In an effort to talk about something college basketball-related other than scandals in the summer, let's talk best current coaches. We'll attempt to order the top 25 current coaches in the nation. This is about the present and the future, not the distant past. What a guy did in the mid-90s doesn't matter near as much as the direction his program is currently headed. Past pedigree also matters, to an extent. For the perfect mix of past accomplishments with present achievement and a paved road for future success, look no further than the man atop the list.
Georgia fired Dennis Felton in mid-season appeared to be thoroughly botching their coaching search. They targeted Missouri coach Mike Anderson, and had to wait until he finished a strong run to the Elite Eight. In doing so, Georgia missed out on other coaches like Anthony Grant. If not for the farce of a coaching search in Arizona overshadowing things, Georgia would have been receiving plenty of ridicule.
Anderson rebuffed Georgia and the reported $2 million plus offer to stay at Missouri for a nice raise, but not what Georgia was offering. Georgia's coaching search appeared to be in disarray. As if the program did not expect to be rejected by their first choice if they overwhelmed him with cash.
This week, FanHouse is taking a look at the top teams heading into 2008 with a BlogPoll decided on by our college hoops bloggers. To help with the team capsules, we've brought in some of the top fan bloggers around the internets to give us insights on their teams.
Today, we have enlisted Poseur of the And The Valley Shook blog to break down the LSU Tigers.
Let me first speak for about three-quarters of the LSU fanbase first: thank God John Brady is finally gone. I don't think I have ever loathed a coach as much as I loathe Brady. Eleven years of doing just enough to not get fired, Brady finally got shown the door as he followed up a fluky Final Four appearance with two last place finishes in the SEC West. OK, that's cheating, LSU was in last when Brady got canned, but rallied down the stretch, going 5-5 with an interim coach. So excuse us if we're a little shell-shocked, LSU fans have learned an important lesson over the past decade: don't get your hopes up.
He inherits a team that will lose the Lopez twins, Brook and Robin, to the NBA draft, but will return its primary perimeter players in Mitch Johnson, Lawrence Hill and Anthony Goods, who will all be seniors next season.
Despite flirting with Georgetown a few years ago, many people do feel that Dawkins will one day replace Mike Krzyzewski at Duke. Getting the Stanford job as his first head coaching gig is quite an endorsement of how good of a coach he is.
They are getting a great guy. Dawkins wanted his first head coaching job to be at a school with high academic standards that also had a great hoops program. Stanford is definitely that. He's just 44 years old, so he could be around Stanford for many years to come.
Or when Duke looks for Coach K's successor.
He's also in charge of player development for the U.S. Olympic Team as they get ready for the Beijing Games this summer.
Trent Johnson's decision to leave Stanford for LSU is not just a case of a coach leaving a program on the slide for more money and a new opportunity. As Jon Wilner of the San Jose Mercury-News explains, Stanford AD Bob Bowlsby delayed extending Johnson's contract for unclear reasons, creating a situation in which he felt underappreciated and open to looking for other jobs.
If these reports are to be believed, then Bowlsby handled this situation extremely poorly. He said throughout the season that he would absolutely get a contract worked out right when the season ended, but nothing has happened in the two weeks since Stanford was knocked out of the NCAA Tournament. Bowlsby had several opportunities to get this deal done in the fall or during the season, but he kept delaying it and then didn't even get the work done when no more excuses could be made.
Now, it's important to note that these are still rumors. However, these rumors come from people very close to the program and have some pretty clear validity. Johnson often stated that Stanford was his dream job. It's obviously possible that he was lying, but almost everyone who's ever come in contact with the man has characterized him as a straight shooter who believes in Stanford's true commitment to academic excellence from athletes. Put simply, it would have taken a lot of ill will to get him to leave the school. Bowlsby showing no love for the Pac-10 Coach of the Year probably would have been enough.
Johnson has been a successful coach at Stanford but may be motivated to leave in part because next year's team won't be nearly as talented as the one he led to the Sweet 16 last year. With the Lopez twins leaving for the NBA, Stanford was already going to look a lot different next season. The new Stanford coach will have a tough job ahead of him.
College basketball coaches are a weird bunch. They are control freaks who are media savvy and live in an isolated world of hoopdom. But what if they weren't coaching? What would they do? Who would they be?
The blog CatsandBeer.com attempts to figure that out to hilarious results:
Although most commentators have said Johnson should not have been ejected, Johnson made no complaints and no excuses.
"There was no profanity or anything like that used but I had been warned prior to that, and I put our team in a bad position, and that's unacceptable," Johnson said, before crediting assistant Doug Oliver for leading the team the rest of the way: "I'm very thankful and I'm fortunate to have guys like Doug."
It's a credit to Johnson that he isn't looking to blame the referee who tossed him. I wonder if he'd be quite so calm about it if his team had lost.
Trent Johnson's questionable ejection from today's Stanford/Marquette game could have sunk Stanford's season, but the team's two best players simply wouldn't allow it to happen. The Brothers Lopez combined for 48 of Stanford's 82 points in their overtime win over Marquette, including Brook Lopez's difficult leaner with 1.3 seconds left that gave the Cardinal the win.
Referee Curtis Shaw's ejection of Johnson had a huge effect on this game, although it's difficult to say who was given the bigger edge. The Cardinal got a lot of calls in the second half of this game, which gave them 20 free throws (in comparison to three for Marquette) in the second half. The twins certainly force their fair share of fouls in any game, but this large disparity suggests that the referee's might have made some makeup calls after the break.
Then again, Trent Johnson might have made some better coaching decisions in this game than the ones by assistant Doug Oliver. With Stanford up six points with 11:18, Oliver sat both Brook and Robin Lopez for the next 4:18. When they returned, Marquette had a one-point lead. Now, the decision to take them out was probably a good one given that they seemed on the verge of picking up technical fouls (and Robin had already picked up one of them), but sitting them for so long turned the momentum back to the Golden Eagles. It's tempting to think that Johnson would have brought at least one of them back sooner.
Stanford's head coach Trent Johnson was ejected with 3:36 remaining in the first half of their NCAA tournament second round game against Marquette.
Johnson was disputing a foul call called on the Cardinal's Lawrence Hill when he picked up the first technical. Then, during the ensuing television timeout, he walked halfway out on the court and was given his second tech and an automatic ejection.
Judging by the actions, there really is no reason to T him up. That means he must have said something to really peeve off the officials. As it was happening, Stanford assistant coach Doug Oliver put his head in his hands. Oliver is currently acting as head coach.
Resident FanHouse contributor Ty Keenan says"I cannot frickin' believe this. You do not eject somebody for that. Absolute crap."
Georgia fired 
This week, FanHouse is taking a look at the top teams heading into 2008 with a BlogPoll decided on by our college hoops bloggers. To help with the team capsules, we've brought in some of the top fan bloggers around the internets to give us insights on their teams.
Duke associate head coach 
Stanford basketball coach 
College basketball coaches are a weird bunch. They are control freaks who are media savvy and live in an isolated world of hoopdom. But what if they weren't coaching? What would they do? Who would they be?
