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1st Year Coaches Check In

We’ve made it through exam week and Christmas is approaching. With it will come the completion of the OOC portion of most schedules. I think this is a good time to check in on the progress of our new 1st year coaches this season.

All teams are now a 3rd of the way into the season and these are the current NET rankings from this season of the 1st-year coaches.

Current NET
DukeACCJon Scheyer12
Mississippi St.SECChris Jans15
MarylandB10Kevin Willard35
XavierBESean Miller36
Kansas St.B12Jerome Tang37
FloridaSECTodd Golden51
ButlerBEThad Matta54
MissouriSECDennis Gates64
Florida Gulf CoastASunPat Chambers77
LSUSECMatt McMahon82
New Mexico St.WACGreg Heiar83
San FranciscoWCCChris Gerlufsen85
Seton HallBEShaheen Holloway95
VillanovaBEKyle Neptune105
MassachusettsA10Frank Martin108
ChattanoogaSCDan Earl131
DavidsonA10Matt McKilliop133
GeorgiaSECMike White143
High PointBSthG.G. Smith162
Northwestern St.SlndCorey Gipson163
Murray St.MVCSteve Prohm166
MilwaukeeHorzBart Lundy175
Cleveland St.HorzDaniyal Robinson184
Sacramento St.BSkyDavid Patrick187
East CarolinaAmerMike Schwartz192
Louisiana TechCUSATalvin Hester201
San DiegoWCCSteve Lavin204
George WashingtonA10Chris Caputo219
TulsaAmerEric Konkol243
Georgia St.SBJonas Hayes268
La SalleA10Fran Dunphy270
Rhode IslandA10Archie Miller276
UMKCSumMarvin Menzies280
South CarolinaSECLamont Paris285
SMUAmerRob Lanier287
The CitadelSCEd Conroy293
Fairleigh DickinsonNECTobin Anderson301
Saint Peter?sMAACBashir Mason302
LafayettePatMike Jordan312
Miami OHMACTravis Steele315
Cal St. NorthridgeBWTrent Johnson316
Jackson St.SWACMo Williams330
Alabama A&MSWACOtis Hughley Jr.335
Western MichiganMACDwayne Stephens337
Alabama St.SWACTony Madlock342
LouisvilleACCKenny Payne344
ElonCAABilly Taylor353
Mississippi Valley St.SWACGeorge Ivory357

Biggest Positive Movers from Last Season

The Good

Current NETLast Year NETDifference Plus
Northwestern St.Corey Gipson163330167
MilwaukeeBart Lundy175333158
Sacramento St.David Patrick187311124
Florida Gulf CoastPat Chambers77199122
High PointG.G. Smith16225896
MissouriDennis Gates6415187
GeorgiaMike White14322380
MassachusettsFrank Martin10817870
ButlerThad Matta5411763
MarylandKevin Willard359055
Mississippi St.Chris Jans156045
Kansas St.Jerome Tang376932

I believe any of these P5 first year head coaches currently in the Top 65 are doing good jobs in season one. Willard, Jans, Matta, and Gates have all engineered impressive turnarounds already from last season. Certainly the better the team is the more impressive the jump is, as it gets harder the higher ranked you go. That said what a guy like Pat Chambers has been able to accomplish in year one is equally impressive if not more so. We profiled the transfer classes both assembled, and it has clearly paid off in a positive way. Anytime you can improve a team hundreds of spots in the rankings it got a chance to be one of the better turnarounds I can recall. The UTEP turnaround with Billy Clyde might be the only one off the top of my head that stands out as more significant outside of the P5. UTEP has a much stronger program though and are more capable of a turnaround like that. It’s impressive stuff regardless to do it at Sacramento State.

The Bad

I can’t really blame some of these programs taking a large stepback like Chattanooga, Saint Peter’s, and Murray State who lost most of their best players. When you are successful and a coaching change happens, it’s usually starting over in those situations. Just being competitive like Chattanooga and Murray State managed to rebuild is probably solid work considering what they lost. These are the kind of considerations that an end of the year re-grade would need to be taken into account.

Current NETLast Year NETDifference
SMURob Lanier28753-234
LouisvilleKenny Payne344130-214
Saint Peter?sBashir Mason302105-197
South CarolinaLamont Paris28593-192
Murray St.Steve Prohm16629-137
Rhode IslandArchie Miller276142-134
Georgia St.Jonas Hayes268158-110
Louisiana TechTalvin Hester201101-100
VillanovaKyle Neptune1056-99
DavidsonMatt McKilliop13346-87
ChattanoogaDan Earl13163-68
TulsaEric Konkol243180-63
LSUMatt McMahon8220-62
San FranciscoChris Gerlufsen8526-59
Seton HallShaheen Holloway9548-47

Louisville, SMU, and South Carolina are just as bad as you will ever see from programs supported at the level they are financial. There is really no excuse for programs supported at that level to ever be this bad. Coaches like Chris Mack and Frank Martin aren’t looking so bad now I bet. Rhode Island paying what they paid to get Archie Miller, the early returns aren’t looking much better either.

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