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
Duke
ACC
Jon Scheyer
12
Mississippi St.
SEC
Chris Jans
15
Maryland
B10
Kevin Willard
35
Xavier
BE
Sean Miller
36
Kansas St.
B12
Jerome Tang
37
Florida
SEC
Todd Golden
51
Butler
BE
Thad Matta
54
Missouri
SEC
Dennis Gates
64
Florida Gulf Coast
ASun
Pat Chambers
77
LSU
SEC
Matt McMahon
82
New Mexico St.
WAC
Greg Heiar
83
San Francisco
WCC
Chris Gerlufsen
85
Seton Hall
BE
Shaheen Holloway
95
Villanova
BE
Kyle Neptune
105
Massachusetts
A10
Frank Martin
108
Chattanooga
SC
Dan Earl
131
Davidson
A10
Matt McKilliop
133
Georgia
SEC
Mike White
143
High Point
BSth
G.G. Smith
162
Northwestern St.
Slnd
Corey Gipson
163
Murray St.
MVC
Steve Prohm
166
Milwaukee
Horz
Bart Lundy
175
Cleveland St.
Horz
Daniyal Robinson
184
Sacramento St.
BSky
David Patrick
187
East Carolina
Amer
Mike Schwartz
192
Louisiana Tech
CUSA
Talvin Hester
201
San Diego
WCC
Steve Lavin
204
George Washington
A10
Chris Caputo
219
Tulsa
Amer
Eric Konkol
243
Georgia St.
SB
Jonas Hayes
268
La Salle
A10
Fran Dunphy
270
Rhode Island
A10
Archie Miller
276
UMKC
Sum
Marvin Menzies
280
South Carolina
SEC
Lamont Paris
285
SMU
Amer
Rob Lanier
287
The Citadel
SC
Ed Conroy
293
Fairleigh Dickinson
NEC
Tobin Anderson
301
Saint Peter’s
MAAC
Bashir Mason
302
Lafayette
Pat
Mike Jordan
312
Miami OH
MAC
Travis Steele
315
Cal St. Northridge
BW
Trent Johnson
316
Jackson St.
SWAC
Mo Williams
330
Alabama A&M
SWAC
Otis Hughley Jr.
335
Western Michigan
MAC
Dwayne Stephens
337
Alabama St.
SWAC
Tony Madlock
342
Louisville
ACC
Kenny Payne
344
Elon
CAA
Billy Taylor
353
Mississippi Valley St.
SWAC
George Ivory
357
Biggest Positive Movers from Last Season
The Good
Current NET
Last Year NET
Difference Plus
Northwestern St.
Corey Gipson
163
330
167
Milwaukee
Bart Lundy
175
333
158
Sacramento St.
David Patrick
187
311
124
Florida Gulf Coast
Pat Chambers
77
199
122
High Point
G.G. Smith
162
258
96
Missouri
Dennis Gates
64
151
87
Georgia
Mike White
143
223
80
Massachusetts
Frank Martin
108
178
70
Butler
Thad Matta
54
117
63
Maryland
Kevin Willard
35
90
55
Mississippi St.
Chris Jans
15
60
45
Kansas St.
Jerome Tang
37
69
32
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 NET
Last Year NET
Difference
SMU
Rob Lanier
287
53
-234
Louisville
Kenny Payne
344
130
-214
Saint Peter’s
Bashir Mason
302
105
-197
South Carolina
Lamont Paris
285
93
-192
Murray St.
Steve Prohm
166
29
-137
Rhode Island
Archie Miller
276
142
-134
Georgia St.
Jonas Hayes
268
158
-110
Louisiana Tech
Talvin Hester
201
101
-100
Villanova
Kyle Neptune
105
6
-99
Davidson
Matt McKilliop
133
46
-87
Chattanooga
Dan Earl
131
63
-68
Tulsa
Eric Konkol
243
180
-63
LSU
Matt McMahon
82
20
-62
San Francisco
Chris Gerlufsen
85
26
-59
Seton Hall
Shaheen Holloway
95
48
-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.