1st-year SEC Men's Basketball Coaches Comparison

Interesting info. That said...

Izzo beat Top 25 Arkansas in those first 13 games. He also reached the second round of the NIT.
Coach K rallied his team by the end of the season and took them into the third round of the NIT. (But the next season, Duke went 10-17 and went 11-17 the year after that. It wasn't until 83-84 that Duke became a dangerous team.)
Billy D.'s first two years were unremarkable, except for a blowout loss to Georgetown in the NIT.
You hope Golden is Mark Few in his first year at Gonzaga. After going 8-5, the Zags only lost three more games until the Sweet 16.
White's first 13 games are pretty much indicative of his first season at Florida. Average. After going 9-4, he went 9-9 for the rest of the regular season. They finished 18-13, lost in the second round of the SEC and then in the third round of the NIT.

Again, if Golden is any of these this season, I hope he's Few. But it's pretty early to put him into any discussion of elite coaches.

 

It is what it is. We hired a project and unless it's looking disastrous in year 3 patience is in order. There is really no point in reacting too much to current status as it doesn't change anything. Just hope for the best, but yes like some others have said, I'd like us to try and reach for more proven coaches when we have the chance instead of the diamond in the rough philosophy that has reigned at UF post Spurrier/Donovan. Meyer was the exception and I suspect Machen was driving that hire.

 

??? Then perhaps it's pretty early to make any valid/conclusive assessments of his potential at UF.

 

Agree, but would note that Donovan was very much a diamond in the rough. I think that Donovan's success may have contributed to Foley's hiring tendencies going forward.

 

There is a lot of reason to react loudly if you are sick and tired of these types of hires.

 

So, what coach that anyone is positive would win here today would want this thankful job rather than the one they have?

 

I mean that’s a really long list since Mike White took over a 16-17 team from Billy and manages to go 21-15 his first year.

 

Can’t assess based on a team you inherited without a full year of recruiting. I’m not a TG fan, but need to see team growth and his recruiting success over at least 3 years. Kugel and Fudge could develop into good players.

 

Mrs. White, why are you using the Coach Sayre handle?

 

Not a Coach White fan, just pointing out the obvious.

 

At least IMO, your points are far from obvious and way too pessimistic. I am as disappointed as anyone in the season so far, but I think that Golden is doing a good job in adjusting what the team is doing based on how the team has performed so far. The defense has vastly improved. The offense that was based around CC getting the ball in the low post appears to have been jettisoned. It wasn’t working for a few reasons, including that we don’t have reliable outside shooters, CC was too slow in passing the ball out of double teams, the other 4 guys on the floor weren’t getting involved in the offense, CC was having trouble scoring inside against big, physical defenders, and the paint was too clogged up for our other guys to score inside. The 5-man out offense that has been used in the last 2 games is a big improvement, but needs to be tinkered with. The ball needs to go through CC, he needs to keep from getting pushed out past the 3-point line, and he needs to consistently face-up so that he can find open teammates, take 15-foot shots or drive it inside.

I also think that Golden is doing a good job of using his roster. We have had a ten-man rotation, and he has used sitting out or playing just a few minutes as the motivation to improve the weaker aspects of players’ games. Right now, although I am not going to say that the win over Georgia is a game changer, the team seems to have greatly improved from earlier in the season and Golden deserves a lot of the credit along with players working hard to improve their games.

 

But he has to start winning sometimes.

 

Like tonight?

 

Thinking 13 games proves anything is silly. Heck MW was a possession away from a final 4 in year 2.
We will know what we have in year 3 or so, so will those other schools.

 

Great post. Do you worry that Golden might be starting to shorten the bench? I realize that Kugel & Jones have stepped up in recent games, earning more minutes, but we essentially went eight deep tonight. Jitoboh spelled Castleton for only 4min, not recording a single stat, making it technically nine. I wonder why Felder didn't get in at all.

 

Golden clearly is shortening the bench. However, that does not mean that he won’t be regularly playing 10 players, one or two of them who might get very little or no playing time in a game, but who will get more playing time in subsequent games. He seems to be using the sit out or play a little concept as motivation for players to work on their weaknesses. Lane, obviously is completely out of the rotation. It will be interesting to see if he goes into the transfer portal after the season. I think that he can do well for one of the north east teams, such as a St. John’s, Rutgers, or Seton Hall. He is a good player, but he is buried behind players at the wing who appear to be better than him. Castleton is so much better than Jitoboh, that it looks like JJ will be limited to 10 minutes or less a game, unless CC is in foul trouble or injured. I don’t have a problem with that, but we need a replacement for Castleton for next season.

 

Golden has now beaten White and McMahon, so that's a positive.

 

No doubt. It's funny how after a couple of wins people stop screaming about firing the UF Athletics Director.

 

As for the AD, I think one of his hires needs to win something before the criticism goes away, esp the football coach.