There are 6 coaches entering their first season with their current teams in the SEC. I thought it would be interesting to compare their records throughout the season. Dennis Gates ( Missouri ) 12-1 (1-0) Matt McMahon ( LSU ) 12-1 (1-0) Chris Jans ( Miss.State ) 11-2 (0-1) Mike White ( Georgia ) 10-3 (0-0) Todd Golden ( Florida ) 7-6 (0-1) Lamont Paris ( South Carolina ) 6-6 (0-0)
I know the SOS’s have been all over the place, pre SEC, but it’s going to be hard to swallow if LSU ends up with the better coach, especially when his team beat Golden’s in the game Stricklin was watching.. And god forbid we lose to UGA or have a worse conference record.
McMahon is a pretty good coach, so it wouldn’t be completely shocking to me, but I also don’t think you can tell that much from records in year one. Plus, Golden has always been about long term potential as a guy who can cultivate a program, not just be a better Xs and Os guy or game day coach or something. He is young, but exceptionally bright, confident, and strategic in everything from the style he plays to the analytics he uses and the way he recruits. I am curious to see how he develops the program going forward.
McMahon would have been the better choice for Florida if the administration wasn’t going for a more proven candidate. Dennis Gates has done a good job so far at Missouri, even beat Kentucky soundly last night, but has benefited from a pretty soft schedule. Their lone loss was to Kansas in which they were blown out by 28. But yeah, even White is doing better with less than Florida. McMahon’s LSU team beat #9 Arkansas last night. I guess our AD thought analytics was the deciding factor when choosing the right candidate. Wonder what he thinks now?
i think Jans is the best coach on the list. It is really hard to parse out anything telling this early in tenures. Todd seems a high-ceiling guy with whom we will need a little patience.
McMannon has also had the benefit of a transfer he brought in from his previous school that is averaging almost 20 points a game. I do wish though that FL would get away from hiring up and comers for the major sports. After Billy left, we should have hired a big name.
Maybe so, but at 13 games in is it reactionary? I think that’s a fairly decent sample size of games. A good AD should be able to see tendencies of a coaching staff this far into a season, whether they are trending in a positive direction or not. Things like in-game or halftime adjustments when things aren’t going well, defensive and offensive philosophies, utilizing the bench for substitutions, and lots of other things. I’m not saying that we have seen all we need to see to determine if Golden is a good coach or not. I’m just saying that I’ve got a few reservations and a lot of questions. More than the positives that I see, regardless of our win/loss record.
No doubt about it, Jan’s is a heck of a coach. I would have been tickled pink with either Jans or McMahon. Both have ties to the state of Kentucky in their coaching pasts. If you can be a successful basketball coach in Kentucky, you will be successful anywhere. Like football in Texas, basketball is king in Kentucky.
Missouri did have a soft schedule but they beat UCF and Ill. at a neutral site and beat Wichita State at their place and also Ky. I doubt if we beat any of these. Our signature win is Ohio.
He will be given time, no doubt about that. Unless he gets caught with a dead hooker in his trunk or something equally scandalous, he’s going to be here a while. The farther we get away from the heights that Donovan brought us the harder it will be to reach that level again.
This is all wonderful rserina but none of the above changes the fact we are 7 - 6, have yet to beat a team of any decent caliber and shoot 3's like a 9 year old at the county fair basketball "shoot to win" the stuffed elephant. I really liked everything coach did until his team stepped on the court. But, like Napier coach Golden deserves a chance. It's just difficult to see such a poor product on the court........so far. I had expectations that Golden would be a significant step up in wins and losses as compared to CMW, that has not proven to be the case so far. And the SEC is such a grind, so grueling, right now I would not give a plug nickle for UF's chances to be .500 in conference play, and the tournament? Do the letters N.I.T. mean anything? Will UF even be able to get into that one?
All of that is entirely fair. But I generally speaking don't put much stock into a coach's first year other than seeing how he responds to adversity. Does he have the courage to make tough decisions? Does he stay on message when things aren't going well? How adaptable is he when change is necessary? Even those can be pretty ephemeral judgments, though.
I'm not advocating throwing coach Golden under the bus, but this is a message board, much was said about getting rid of CMW and I can't say it's been a real pleasing change at the moment. I sure hope UF baseball is decent this season..........
Its already been too long. I hope the games stay up on youtube for eternity. That will be the only way many will ever see UF hoist the trophy. I'm 57, and I'm pretty convinced that I'll never see us win another.
Coach.................team.........record after 13 games Tom Izzo..............MIst...........7-6 Billy Donovan. ......FL.............8-5 Mike Krzyzewski....Duke.........7-6 Mark Few..............Gonzaga....8-5 Mike White...........FL..............9-4 Were these samples representative of each coach's potential?
