CBS Sports activities faculty basketball insiders Gary Parrish and Matt Norlander spent a month surveying 100-plus Division I males’s basketball coaches for our annual Candid Coaches sequence. They polled throughout the game’s panorama: a number of the greatest names in faculty basketball, but in addition small-school assistants in low-major leagues. Coaches agreed to share unfiltered opinions in change for anonymity. We requested them 10 questions, and can put up the outcomes over a three-week span.
No sport celebrates being one of many final 4 groups enjoying greater than faculty basketball, the place your complete season is actually labeled the “The Highway to the Ultimate 4.” All individuals who make it are endlessly launched as “Ultimate 4 coaches.” They be part of a particular membership. They get invited to particular dinners.
UConn’s Dan Hurley, San Diego State’s Brian Dutcher and FAU’s Dusty Might joined the membership in April. A 12 months earlier, North Carolina’s Hubert Davis grew to become a Ultimate 4 coach. A 12 months earlier than that, Baylor’s Scott Drew and UCLA’s Mick Cronin entered the group. In 2019, it was Virginia’s Tony Bennett, Texas Tech’s Chris Beard and Auburn’s Bruce Pearl. In 2018, it was Loyola Chicago’s Porter Moser. In 2017, it was Gonzaga’s Mark Few, Oregon’s Dana Altman and South Carolina’s Frank Martin.
The previous six NCAA Tournaments, on common, have featured 2.2 first-time Ultimate 4 coaches, which suggests at the least one man — and possibly multiple — will be part of the membership subsequent 12 months by advancing to the 2024 Ultimate 4 in Phoenix. With this in thoughts, we requested roughly 100 coaches the next query:
Who’s the perfect faculty basketball coach but to make a Ultimate 4?
| Matt Painter (Purdue) | 56.3% |
| Sean Miller (Xavier) | 11.6% |
| Randy Bennett (Saint Mary’s) | 8.9% |
| Greg McDermott (Creighton) | 5.4% |
| Ed Cooley (Georgetown) | 3.5% |
| Nate Oats (Alabama) | 3.5% |
| Jamie Dixon (TCU) | 2.7% |
| Leonard Hamilton (Florida State) | 1.8% |
| Tommy Lloyd (Arizona) | 1.8% |
| Eric Musselman (Arkansas) | 1.8% |
| Jerome Tang (Kansas State) | 1.8% |
| Cliff Ellis (Coastal Carolina) | 0.9% |
Quotes that stood out
On Matt Painter
- “There’s lots of good coaches, man. It is laborious [to make a Final Four]. You have to get fortunate; lots of these guys [who haven’t made it yet] are good [coaches] — however Matt Painter is an efficient human being. He is straightforward to be round. He is straightforward to cheer for. He is good — however what makes you need to [root for him is] that’s he is so personable. He is so relatable. To be that good and [to have no] ego, man, you would not know he is Matt Painter and [that] he is carried out what he is carried out whenever you’re with him.”
- “I’ve had the chance to teach in opposition to Matt for years and see it stay. He is not getting these McDonald’s All-People. He is taking these guys who match his college, his program and yearly they get higher and higher. He is an unbelievable offensive coach and an underrated defensive coach. I respect the best way he does issues.”
- “The most effective energetic coach but to make a Ultimate 4 is Matt Painter. He is had a superb run at a middle-of-the-pack Large Ten job with a blueprint that constantly has labored.”
- “I believe he’ll get there this season.”
On Sean Miller
- “He is received at a excessive degree in all places he has been and infrequently has a down 12 months. First 12 months at Xavier and already in Candy 16. Actually good coach.”
- “An impressive tactician and recruiter. He has been knocking on the door for years with a number of Elite Eights at each Xavier and Arizona. You don’t win on the constant degree that he has with out unbelievable pregame preparation and the flexibility to make excellent in-game changes.”
- “I do know Sean’s repute took successful [because of his NCAA troubles] at Arizona — however I do not care. That man is a helluva coach. Helluva coach. It will not be straightforward getting Xavier to a Ultimate 4. However he would possibly do it.”
On Randy Bennett
- “Unsure many others might do what he has in a spot like Moraga and in a league like WCC. Flat out ball coach!”
- “Bennett has constantly received for over 20 years. His groups have been some of the environment friendly offensive groups in that point. They’ve additionally been one of many high groups in defensive effectivity, giving up the fewest factors allowed per sport by caring for the ball and controlling tempo.”
On Greg McDermott
- “I am a giant McDermott fan. His staff final 12 months was adequate to make it [to the Final Four]. He is bought a shot this season too.”
On Cliff Ellis
- “For me, Cliff Ellis is the identify. The person is the third amongst energetic coaches in wins. He has been coach of the 12 months within the ACC and the SEC, amongst different coach of the 12 months awards. He has coached quite a few NBA guys and a man who bought probably the most out of his expertise. He doesn’t get the credit score he deserves, plus he graduated his student-athletes. I’ve performed for and labored for lots of nice coaches, and Cliff, from a preparation and technique standpoint, was pretty much as good as any of them.”
The takeaway
Take a look at these vote-totals, learn the quotes, and it needs to be clear how a lot Matt Painter’s colleagues respect him as a coach — and as simply the kind of man they take pleasure in being round. Hand to coronary heart, I even had one coach who has a staff theoretically adequate to win the 2024 NCAA Match inform me that he truly hopes Purdue wins the 2024 NCAA Match.
“I am pulling for the Boilers,” the coach mentioned.
Coaches consider Painter will finally break via — at the least to the Ultimate 4. Additionally they badly need him to interrupt via — at the least to the Ultimate 4. Sure, the teaching career is a cut-throat enterprise stuffed with backstabbing. Not all people likes all people. However, that apart, coaches largely perceive how laborious these jobs are, and lots of them know first-hand how irritating and deflating it may be to have high quality groups fall quick in March partially due to the randomness of a single-elimination event.
No one has gone via this extra dramatically in recent times than Painter.
After practically becoming a member of the Ultimate 4 membership in 2019, when Purdue misplaced to Virginia in extra time of the Elite Eight, Painter returned to the NCAA Match in 2021 (after the 2020 NCAA Match was canceled) solely to look at his Boilermakers lose to North Texas within the first spherical. In 2022, Purdue simply wanted to beat Saint Peter’s within the Candy 16 to advance to the Elite Eight, the place the Boilermakers would’ve been favored to beat North Carolina and advance to the Ultimate 4 — however Purdue was eradicated by the Peacocks regardless of closing as a 13-point favourite. Then, earlier this 12 months, Purdue secured a No. 1 seed within the 2023 NCAA Match however misplaced to Fairleigh-Dickinson as a 23.5-point favourite within the first spherical, turning into solely the second No. 1 seed in historical past to lose to a No. 16 seed within the NCAA Match.
Add it up, and the Boilermakers have had practical probabilities to make the Ultimate 4 in at the least three of the previous 4 NCAA Tournaments both due to the standard of their groups or the circumstances their groups discovered themselves in or each. Painter has been knocking laborious on the door. He is been so shut. However the 53-year-old Purdue graduate is nonetheless in the hunt for his first journey to the ultimate weekend of the season, and the coaches we polled recognized him as the perfect coach but to make a Ultimate 4 by a reasonably convincing margin.
The excellent news?
The excellent news is that Painter can also be arguably the more than likely coach to subsequent make the Ultimate 4 for the primary time provided that Purdue is No. 2 within the CBS Sports activities preseason High 25 And 1. So it is attainable Painter can be ineligible for this listing this time subsequent 12 months. If issues go as deliberate, he needs to be.