Rank The B12 Coaches

For fun... give your opinions and rank the coaches. I'll start by giving my Top 5 (Rank more if you like

TOP STATEGISTS
1. Coale - OU
2. Fennelly - ISU
T3. Mittie - KSU
T3. Mulkey - BU
4. Carey - WVU
5. Littrell - OSU

TOP RECRUITERS
1. Aston - UT
2. Mulkey - BU
3. Carey - WVU

 

Is screaming at your players (Carey) considered strategy?

 

LOL...no, and neither is running up and down the sideline doing calisthenics and throwing your jacket all over the place... but Carey's teams are well-coached and his M2M defense is as good or better than anyone's.

 

This is a difficult question because part of coaching at the college level is recruiting. But it's no surprise the coaches left off are at the bottom of the conference perennially. I'll tell you my two favorites are 1) Coale and 2) Mulkey.

 

Lots of disdain on this board for those two... but I like them both.

 

Iowa St and Oklahoma St, Kansas St Coach's

 

I think Coale and Fennelly get EVERY OUNCE out of whatever talent they get... and can devise a winning (or at least competitive) game plan with pretty much any combination or types of talent.

 

If we’re talking strictly X’s and O’s I would go with Fennelly. Now I’m a person that believes coaching to some degree is overrated. I don’t think any coach is a genius. A lot of the times being a really good X’s and O’s coach can be just doing very simple obvious things and Fennelly does that. Like identifying a teams weakness and forcing a team to beat you playing to their weakness. How many years in a row has Fennelly used the same game plan against Texas? Play a soft zone and guard everyone but Brooke to make other players prove that they can beat them shooting the ball from the perimeter.

Also he knows that he’s not going to get top recruits so he uses the 3 point shot as the equalizer. Which is why his teams traditionally shoot a ton of 3’s because in basketball the 3 point shot is the great equalizer. But with saying all of that, I would still much rather be Coach Aston or Mulkey because at the end of the day the players are the ones actually playing the game not the coaches.

 

I will leave Karen out of my comments. I am happy with the job she is doing for us. Other than her, I pretty much agree with others. Fennelly, Mittie, Coale, and Littrel are great with X's and O's. I've especially always admired Fennelly. Not listing Mulkey. i know she's a good coach, but I've never seen her do a lot with a little, like these other coaches, and I've seen her make what I thought were real blunders.

 

Great observations by all. I, too, am very pleased with what Karen has done, and I've said before not many could've snatched our program from years of wallowing in mediocrity and put it back in the national conversation like she has in such a short time. It takes recruiting the talent to accomplish that and she gets an A+++. I know that I've expressed aggravation with her at times but at the end of the day she's the right person for our program -- on many levels.

 

Here's the coaches lifetime records: Big 12 titles include co-championships.

Candi Whitaker. 131-75. W-L% (.428). Big 12 Titles (0). 2017-2018 (6-9)

Karen Aston. 215-118. W-L% (.653). Big 12 Titles (0). 2017-2018 (14-1)

Jeff Mittie. 515-273. W-L% (.654). Big 12 Titles (0). 2017-2018 (12-3)

Jim Little. 137-71. W-L% (.659). Big 12 Titles (0). 2017-2018 (12-3)

Sherri Coale. 465-227. W-L% (.672). Big 12 Titles (6). 2017-2018 (7-8)

Mike Carey. 634-284. W-L% (.691). Big 12 Titles (1). 2017-2018 (14-2)

Bill Fennelly. 631-289. W-L% (.686). Big 12 Titles (1). 2017-2018 (7-8)

Kim Mulkey. 506-96. W-L% (.841). Big 12 Titles (8). 2017-2018 (14-1)

The truth is: If all the above coaches didn't schedule anywhere from 8 to 10 Cupcakes (guaranteed wins) their W-L record wouldn't be impressive at all. Seems to me that virtually any decent coach can go to a major conference and pull a few top notch players just because of school name and conference recognition. Schedule a bunch of Lamars, Austin Peays, & Northern Arizonas and come out of non conference with a 10-2 to 12-0 record. Then beat up on the 3 bottom feeders in the conference and split with the 3 middle-of-the-roaders and get an invite to the NCAA tourney practically every year. Doesn't really impress me. Make the coaches pick on somebody their own size (Top 40) and we'd find who really is a coach and who is a pretender.

Top National coaches: (active)

Geno Auriemma W-L % (.881)
Kim Mulkey W-L % (.841)
Tara Vanderveer W-L % (.811)
Brenda Frese W-L % (.768)
Muffett McGraw W-L% (.761)
Silvia Hatchell W-L% (.725)
Dawn Staley W-L% (.711)

 

In my "rankings" and in particular among the strategists I give a lot of consideration to those whom I feel put a competetive product on the floor with FAR less talent... those who do more with less.

I agree about the scheduling, I don't understand why some teams run from competition pretty much every season if they've supposedly got a perennial powerhouse team. If I thought I had one of the best teams in the nation year in and year out, then I'd want to play as many others as possible who thought the same about their teams. My philosophy is "Let's toss the ball up and find out!"