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Ernie Would Do Well In This NCAA Pool

April 20th, 2008

Jay, here.

A quick little hit on the Cal blog “The Band Is Out On The Field” just caught my attention. It’s a week or so old, but it brings up an interesting comparison.

Is Pac-10 basketball now SEC football?

Are we seriously that coaching crazy?

Ernie Kent is probably the 9th best coach in the league (hell, there is a possibility he could be No. 10 by next week depending on who OSU game get.)

Ernie Kent has two Elite Eights (2002, 2007) in the last six years.

Yet, some Oregon fans are talking job security. Wow.

There is an arms race in this conference. Coaching men’s basktetball in the Pac-10 is now the deepest that it’s ever been. No question. Considering the competition, every fan in the Pac-10 wants to know where their coach stands.

Well, I want to play a little statistical game. We all like to fill out NCAA brackets, right? Right. So, I’ve decided to score the coaches in the Pac-10 on a very similar point system. Even though past performance is the best indicator of future performance, these points clearly weigh past achievements and longevity over current conditions. But it does give you an interesting, quantifiable measurement of the current coaches in the Pac-10.

Here’s the point system. And we’re only scoring for NCAA appearances. Sorry, NIT means squadoosh, here.

NCAA Appearance: 1 point
2nd Round Appearance: 2 points
Sweet 16 Appearance: 4 points
Elite 8 Appearance: 8 points
Final Four Appearance: 12
Runner-up: 24
NCAA Champion: 48

Based on that point system, here’s how they rank:

10. Stanford - No coach.
9. OSU - Craig Robinson, 0 points.
8. WSU - Tony Bennett, 6 points.
7. Washington - Lorenzo Romar, 10 points.
6. ASU - Herb Sendeck. 13 points.
5. USC - Tim Floyd, 15 points.
4. Oregon - Ernie Kent, 20 points.
3. Cal - Mike Montgomery, 40 points.
2. UCLA - Ben Howland, 58 points.
1. Arizona - Lute Olson, 172.

What does it all mean?

For starters, it means that Lute Olson has been around for John McCain-long and won a Championship (Senator McCain is in the Championship Game this year). It also means that 8 out of the 10 coaches in the Pac-10 have scored NCAA points in their careers. Does anyone think Tony Bennett is the #8 coach in the conference? No. Is Lute Olson the best coach in the Pac-10 right now? I don’t think so.

And considering his success, it’s tough putting Ernie Kent in the bottom of this pool.

THE CONVERSATION

  1. sj Says:

    April 20th, 2008 at 8:34 pm

    Please fix your ad placement! That stupid Ford ad covers half the story content area.

  2. Jay Says:

    April 20th, 2008 at 8:37 pm

    SJ -

    Sorry about that. We’ll look in to it.

    Jay
    DSN

  3. DC Duck Says:

    April 21st, 2008 at 11:07 am

    thank you for an actually relevant discussion on Kent. I am tired of all of the bloggers saying that Few or Montgomery (I laugh at Stanford and hope that Cal dominates them) were coming to Oregon to replace Kent.

    my Oregon mates and I were discussing this just the other day in fact. I was the only one that was for keeping Kent. why does everyone want to say that Few will coach at Oregon? he has never said it is a career goal of his.

    I have said before that he is just as likely to come to Oregon to be a baseball coach (baseball was the only reason he attended Oregon). people do not understand what I mean by this. they think I am being literal in that he could coach baseball at Oregon - what I am trying to say is he isn’t going to coach anything at Oregon. Just because a guy graduated from the school does not make him a lock for coaching there (Rodriguez at Michigan vs WVU or Bill Self at Kansas vs OK State ).

    I have blogged a comparison of the Coach K at Oregon and Duke and you will see that using the rating above that Duke’s Coach K is at 31 over the same period as Kent. Not bad, but that does exclude one National Championship.

    So is that the problem people have with Kent? Over an 8 year span he doesn’t have one national title? wow if that is true then perhaps we are the SEC of basketball coaches.

    I for one am just fine with Kent - I would like him to strengthen his coaching staff, but that is for another blog.

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