As soon as once more CBS Sports activities presents our annual Candid Coaches collection, which spotlights related matters and points in males’s school basketball. Gary Parrish and Matt Norlander polled roughly 100 coaches in latest weeks on a wide range of topics. Coaches spoke on background and have been supplied anonymity to supply unfiltered opinions. That is the second installment in our 2025 survey.
The Candid Coaches collection is a mission we have carried out yearly (apart from pandemic-impacted 2020) for greater than a decade. It is a enjoyable train, partially as a result of it is at all times good to listen to from the people who find themselves in some ways guiding school basketball. And it is a worthy train, principally as a result of it offers us with ideas on points from coaches working coast-to-coast and in any respect ranges of the game.
However some questions are higher than others.
And those I at all times desire are those like at the moment’s query as a result of at the moment’s query is the kind that generates real perception solely school coaches may present. Who’s going to be the most effective crew in school basketball this season? Clearly, we at all times wish to know the way coaches would reply that query. However the fact is that your common coach would not essentially have any higher grasp on who will and will not be good in any given preseason than your common analyst and even fan.
On some stage, we’re all guessing.
However at the moment’s query would not require anyone to guess. Not all coaches comply with the game nationally very intently, however all of them know one another. They scout one another’s groups. They coach in opposition to one another. They’ve buddies on one another’s staffs. They’ve carried out clinics collectively, bounced concepts off of one another, borrowed performs from one another and may typically have a good suggestion for who’s good and who is not. So, with that in thoughts, Matt Norlander and I requested greater than 100 school coaches the next query:
Who’s the most effective X’s and O’s coach in school basketball proper now?
Matt Painter (Purdue): 19%
Dan Hurley (UConn): 18%
Greg McDermott (Creighton): 16%
Kelvin Sampson (Houston): 7%
Ben McCollum (Iowa): 5%
Randy Bennett (Saint Mary’s): 4%
Tom Izzo (Michigan State): 4%
Dusty Could Michigan): 4%
Invoice Self (Kansas): 4%
Rick Barnes (Tennessee): 2%
Chris Collins Northwestern): 2%
Grant McCasland (Texas Tech): 2%
Nate Oats (Alabama): 2%
Rick Pitino (St. John’s): 2%
Mark Schmidt (St. Bonaventure): 2%
Different: 7%
Quotes that stood out
About Matt Painter:
- “Paint runs nice stuff by design of his lineup. He’ll at all times have an anchor for his offense, a scoring middle. A lot of 3-point capturing. And when he has a dynamic playmaker his units are nearly inconceivable to cease. Then he has a ton of counters. You assume you realize what’s coming, then he flops it. Then he flips the flop. You gotta flip them over, ‘trigger you’ll be able to’t get sufficient misses.”
- “He has had distinctive gamers however he has not had super-talented gamers on the identical crew. He schemes and designs gameplans that beat extra proficient groups.”
- “Paint has turned an unheralded recruit right into a Nationwide Participant of the Yr [Zach Edey] and one other unheralded recruit (presumably) into the NCAA’s all-time help chief [Braden Smith]. No one is best and placing their gamers in positions to succeed.”
About Dan Hurley:
- “He does a very good job with, A) scouting. What he will go in opposition to. How he performs off his offensive menu. His tempo. Model of play. And if he has a extremely good level guard, they’re at all times going to be good. The best way he recruits towards his system with capturing is harmful.”
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“His groups have averaged over 1.2 factors per possession the final three seasons. He isn’t doing it with tempo — simply slicing folks up within the half court docket. Additionally a wizard out of timeouts.”
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“I simply assume Hurley, or his entire employees, which I am positive it is all of them, however they name units on the fly in loud arenas and so they execute extraordinarily effectively. That is so arduous to me. It is not popping out of a timeout or a useless ball. It is in the course of sport circulate. I believe it reveals how a lot work they do on all of the totally different reads and units, as a result of guys appear very flawless in getting from one motion to the following. And it is difficult stuff, not simply, like, drag ball screens.”
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About Greg McDermott:
- “Yr in and 12 months out his groups run their offense with precision, tempo and high-level execution. Having scouted in opposition to him and felt the stress they placed on the protection, it’s arduous to argue in opposition to that. Nice after time outs. Nice in-game changes. And places gamers in nice spots.”
- “He is extraordinarily arduous to organize for, he is the most effective in-game play caller within the nation and he hides his play calls higher than anyone so that you by no means know what’s coming.”
- “Sometimes he is been the most effective offensive scheme crew we have performed. Hurley is admittedly good however [Creighton] runs lots of units, motion, lots of false motion to get to sure actions within the circulate of issues to get guys performs out of ideas. He is the most effective. The number of methods he will get to Spain motion, the spacing ideas, how effectively they run and play in transition. … On each ends of the ball, I believe, he is sharp, well-prepared and inventive.”
The takeaway
Probably the most fascinating factor in regards to the solutions we acquired right here is that greater than half of them, precisely 53%, went to considered one of three males — Purdue’s Matt Painter, UConn’s Dan Hurley or Creighton’s Greg McDermott.
No one else bought greater than 7% of the vote.
What that means is that Painter, Hurley and McDermott have sturdy reputations with their friends as X’s and O’s difference-makers, a lot in order that they’ve type of separated from the pack. As you’ll be able to see, Painter gained the vote by the slimmest of margins over the person he coached in opposition to within the championship sport of the 2024 NCAA Match. My favourite quote we acquired in regards to the 55 year-old Purdue graduate got here from a coach who highlighted how Painter has taken a sub-400 recruit (Zach Edey) and made him a two-time Picket Award winner, and brought a borderline top-200 recruit (Braden Smith) and positioned him to presumably go down in historical past because the NCAA’s all-time assist-leader.
A few of that’s growth, positive. However lots of it’s that coaches largely consider Painter is the best possible at placing his gamers, whomever his gamers occur to be in any given season, in positions to succeed. On that word, think about that Purdue has had a consensus First Group or Second Group All-American in seven of the previous 9 seasons regardless of by no means enrolling a top-30 recruiting class or a top-30 prospect at any level throughout that span.
That is unimaginable.
And have you ever observed that that is turning into fairly the Candid Coaches collection for the Boilermakers? By way of 4 questions, coaches have advised us that they, A) count on Purdue to be school basketball’s greatest crew this season, B) assume Purdue’s Braden Smith will likely be school basketball’s greatest participant this season, and C) consider Purdue’s Matt Painter is the most effective X’s and O’s coach in school basketball proper now. In a word that is not technically associated however might be, the Boilermakers have emerged as the favourite to win the 2026 NCAA Match at +900, in accordance with FanDuel Sportsbook.
The season begins in 34 days.