Coaching-Wild Generalizations

[keithg]

"As we’ve said, coaching is improving the level of play and if you look at everyone below Maryland, with the possible exception of Wake Forest, they’ve all vastly improved their coaching. "

Oliver Purnell would take great exception to this statement...In his last 4 years at Clemson, he won 93 games (25,24,23,21). Brownwell has a decent year last year with Purnell's players and is struggling this year...yet he is a better coach. Go figure.

Gary Williams went 13-3 2 years ago in the ACC. Oh yeah, he also won a NC

Al Skinner had 7 20+ win seasons in Chesthill. I like Donahue but the jury's out of what he can get done in the same environment.

Bennett is the only no brainer in the conversation.

BTW>> NCST Coach= Jim Harrick protege...nuff said...

[sagegrouse]

"As we’ve said, coaching is improving the level of play and if you look at everyone below Maryland, with the possible exception of Wake Forest, they’ve all vastly improved their coaching. "

Oliver Purnell would take great exception to this statement...In his last 4 years at Clemson, he won 93 games (25,24,23,21). Brownwell has a decent year last year with Purnell's players and is struggling this year...yet he is a better coach. Go figure.

Gary Williams went 13-3 2 years ago in the ACC. Oh yeah, he also won a NC

Al Skinner had 7 20+ win seasons in Chesthill. I like Donahue but the jury's out of what he can get done in the same environment.

Bennett is the only no brainer in the conversation.

BTW>> NCST Coach= Jim Harrick protege...nuff said...

Skinner wore out his welcome in Chestnut Hill, and Donahue is doing very well with very little this year.

I have no problem with Gottfried, and I wouldn't paint him with the Herrick brush. He is clearly several times better than El Cid.

I am impressed with Turgeon at Md., and I liked Gary (it took awhile) because he was just real (WYSIWYG).

You have a good point about Purnell vs. Brownell. We'll see... The other guy with a real challenge is Brian Gregory at Ga. Tech. This year he gets a pass because of the upheaval in the program and weird facilities used, but his record is still unimpressive.

sagegrouse

[MCFinARL]

Skinner wore out his welcome in Chestnut Hill, and Donahue is doing very well with very little this year.

I have no problem with Gottfried, and I wouldn't paint him with the Herrick brush. He is clearly several times better than El Cid.

I am impressed with Turgeon at Md., and I liked Gary (it took awhile) because he was just real (WYSIWYG).

You have a good point about Purnell vs. Brownell. We'll see... The other guy with a real challenge is Brian Gregory at Ga. Tech. This year he gets a pass because of the upheaval in the program and weird facilities used, but his record is still unimpressive.

sagegrouse

True--but Paul Hewitt isn't exactly setting the world on fire in his new gig, where George Mason has a good record against league competition, but has lost a few games it definitely should have one, both in and out of its conference. In fairness, though, it's always got to be a challenge figuring how to relate to someone else's recruits.

[Olympic Fan]

Count me among those who think that the ACC coaches have upgraded greatly in the last two years.

I do respect the job Gary Williams did at Maryland, but after winning the national title, he clearly lost some of the fire that made him great. He was still a great coach and passionate on the sidelines, but he wasn't willing to work very hard on the recruiting trail. Turgeon has a way to go to prove that he's as good as as the Gary Williams who built a championship program at Maryland, but I have no doubt that he's better than the coach who missed the NCAA Tournament in four of his last seven years (and left a pretty bare cupboard).

Kind of feel the same about Al Skinner at BC. He had some fine teams in his tenure, but he also stopped working hard. He missed the NCAA in two of his last three years (and barely made it the other year) and it was is recruiting failure that left BC in the mess they are in now.

The one place where you might have a point is Clemson. Purnell did build a very solid program, but -- kind of like Herb Sendek at NC State -- he had plateaued. He got in the NCAA but always lost in the first round. He usually finished in the ACC first division, but never challenged for the title. Gregory already has more NCAA wins at Clemson than Purnell has had in his career. We'll have to see how Gregory recruits -- right now he doesn't have the talent to compete at the top level. That could have something to do with Purnell's failures ... to the coaching transition ... or to Gregory's inability to quickly reload.

I agree the jury is out there ... but I think every other ACC coaching change in the last three years has been an upgrade.