Comments on: CBB: Changing the Culture

By: DSMok1

DSMok1 — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 14:04:48 +0000

Neil: would it be possible to look at college coaches through the lens of the previous, say, 10 years also? I did this exact thing over at OUHoops.com to rank the current coaches: I looked at each coach's record at each school at which they had coached, and compared that to the record before they had been there. "Rank the Big XII coaches" It would be possible to rank all coaches by looking at the school's records before each stint at each place, compare to the records when they were/are there, and weight by the number of years at that location. The result could be a wining percentage delta, or even better that winning percentage could be converted to a "margin" so that improving from 0.800 to 0.900 would be worth more than improving from 0.450 to 0.550. Interesting work.

By: Downpuppy

Downpuppy — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 13:56:08 +0000

UMass is on the list twice, but both times the culture snapped back to mediocrity pretty quick.

I'm not sure that Erving & Camby had less to do with the turnarounds than Leaman & Calipari.

By: Mike G

Mike G — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 23:10:18 +0000

"when a coach turns a team around you can be pretty sure that they're responsible. " Infinite wisdom trumps all. If an NBA coach's tenure coincides with a team's turning their fortunes around, that surely can't count against the coach. If he can do this repeatably, that's a positive indicator.

By: Neil Paine

Neil Paine — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 22:17:04 +0000

I could, but I'd probably have to limit it to the team's record in the 5 years or so before he took over. College is different in the sense that the coaches are bigger than the players (power-wise), and they have complete control over the program, so when a coach turns a team around you can be pretty sure that they're responsible. In the NBA, the stars are more important than the coaches, coaches rarely stay for long with any one team, and organizational philosophies are often dictated from above the coach's head. I'm not saying the coach has no power or anything, but I am saying it's difficult to apply the same study to them because coaching in the NBA is so much different from coaching in college.

By: Alvy

Alvy — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 21:36:36 +0000

John Wooden is the man! Are you going to publish something similar for NBA coaches?