CBS Sports activities faculty basketball insiders Gary Parrish and Matt Norlander spent a month surveying 100-plus Division I males’s basketball coaches for our annual Candid Coaches collection. They polled throughout the game’s panorama: a few of the largest names in faculty basketball, but additionally small-school assistants in low-major leagues. Coaches agreed to share unfiltered opinions in trade for anonymity. We requested them 10 questions, and can submit the outcomes over a three-week span.
We principally combine our Candid Coaches questions up every year to make sure we contact on subjects we all know folks inside the sport are discussing — like name, image and likeness rights and the transfer portal. However there are some questions which can be constants each offseason.
That is a type of.
In an try to be taught what precise faculty coaches take into consideration how the teaching carousel unfolded this yr, we requested roughly 100 faculty basketball coaches the next query:
Who was the most effective high-major teaching rent of 2023?
Quotes that stood out
On Rick Pitino (St. John’s)
- “The Rick Pitino Impact is alive and properly. Together with NIL backing from St. John’s, the sky is the restrict. We have been lucky to play Iona the final two years and Coach Pitino continues to be so sharp. His power is thru the roof, and he nonetheless has that aggressive spirit. If he is ready to do what he is been doing at some stage in his profession, he would be the King of New York and have St. John’s on the identical stage because the Knicks.”
- [The best hire] by far [is] Rick Pitino. I am a New York man — and I feel he’s the one one who can repair St. John’s. In every single place he goes, man, he wins. … I feel there is no doubt that he will [win at St. John’s].”
- “[Pitino is a} proven, a winner everywhere he’s gone. He’s one of the best basketball minds in the country and a grinder on the recruiting trail. St. John’s will be an NCAA Tournament team in Year 1.”
- “I think Rick Pitino is the greatest college coach of all time. He can recruit. He’s a tactician.He’s a great in-game coach. You check his body of work. He’s a great late-game coach — and all his teams compete at the highest level. In college, he’s won everywhere he’s shown up. When you think about coaching, what it requires, I think coaches make the difference out of timeouts, halftime, end-of-game, that’s what we get paid for. And he’s elite in those areas.”
On Ed Cooley (Georgetown)
- “I have watched him from a far. I think he fits the mold at Georgetown. I think he recruits well and comes across not only as a professional and hard worker, but one that is not a pushover either. He has shown that he can win at some traditionally tough jobs as well. I don’t know him really at all besides a casual conversation but I have never heard anything bad said about the guy and he seems to have earned a lot people’s respect when you say his name around the profession.”
- “Cooley because he is a proven HM winner who has a great reputation. I think he immediately gives credibility to the program and will get it back to winning with good kids who are proud to be at Georgetown.”
- “Gets the most out of his talent. His teams play hard. Great X-and-O in-game adjuster. Was able to get Providence to be a contender year in and year out in the Big East. Able to figure out a new roster with transfers better than most.” Â
On Micah Shrewsberry (Notre Dame)
- “[Put me down for] Shrewsberry based mostly on the mix of taking on a program that is down however has nice potential, his total match for all issues Notre Dame, his capacity to educate the sport, and the chance of an extended tenure. I may say the identical issues about Ed Cooley for certain.”Â
- “I will go along with Micah Shrewsberry. He can coach his ass off and is a superb tradition match for Notre Dame.”
On Chris Beard (Ole Miss)
- “[My answer] can be predicated on what you’d contemplate the standards to be. The most effective coach with the flexibility to win video games is Chris Beard. He took Texas Tech to the Closing 4. That is not simple to do. I feel he is super. Clearly, you [have to look] previous what transpired in Austin, [and if not for that] he would not even be on that checklist [because he’d still be at Texas]. However I feel he is a terrific, good coach.”Â
On Grant McCasland (Texas Tech)
- “He has gained at a excessive stage all over the place he has been all through his profession. He’s an incredible communicator and builder of a profitable tradition. He appears to essentially make investments time into the connection he has along with his guys, they usually play extraordinarily exhausting for him due to it. He is also an excellent evaluator of expertise. Not often misses on a man.”
The takeaway
If you happen to listened to our current St. John’s episode on the Eye On College Basketball podcast, you probably know that I agree with what the coaches advised us right here. I really like Georgetown’s rent of Ed Cooley. Micah Shrewsberry at Notre Dame appears good. I do not assume there’s any doubt Chris Beard will win at Ole Miss.
I really like most of those high-major hires.
They’re all smart.
However this offseason’s greatest rent must be St. John’s touchdown Rick Pitino, the Naismith Memorial Corridor of Fame coach who stays the one particular person to guide two completely different Division I males’s basketball applications to nationwide championships. He took Windfall to the 1987 Closing 4 in his second yr on the job, took Kentucky to the 1993 Closing 4 in his second yr of eligibility (earlier than profitable the 1996 NCAA Event), and took Louisville to the Closing 4 in his fourth yr on the job (earlier than profitable the 2013 NCAA Event). So not solely has Pitino taken all three high-major applications he is coached to the ultimate weekend of the season, he is achieved it remarkably shortly every time and will now rebuild St. John’s much more shortly given how he’ll be capable of use title, picture and likeness rights to lure first-time transfers with speedy eligibility.
For what it is price, I have St. John’s in my preseason Top 25 And 1.
I feel the Purple Storm shall be good this season.
However even when they don’t seem to be, I am sure they’re going to finally be nice as a result of despite the fact that Pitino will flip 71 years outdated later this month, he is nonetheless one of many sport’s best coaches. He simply spent the previous three seasons going 64-22 at Iona with two Metro Atlantic Athletic Convention regular-season titles, two Metro Atlantic Athletic Convention Event titles and two NCAA Event appearances. He was 34-6 within the MAAC the previous two seasons. So, certain, it is extremely uncommon for a faculty to rent a brand new coach who will flip 71 earlier than he coaches his first recreation. However St. John’s doing it ought to show good as a result of Pitino will not be a typical man in his 70s. I do not understand how else to say it, however while you speak to Pitino or textual content with him or simply watch him work, he does not look or sound like a person in his 70s and/or in want of retirement. Like one coach advised us above, Pitino stays very sharp and completely outfitted to do the job St. John’s employed him to do.
Barring a shock, he’ll do it properly.
One attention-grabbing word is that Chris Beard is on this checklist for the second time in two years. In 2021, he received 61% of the vote when we asked roughly 100 coaches to name the best hire of that offseason. However he solely obtained 11.7% of the vote this yr, largely as a result of some coaches appear conflicted with the query.
“How are you defining greatest?” a number of coaches requested.
Reality is, most coaches nonetheless consider Beard is simply as nice of a program-builder and coach as he was two years in the past — however some have been hesitant to name him this offseason’s “greatest rent” as a result of some merely consider he ought to’ve by no means been employed by an SEC college simply months after being charged with felony home violence stemming from an incident that bought him fired at Texas. Sure, these costs have been finally dropped, which cleared the best way for Ole Miss to do what it did. However there are nonetheless folks within the business who’re conflicted about an establishment of upper studying hiring an individual whose title appeared in a police report just like the police report Beard’s title appeared in final December, and that is the most effective rationalization for why he completed fourth in voting this yr after ending first two years in the past when the identical query was requested.
Earlier Candid Coaches questions:
