Dan Hurley keeps his spot among college basketball’s best

Jun. 11—Dan Hurley’s decision on Monday to turn down the Los Angeles Lakers and return to Connecticut in search of a

three-peat spared college basketball another high-speed turn of the coaching carousel in June. It also meant one of the best coaches in the game would be back in 2024-25. College basketball writer Scott Richey ranks his Top 10:

1. Dan Hurley, Connecticut

It’s not just the fact Hurley guided UConn to back-to-back national championships. It’s how the Huskies did it. As in running roughshod against 12 consecutive opponents by an average of nearly 22 points. Pure and utter domination by two different enough teams means it’s not crazy to think a third not-quite-the-same group could do it again next March/April.

2. Kelvin Sampson, Houston

The Cougars have won 181 games and made three Sweet 16s, an Elite Eight and a Final Four in the past six seasons with the only gap coming in 2020 when there was no NCAA tournament amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Even jumping from the American to the Big 12 for the 2023-24 season didn’t derail Houston’s success under Sampson with a conference title in year one.

3. Bill Self, Kansas

Few teams have dominated a single conference quite like Self’s Jayhawks. Last year’s tie for fifth in the new-look Big 12 (which becomes the new, new-look Big 12 in 2024-25) was his worst. The other 20 seasons the former Illini coach has spent in Lawrence, Kan., include 17 Big 12 titles, no other finish worse than third and two national titles, of course.

4. Matt Painter, Purdue

Painter has “What have you done for me lately?” and long-term success with the Boilermakers with back-to-back Big Ten titles and nine top-four league finishes in the past 10 seasons. Reaching the national-title game in April (before a loss to UConn) helped, too, considering the growing string of losses to double-digit seeds in the NCAA tournament.

5. Scott Drew, Baylor

It’s probably not discussed enough just how much Drew changed Baylor’s fortunes. The program he inherited had just seen one…

Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/dan-hurley-keeps-spot-among-144800478.html

Author : The News-Gazette, Champaign-Urbana, Ill.

Publish date : 2024-06-11 14:48:00

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