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Assessing coaches is one of the toughest things to do in college sports. Naturally, there are and will be plenty of situations in which it becomes very easy to evaluate a coach — Kevin Stallings at Pittsburgh as a portrait of failure, Mike Krzyzewski or Tony Bennett as portraits of success — but for most coaches, it is so easy for fans and pundits alike to get caught up in the trend of the moment or the direction of an individual season.
Let’s briefly step outside the ACC to consider a few examples: Some Oklahoma fans have had enough of Lon Kruger, three years after a Final Four appearance in 2016. That’s definitely “prisoner of the moment” thinking right there.
Some USC fans want Andy Enfield out, even though he is bringing in a monster recruiting class for next season. Yes, Enfield has been a terrible coach this season — no one would dispute that — but to fire a coach before he gets his big chance to coach a star-studded recruiting class? That’s insanity. Let’s live in the real world and not get trigger-happy.
Let’s look at a different example: The coach who was recently struggling but has transformed his career. A perfect example: John Beilein at Michigan. Two years ago at this time — February of 2017 — Michigan was on the NCAA Tournament bubble, having done nothing of note since an Elite Eight run in 2014. Michigan fans were understandably getting restless. The program was adrift.
Then Derrick Walton came alive and carried Michigan to a Big Ten Tournament championship. The Wolverines then made a Sweet 16 run, coming within one basket of the Elite Eight.
The program hasn’t looked back since, making the national title game last year and being in position to get a No. 1 seed. No one questions Beilein anymore.
Things change quickly on both sides. One year’s verdict becomes the next year’s worthless fish wrap, tossed in a recycling bin.
Be careful with coaching evaluations.
A great pair of intertwined examples in the ACC right now: Chris Mack and Leonard Hamilton. They just coached on Saturday in an overtime thriller. Mack’s Louisville Cardinals lost a 10-point lead in the second half, and Hamilton’s Florida State Seminoles won in overtime, 80-75.
If you were to ask college basketball experts who has coached better in the last three meetings between these two coaches, most would say Mack, in my estimation. Mack destroyed Hamilton in the 2017 NCAA Tournament when Mack was at Xavier. Mack’s 2018 Xavier team outplayed FSU for roughly 70 percent of the game, but then bizarrely lost focus down the stretch as FSU stunned the top seed in the West Region. Now, for a second consecutive time, Mack’s team carried the run of play most of the day before Hamilton’s resilient team rallied late and won.
Hamilton 2, Mack 1… but Mack’s teams have led for many more game minutes. It’s not that easy to create a clear narrative here, is it?
Furthermore, this was a road game for Mack’s team in Year 1 of his tenure, a year which has vastly exceeded expectations. The idea that this was a profound failure on Mack’s part is hard to digest, especially since FSU’s tandem of Mfiondu Kabengele and Terance Mann was so superb in leading Saturday’s comeback in Tallahassee.
Mack seems destined for superstardom as a coach, but being destined for it is not the same as actually attaining it. Meanwhile, Hamilton made the Elite Eight last year and surprised everyone in college basketball. He has endured many rough (NIT) seasons at Florida State, and other athletic directors would have been less patient with a head coach who had that many swings and misses. However, at a school which is still devoted to football and then baseball as an extension of its culture, Hamilton is definitely making the grade. Another NCAA Tournament berth is just about locked up at this point, and the talent on hand should be sufficient to continuously return to the Big Dance in the short-term future.
Do you feel inclined to criticize Chris Mack precisely because Leonard Hamilton beat him again in comeback fashion? That might be the short-term view many fans apply to these coaches after watching Louisville and Florida State on Saturday.
Remember this: Short-term views often don’t age well.
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