Buzz #9 coach in the country...

[dw3dw3dw3]

At least according to MVN.com

http://mvn.com/outsider/2009/02/ncaa-top-10-best-coaches-in-college-basketball.html

[ecompt]

The Coach K line cracks me up. "Duke never has a down year because Coach K won't allow it." Yeah, but those 10 McDonald's All-Americans are a big help.

[Badgerhater920]

The Coach K line cracks me up. "Duke never has a down year because Coach K won't allow it." Yeah, but those 10 McDonald's All-Americans are a big help.

Right, but who recruits them?

[ecompt]

Methinks recruiting at Duke is not the toughest job in the world. Coach K gets pretty much any kid he wants without even trying, thanks partly to morons like Dickie V screaming about the school.

[Goatherder]

Duke was terrible when Coach K.  arrived.  While they had had some success in the past, they were at the bottom of the ACC when he took over.  He built the program.  And recall that when he arrived, Duke had the same problem Northwestern has.  They were the smart school in the conference, and were too small to hide dumb, talented kids in the general studies department or something.  Northwestern has never been successful for more than a season at a time.  Stanford has, but not consistently.  Duke has.  The year he took off for health reasons, they were terrible again.  Say what you will about Dukie V.,  and whether you like him or not, Coach K. has built perhaps the finest program ever at Duke. 

[ecompt]

Yes, he has built them into a powerhouse, and for that he should be congratulated. Dean Smith did the same thing at UNC and was a god-awful game coach. Not once in the past 15 years has Coach K faced a team with more on-paper talent than his, yet somehow he'll get knocked out in the third round of the NCAAs again.

[wadesworld]

Yes, he has built them into a powerhouse, and for that he should be congratulated. Dean Smith did the same thing at UNC and was a god-awful game coach. Not once in the past 15 years has Coach K faced a team with more on-paper talent than his, yet somehow he'll get knocked out in the third round of the NCAAs again.

WHAT?!  This year's team is NOWHERE NEAR as talented as some of the Duke teams in the past.  1998 had Shane Battier, Elton Brand, Trajan Langdon, and Roshown McLeod.  The next year they lost McLeod and gained Corey Maggette.  2000 they had Battier, Chris Carrawell, Jason Williams, Carlos Boozer, and Mike Dunleavy.  2001 drop Battier and add Chris Duhon.  2002 they had Dahntay Jones, JJ Redick, Daniel Ewing, Chris Duhon, Sheldon Williams, and Shavlik Randolph.  2003 lost Jones but added Luol Deng.  2005 they had Sean Dockery, David McClure, Josh McRoberts, DeMarcus Nelson, Greg Paulus, JJ Redick, and Sheldon Williams.  Those teams were all better than this year's team.  Gerald Henderson and Nolan Smith are the only players on this year's roster who have any NBA potential in them.  They're not nearly as good this year as in previous years.  They have no inside presence and are not that athletic.

[ecompt]

where did I compare this year's Duke team to some of his other ones? Nowhere. I said that if you look at his team on paper and look down his roster of high school studs, he still goes into virtually every game with more talent than his opponents. And he'll still get his butt sent home in the third round of the tournament.

[Goatherder]

Yes, he has built them into a powerhouse, and for that he should be congratulated. Dean Smith did the same thing at UNC and was a god-awful game coach. Not once in the past 15 years has Coach K faced a team with more on-paper talent than his, yet somehow he'll get knocked out in the third round of the NCAAs again.

Maybe, but I have to wonder about that.  Somehow, he managed to win three national championships and take his team to ten Final Fours.  Al supposedly said that it is harder to get to a Final Four today than it was to win it in his day.  He went to two.  Duke under Coach K. went to 10.  Lots of teams with lots of talent do not win national championships, including an absolutely loaded UNLV team which had won the national championship the year before, gone undefeated on the way to the Final Four, and got beaten by Duke on their way to the national championship.  For a guy who can't coach, Coach K. must have done something right somewhere, since he has a better record than any coach not named Wooden.  If losing in the third round is a sign of failure, it is the kind of failure nearly every team in America would envy. 

[ecompt]

I never said he couldn't coach. He's no Digger Phelps in terms of underacheiving. Neither is he Bobby Knight or Pete Carril in terms of overacheiving.