gets fouled as what the coach does. Jim Boeheim has had some great shooting guards, but the guys in the paint are the ones that get fouled, and they’ve been horrible for several years. Rare are the guards who can’t shoot, but does anybody remember former Clemson guard Vernon Hamilton? He shot 49% or 49 of 100 on FT attempts as a senior and is a big reason Oliver Purnell’s teams are at the bottom of the FT % list.
When it comes to 2 Pt %, we see most of the same coaches that were mentioned in the eFG% discussion. But UCLA’s Ben Howland’s teams have been surprisingly better inside the arc. The same could be said for John Beilein, Keno Davis, and Al Skinner. Now if only their teams would take more twos.
On the other end of the spectrum is Buzz Williams, whose teams have been so bad at 2 point shooting (too many jump shot and not enough lay-ups), that you wonder if his team should just shoot exclusively threes. The same could be said for Notre Dame’s Mike Brey whose teams avoid turnovers but also don’t get many lay-ups. This year's Notre Dame squad is a little different with Tim Abromaitis finding his groove alongside Luke Harangody, but traditionally the two point shot has been a bad shot for Notre Dame.
Sadly, shooting percentage isn’t as informative as I hoped. Perhaps next time I’ll delve into shot selection or bench utilization.
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