What Makes a Coach of the Year?

It's been a while. Too long, even. But nothing gets you thinking about blogging like a Chipotle burrito for lunch, coffee for dinner and a burning question that eats away at your mind: What makes a coach of the year? (I understand that normal people don't fret about these things.)

There are so many stances to take. You can be a numbers guy or gal -- the coach of the best team should be the coach of the year (Bill Self). You can go by the most miraculous -- see: Martin, Frank. You can side with the How Do They Do It? folks who love to see coaches win and win again despite losing huge numbers of impact players -- looking at you, Jim Boeheim and Jamie Dixon. Or you can even saddle up on a feel-good pony, like someone who might like BYU's Dave Rose or New Mexico's Steve Alford.

Or you can go the John Calipari route. It's hard to argue with these folks -- because they're in your camp, whichever tent you sleep in. He's a numbers guy -- 25-1 through Friday night. He's a miracle worker -- the man basically infused Kentucky's roster with a veritable McDonald's All-America team and turned an NIT team into a national title contender in a matter of months. (Seriously, say NIT in Kentucky and they think it's a new government stimulus program.) He's a How Do They Do It guy with an asterisk, but not because he juiced up like Big Bad Barry Bonds, more because he has done the whole reloading-not-rebuilding thing at every program he's coached. He's the feel-good pony for roughly 3 million people, which, for those counting at home, is about 3/4 of the estimated population of the state of Kentucky. (The other quarter roots for Louisville, Western or Eastern Kentucky, Murray State and/or some kind of miracle.)

Now I think I just argued that Calipari should be coach of the year. It's not decided -- I think Boeheim is right there with him, along with Martin -- but how can he not win it? Dude left a cushy job for a high-intensity one, a relatively relaxed, if-he-wins-it's-great-if-he-loses-whatever atmosphere for a he-better-win-every-game-or-we'll-run-him-out-of-town one. Lots of pressure. And he has done nothing short of blow it out of the water.

On a side note: Imagine the expectations for Calipari after this season, regardless of how far the Cats go. If they win a title, Cal will never sleep again. Call it the reverse championship bonus, like winning the presidency or a lifetime supply of Popeye's. Normally when you win (or eat, if you're still tagging along with the Popeye's joke), you pass out from celebrating. But at Kentucky, you wake up the next day, put your title ring on and go recruit the next class of champs. At least that's what the section under "job responsibilities" said when Cal saw the opening on coachingjobs.com (not a real site, people). But that's a topic for for another time.

Anyway, I'm not saying pressure -- or handling the pressure -- only affects Coach Cal. It's a pretty intense hoops community in Syracuse and Lawrence, too. But the coaches there are established, comfortable in their seats. Boeheim would have to lose like 100 recruiting battles to Tim O'Shea, Bryant's intrepid coach who inexplicably left Ohio to coach a transitional D-I school that is a whopping 0-8,000 this year (they're actually 1-28). And Bill Self would probably have to tell the local paper that he loves K-State or Missouri to get the locals to even think about heating up his seat.

Throw in Cal's incredible recruiting job and his handling of the 37 egos crammed into the 13 heads that look at the coach during film sessions and it's hard to not give him the coach of the year award.

The point is this, you can be in any camp you want, observe any coach-of-the-year mantra you want, but if one guy plays to every crowd, it's hard to deny him that honor.

Now watch Kentucky become the first-ever No. 1 seed to lose to a 16.

Hometown Hope

Those of you who know me know that I was born in Lexington, Ky., which is where I had my first glass of water. And, as you know, there's something in the water in Lexington that makes you crazy for hoops.

(It doesn't help that I moved to another hoops-crazy town -- Amherst, Mass. -- after my family left Lexington, but I digress.)

That said, I know what it means for Kentucky to be good. And if Jodie Meeks keeps scoring 54 points a game, the Wildcats are golden. Meeks is the man of the day in the college hoops world. And who can blame the media for fawning? Dude hit 10 3s to help UK destroy No. 24 Tennessee ... in Knoxville.

Kentucky is now 13-4, 2-0 in the conference and suddenly the team to beat in the SEC. And Meeks is a major reason why the Wildcats are clawing back to relevance. With 26 points, four boards, two assists and 1.5 steals a game, Meeks has some nice numbers.

And his team isn't half bad, either. Kentucky struggled out of the gates, losing its first two games to VMI (gulp) and at North Carolina. After a heartbreaking loss to a re-emerging Louisville, Kentucky has won its two opening SEC contests against Vandy and at Tennessee. In a down conference, Kentucky has to be thinking it can really make some waves.

With Meeks (and lottery pick-to-be Patrick Patterson) leading the way, Billy Gillispie's club is looking a lot like a Tournament team these days. Fifty-four points against a ranked team always helps, too.

Elsewhere
-- Big East Showdown of the Week: Syracuse at Georgetown. Not only is this a major rivalry between these two schools, but it also features yet another pair of ranked Big East teams battling. I say it in every post and I'll say it again here: The Big East seems like it has two ranked teams locking horns almost every night.

