Top 50 Coaching Jobs

The annual coaching hires and fires among college basketball coaches got me thinking. What are the 50 best college basketball head coaching jobs?

I looked at:

-Prestige
-Overall success
-Success the last decade
-Ability to recruit



First Class:

1) North Carolina
2) Kentucky
3) Kansas
4) Duke
5) UCLA
6) Indiana

Indiana barely made the first list, but they get in by reputation alone. At least for another 5 years.


Business Class: 

7) Louisville
8) Ohio State
9) Arizona
10) Michigan State
11) Syracuse
12) Illinois
13) Uconn
14) Villanova
15) Georgetown

16) Texas
17) Florida
18) Maryland
19) Pittsburgh
20) St. Johns
21) Notre Dame


Economy Class

22) Oklahoma
23) Marquette
24) North Carolina State
25) Wisconsin
26) Arkansas
27) Washington
28) Purdue
29) Oklahoma State


Stand By:

30) USC
31) Michigan
32) Stanford
33) LSU
34) Tennessee
35) Missouri
36) Memphis
37) Oregon
38) West Virginia
39) Texas A&M
40) Kansas State
41) Cincinnati
42) Clemson
43) Wake Forest
44) Vanderbilt
45) Butler
46) Alabama
47) Xavier
48) Georgia Tech
49) Virginia
59) Gonzaga

Bracket Predictions

My Super Bowl prediction was within 1 point, so I'll try this again.

There's still 2 days left of conference tournaments, but here's my bracket:

1 seeds:
Ohio State
Kansas
Pittsburgh
Notre Dame

Team that could fall: Notre Dame

Ohio State and Kansas are locks. That's not changing one bit. Duke has a shot to steal a 1-seed from the other two, however. Especially with Pitt's 76-74 loss to Uconn today. Kemba Walker is nails, by the way. Big East Player of the Year, no question about it.

2's:
Duke
North Carolina
Purdue
Syracuse

Team that could jump up: Duke
Team that could fall: Syracuse

North Carolina's 12-1 ACC finish surprised everyone I think. Kendall Marshall's move to starting point guard played a big part in that run.

3's:
San Diego State
Uconn
BYU
Texas

Team that could jump up: San Diego State

4's:
Wisconsin
Florida
Louisville
Arizona

Teams that could fall: Arizona

5's:
Kentucky
St. Johns
West Virginia
Xavier

Team that could jump up: Kentucky

6's:
Texas A&M
Georgetown
UNLV
Vanderbilt

Team that could jump up: Texas A&M
Teams that could drop: UNLV, Vanderbilt

7's:
Old Dominion
Kansas State
Cincinnati
Temple

8's:
Missouri
George Mason
UCLA
Utah State



The top 4 seeds were fairly easy to choose from. After that it got a little tedious, but we'll see what happens on Sunday at 5.

Big 12 Wrap Up

Back in early January I predicted the Big 12 standings here.

What I knew all along:

-Kansas would capture its 7th straight Big 12 title, albeit a very tough road after trailing Texas by 2 games midway through the conference schedule.

-Rick Barnes would pull a Rick Barnes. The Longhorns started the Big 12 season 11-0 only to lay eggs against Nebraska, Colorado, and Kansas State. Way to go, Rick.

-Kansas State wasn't as good as everyone wanted to believe. However, they did rally big time after starting 2-5 in conference play to finish 4th. It's not the season they hoped for, but a Big 12 tournament 4-seed is better than the NIT.

-Texas Tech isn't very good at basketball. Shocking, considering their ridiculous home atmosphere down in Lubbock.

I had no clue:

-Colorado would finish 8-8, good enough for a 5-seed in the Big 12 tournament. Tad Boyle can coach, so the Pac-10 better watch out. Also, Buffs guard Alec Burks will be in the NBA sooner rather than later.

Here's how they finished:


1) Kansas: (14-2) Predicted finish: (1st)

2) Texas (13-3) (2nd)

3) Texas A&M: (10-6) (4th)

4) Kansas State (10-6) (5th)

5) Colorado: (8-8) (10th)

6) Missouri: (8-8) (3rd)

7) Baylor: (7-9) (6th)

8) Nebraska: (7-9) (8th)

9) Oklahoma State: (6-10) (9th)

10) Oklahoma: (5-11) (12th)

11) Texas Tech: (5-11) (11th)

12) Iowa State: (3-13) (7th)


So I was perfect on 5 teams, within 1 spot on 3 teams, and missed badly on Colorado, Iowa State, and Missouri. I would predict the Big 12 Tournament which starts in 9 hours, but frankly, I don't care about conference tournaments.

The Big Least

I hear every year how The Big East is the most amazing basketball conference in the history of basketball conferences. Sure, they have a lot of teams getting into the tournament, but the conference is home to nearly every team on the eastern seaboard. Of course they get more teams in.

But what do they do in March?

I looked up Big Least performances in the NCAA tournament since its expansion to 16 teams in 2005 and I wasn't surprised.

-The obvious number is the zero national champions.
-Even with a much larger conference, they've only had the most Elite 8 teams once. (4 teams in 2009)
-They had 2 Final Four teams in 2009, but the Big 10 and SEC have done the same. (2005 and 2006)

And because conferences have different amounts of teams, I looked at percentages.

-The Big 10, not the Big Least, has had the highest percentage (from 2005-present) with 27% of its teams in the 2005 Elite 8.
-The Big 10 also had 18% of its members make the Final Four in 2005. The SEC had 16% of its members make the Final Four in 2006. Both are above the Big Least's best year, which was 12% in 2009.

When averaged out from 2005 until now:

-The Big Least has had 4% of its teams make the Final Four, tied for 3rd with the SEC and PAC 10.
-The ACC has had more with 5%.
-The Big 10 has the most with 7%.


In title games since 2005:

-Big 10 is 0-2
-Pac 10 is 0-1 
-Big 12 is 1-0.
-SEC is 2-0
-ACC is 3-0

The Big Least hasn't made the title game since expanding to 16 teams in 2005.


I don't see that changing this year either. The Big Least once again has a lot of good teams like Pittsburgh, Villanova, Syracuse, Notre Dame, and St. Johns. They might even get 11 teams in the tournament.

But don't expect any of them to win it all.