SpiderInTheMixingBowl

I remember that. I also remember those struggles were trivial compared to the ones Richmond encountered at the end of the Wainwright era.

bprichard

There are just a ton of good coaches in the league right now, and there are a lot of facets to it. In terms of in game coaches, I put the old veterans at the top of the heap, Majerus and Martelli. However, in terms of total coaching package, I'd prefer Stevens and Smart (with Mooney running right there). Dunphy also is a top notch coach, although I'd like to see him have more success in the tournament. And, well, he won't be in the top A-10 coaches conversation for much longer.

Mack is off to a great start and is obviously a clutch recruiter. I'm not completely sold on him as an in game coach, but I reserve the right to change that at the end of the season. If he can lead X to another sweet 16 with all the new faces coming in this year, he belongs right up there. Although Stevens remains the winner with two national championship game appearances until another A-10 coach makes a similar run.

I'm definitely interested to see what Hurley can do, but that's a bit of a rebuilding process ahead of him.

Archie Miller scores some points for boyish charm but is still very much an unknown quantity.

Worst coach: Kellogg

AdamtheFlyer

Struggle is a relative term. In Chaney's last 5 years, from 01-02 through 05-06, Temple had winning overall records, winning A10 records in all but his last year (8-8), NIT berths, an MSG trip, and one appearance in the A10 finals.

By Temple standards that is down. That kinda proves my point. Taking over a program rightfully disappointed with a string of decent seasons, and one that hadn't seen a postseason-less year since 1983, is pretty a sweet gig to step into, right?

That's why I say it's unfair to put accomplishments as a major litmus test. Some guys walk into great spots, some guys walk into St Bona several years ago or Fordham now. Have to look deeper. That's my only point. And two of my top 3 are guys that walked right into cushy gigs, so it's not like I'm one to fall victim to any ol' rebuilding guru.

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College Hoops

I think most of these guys are pretty good with the X's & the O's. Most are probably pretty good at trying to maximize the teams' and the individual players strengths while trying to minimize the weaknesses. If last year your team had been coached by Calapari. Pitino, Roy Williams, Coach K or Bill Self would they have had a different record? The coach has to have knowledge of the game and be able to communicate it to his players, but it sure helps if you have a large budget, a storied program to sell and are able to recruit cream of the crop players. talent makes it easier to be thought of as a great coach.

ExplorerSteve

Strange seeing Martelli on the lists of posters... then again some of you wanna forget his 20 loss seasons.

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Bona Wolf for Pope

Consecutively, no less.

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X Factor

It cracks me up how a lot guys don't think Mack is that good of a coach.

Three years as a head coach with 3 NCAA's and 2 Sweet Sixteens. Oh yeah, happens all the time around the country.

His record against the "Big Six" is great and his in conference record is spectacular.
But, he's not that good of an in game coach.

He's also the best recruiter in the conference.

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Mac539

Anyone who doesn't value defense should not even be considered.(Martelli)

NLP

1) Jeff Lebo
2) Brad Stevens
3) Alan Major
4) Shaka Smart
5T) Chris Mack, Franny Dunphy and Chris Mooney
8) Bobby Lutz

Free Quebec

I believe Mike Lonergan is the only coach in the league to have won a national championship.

(at Catholic University of all places, DIII). He inherited a mess and hasn't time to get it turned around in just one season. But I love the guy. I think he has an attention to detail and knowledge of the game that rivals everyone in the league, even Stevens. The one big question is whether, when he gets his guys in place, he's able to get athletes at an A-10 level to play the style he prefers. If he does, he's going to easily crack these top 5 lists.

But for now, I'd say:
1) Stevens (guy knows his stuff and gets it done)

2) Martelli (he was national runner up and has succeeded at multiple stops - don't ding him because it took time to turn SLU around as that would happen to all coaches).

3) Shaka Smart (last year's defensive scheme sold me that he's for real)

4) Martelli (he's struggled to recruit at times to SJU, but he took 1 team to #1, took another to the sweet 16, and has a potentially great team now. I think a lot of the top coaches would go through lean periods at SJU so I don't fault him too much for the down times).

5) Fran Dunhphy (he's done it over a long period of time, including at the Ivy where it's tougher)

6) Chris Mack (what he's done is impressive, but he didn't have to build it himself. We're about to learn a lot about him with an all new backcourt. Needs more time to crack the top 5).

7) Chris Mooney (It's a tribute to the league that he's 7 because he's an impressive coach).

8) Mike Lonergan (because I'm a homer, I believe he knows the game better than any other coach, and he won a national championship at the DIII level. And did I mention I'm a homer?)

9) John Gianini (he's done a decent job recruiting, and I really liked last year's team and the one he has this year, but he doesn't seem to be anything special. LaSalle is a tough job).

For everyone else, the jury is still out for me. Pecora did a nice job at Hofstra - he can obviously coach whether it works out at the league's toughest job or not. I'd probably put him 9. Schmidt has had mixed results. He did a nice job getting a big leap forward out of the supporting cast last year, but let's see if the success was a Nicholson-fluke Kellogg has built an athletic team after a couple of rough years, but it remains to be seen whether he can even reach a Karl Hobbs level. Alan Major seems to be nothing special. The new guys and Miller just haven't been around long enough to judge. My guess is that Miller is about the same as the last two Dayton coaches (good), Hurley proves to be a great recruiter and is gone within 4 years, and the Dukes guy gets fired within 5 years because he won't match Everhart).

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xudash

Especially two seasons ago when absolutely everyone was convinced we were in for a rebuilding year. Bang! Another regular season crown and NCAA appearance.

Knobby

I like the fact that Kellog is so under appreciated/under estimated. He is most certainly not in the top 1/3 of the coaches in this conference (not yet anyway), but I do think he will have earned the respect of most to be in that middle group by the end of this next year. I can certainly see why outsiders would not think much of him, Umass was poor to aweful in his first three years, but I think last year was a sign of significant improvement. He is still in the first phase of his learning curve and I think he will surprise a lot of people this season.

I cannot belive how many rate Dunphy and Martelli over Mack - the records speak for themsleves - don't they?

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Hawkamaniac

He is a former National Coach of the Year from a mere eight years ago. We're not talking about Don Haskins coaching midmajor UTEP in the '90's long after he won a national championship at the former Texas-Western.

Bona84

I agree that we need to see what the future holds for Schmidt and the Bonnies. I'm not ready to anoint him as one ofthe top coaches in the conference yet. But, is mixed the right way to characterize his results at Bona? He inherited a team at the bottom of D1 basketball, and increased their conference wins, and for you rpi lovers, their rpi, every year from year 1 of his tenure. You note that Mack did not have to build it himself. Well, Schmidt did. Yes, Nicolson was a big part of it, as is the best player on any of the other coaches' results. Some credit is deserved.

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MudFlap

He's right up there with Brad and Shaka. Recent results are all that count.