Who do I like? Well, Syracuse. I think Chris Wright will have a lot of trouble dealing with Jonny Flynn, Greg Monroe can be neutralized by Arinze Onuaku and the rest of the matchups seem to favor Syracuse, too.

Like I said, it's a rivalry game -- and it's at the Verizon Center in D.C., but Syracuse has more talent and a slightly deeper roster. Georgetown is good, don't get me wrong, but I think Syracuse might be the third-best team in the Big East behind Pitt and UConn. And there isn't much of a gap between those three teams.

-- Kansas City will be relevant again with Scott Pioli making personnel decisions.

-- My favorite little guy Dave Meggett is in some trouble. I have to say I'm really disappointed.

-- With Leo Lyons suspended for an uncertain period of time, Mizzou has to find a new scorer. Without him, don't expect the Tigers to keep up their fast start. But it was just a driving violation, so Lyons should be back sometime soon, I would think.

-- Pennsylvania has hopes of a Turnpike Tussle.

-- And I really don't know to react to this.

Is it the program or the coach?

I have a lot of casual basketball fans ask me a question that is actually tricky to answer: When a school has a successful basketball era, or a longer chain of runs, is it the coach or the program that breeds success?

It's a case-by-case thing. And it's usually a tangled web because one coach usually builds a program into a powerhouse.

Example of "It's the program": Kentucky -- the winningest program in college hoops history. It started, of course, with Adolph Rupp, but the Wildcats have been winning -- for the most part -- for their entire existence. The winning tradition started with E.R. Sweetland in 1912. Sweetland helped UK to a 9-0 record. JJ Tigert, Alpha Brummage and James Park coached Kentucky to a 32-16 record over four years. Only three coaches out of seven over the next 11 years had losing records. Then Rupp came and went 876-190, winning four national titles.

But Rupp's retirement didn't end Kentucky's ongoing success. Joe Hall won 297 games and a title in 1978. Hall's Wildcats made it to the finals in 1975 and a Final Four in 1984. Eddie Sutton was 88-39, but left the school in controversy and scandal without ever reaching a Final Four. Then, Rick Pitino and Tubby Smith each won titles.

And while Billy Gillispie has struggled in his first few season, and Smith struggled toward the end of his time there, Kentucky is still a program built over a century by numerous coaches, most influential being Rupp, Hall and Pitino.

Others that "are the program" include Duke, Syracuse, Indiana (although Bob Knight, like Jim Boeheim at 'Cuse, really helps the Hoosiers make a good "It's the coach" argument), UCLA, Kansas, Louisville and St. John's.

"It's the coach" caveat: There are a lot of schools that have become superpowers because of a coach -- Arizona and UConn come to mind. But also, college basketball is such a young sport that many of these schools just hadn't plugged into the game until the '60s, '70s or later. Others, however, were good, but then became great.

Take UConn, for example, where Hugh Greer (wish I was related to him, but I'm not) guided the program to 286 wins through 1963, but for 23 years, UConn was irrelevant. Then Jim Calhoun came and made it a superpower.

Here's a good "It's the coach" example: Look no farther than a pair of A-10 teams for "It's the coach." John Calipari (pictured at the top) took UMass from obscurity (except for the Julius Erving years) to significance in a very short amount of time. Calipari was 193-71 in nine seasons at UMass, which included a Final Four trip and a No. 1 ranking.

At Temple, John Chaney won 724 games and made 30 trips to postseason play. For the most part, Temple was nothing before Chaney came. Temple is struggling to reach the same level of relevance in modern days.

DePaul is another good example of "It's the coach," but we'll throw in, "the coach's family." Ray Meyer coached the Blue Demons to 37 winning seasons, 12 20-win seasons and a pair of Final Fours. Meyer retired in 1984, and his son, Joey, took over the reins. Joey Meyer took DePaul to seven NCAA tournaments, but DePaul hasn't been near those levels since Joey left in 1997.

Overall, it's really hard to define many programs as "just the coach" or "a sustained winner as a program." Almost every school has had a few coaches with blips of success, but very few have had consistent brand names as winners. Some schools, like Arizona, Connecticut and Gonzaga, will grow into sustained programs for a while. Pitt, thanks to Ben Howland his predecessor, Jamie Dixon, will probably develop into a decent, sustained winner in the future.

Rainy Saturday Quick Hits

That man up top -- the Godfather of Basketball, Rick Pitino -- is not walking through that door in Lexington. (He's walking through another door a few hours away, actually, coaching a team that', dare I say, good.) And you have to wonder if anyone in Kentucky basketball world is wishing Rick was ambling into Rupp Arena, because the Wildcats got off to another terrible start, this time losing to VMI, 111-103.

Not even kidding. VMI.

-- Does this really surprise you? Have you seen Nick Calathes? Plus, he plays for Florida, so it figures.

-- UNC topped Penn, 86-71, today. I know you were holding your breath.

-- Really? Davidson dropped 107 points?

-- Pitt took care of business, so did UConn, Texas, Purdue, Oklahoma and Arizona State. Buzz Williams is 1-0 at Marquette. Florida, Wake and 'Nova got off on the right track, too.

-- Just wondering: Is VMI a bubble team now? Kentucky certainly is.