Big 12 Un-Coach of the Year

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Clonefan32

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Nov 19, 2008
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I'd feel conned if I were a Texas fan. Shaka's teams there look nothing like the VCU teams. They've got some guys with talent, and they will be good in the years to come, but they don't guard a soul.
 
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jkclone

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Id have to go with Weber. Kruger honestly did a good job with what they had. Smart definitely underachieved, but I think they are more similar to Michigan State where their young guys just didn't meet expectations.
 

jkclone

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KSU faded for a lengthy stretch, but Weber finished at least as high or higher than most projections and still could make the tournament (I saw no source that predicted K-State as anything more than NIT).
But was that because of the talent or did it already account for his coaching? I think they had the talent and opportunities this year to be significantly better.
 

AuH2O

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Kruger vs Prohm this year isn't really fair. Oklahoma both lost more and had younger, less experienced replacements waiting in the wings. Also had a significant injury to deal with as well. A more interesting comparison will be if next year's ISU team is better than this year's OU team.
Kruger returned two starters plus other guys that played on a final four team and good young talent. I agree that Kruger has a tougher hand than Prohm this year, but not so much tougher to justify the gap in results. Prohm is going to be returning less experience and probably talent than Kruger had this year.
 

surly

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May 16, 2013
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Weber finishes with a first round bye in the tournament after being picked 9/10 in the preseason poll. Anyone picking him as winner here is doing so out of spite or ignorance, not sure which.

Smart is clearly the winner. He's the basketball version of UT's WTFChuck.

Be interesting to see if this poll is up after next season when ISU loses 4 or 5 starters, as Lon Kruger did this year.
Generally, I've found ISU fans a bit more circumspect with their views than what I've read in some of the comments here this morning. Whew!
 

WooBadger18

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Sep 5, 2012
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Weber finishes with a first round bye in the tournament after being picked 9/10 in the preseason poll. Anyone picking him as winner here is doing so out of spite or ignorance, not sure which.

Smart is clearly the winner. He's the basketball version of UT's WTFChuck.

Be interesting to see if this poll is up after next season when ISU loses 4 or 5 starters, as Lon Kruger did this year.
Generally, I've found ISU fans a bit more circumspect with their views than what I've read in some of the comments here this morning. Whew!
But jk makes a good point; the problem with using projections is that they may have already taken into account that Weber isn't a great coach. If you put me in charge of Kansas this year they'd have been projected to finish 9th-10th because I can't coach. If they'd have finished 7th, does that make me a good coach because I exceeded expectations? No, it just means they had enough talent.

I still think it's probably Shaka, but I don't think you can just look at projections
 

clonedude

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Apr 16, 2006
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Is Shaka another Greg McDermott, that can coach like crazy at the smaller schools, but for whatever reason doesn't have a clue at the P5 level?
 

VeloClone

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Jan 19, 2010
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Track record aside, I think you could throw Lon Kruger in there as well. They have a lot of young talent and I'm sure they'll bounce back next year, but it looked like the team quite on him several weeks ago.
Be careful that Woodard doesn't crack you in the noggin with one of his crutches for comments like that.

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istater7

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Mar 31, 2010
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Track record aside, I think you could throw Lon Kruger in there as well. They have a lot of young talent and I'm sure they'll bounce back next year, but it looked like the team quite on him several weeks ago.
They beat K-State by 30 and beat TCU yesterday. Plus had a lead at KU in the 2nd half on Monday night. Not sure where you got the idea they quit.
 
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jsb

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They beat K-State by 30 and beat TCU yesterday. Plus had a lead at KU in the 2nd half on Monday night. Not sure where you got the idea they quit.

And they almost won in Stillwater, against the team everyone can't stop gushing over.
 

Cyched

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May 8, 2009
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Has to be Shaka, for how badly they underperformed, young talent or not. Also gonna nominate Weber; I wouldn't say KSU completely crashed and burned, as they can still make the Dance, but they really fell off the second half of conference play.
 

Cyched

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I would place Beard second, having a decent core returning and finishing so much further below the 15-16 team.

I give Kruger a little slack because there was some injury involved, plus OU lost three 7-year veterans. ;)

Agree on Beard underachieving, but I'm not convinced he's a bad coach just yet. His team was still playing very hard for him (I'm thinking of our game down in Lubbock). Also appears a good and knowledgeable guy. Going from Tubby to a coach in his first P5 year, there's gonna be some bumps in the road.
 

BCoffClone125

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They beat K-State by 30 and beat TCU yesterday. Plus had a lead at KU in the 2nd half on Monday night. Not sure where you got the idea they quit.

Just looked at the final last few games, they actually played well down the stretch and had several close losses, but still had some head scratchers in there as well (losing by 32 to Florida at home for example). Saying they quit is probably not fair.

Kruger is an excellent coach, but this was a bad year for him. To put it in perspective, this will be his lowest number of wins in a season since 1990-91 (his first year at Florida, went 11-17). If they get another win in KC it would still be his worst season since 1995-96 at Florida when they finished 12-16.
 
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surly

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May 16, 2013
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Honestly the only bad coach in the league is Weber. That makes it kind of hard to do this.

“I did not like anything about today except for being able to shake hands with one of the best coaches in the country after the game. He has won eight games in this league and had his team in the top-25 this year. They lost a couple of heart-breakers. The Kansas game, the guy takes about four steps and they beat K-State there. I think you got a really good coach here. He does it the right way and is one of the most respected coaches in the country.” Chris Beard 3-4-2017
 

VeloClone

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“I did not like anything about today except for being able to shake hands with one of the best coaches in the country after the game. He has won eight games in this league and had his team in the top-25 this year. They lost a couple of heart-breakers. The Kansas game, the guy takes about four steps and they beat K-State there. I think you got a really good coach here. He does it the right way and is one of the most respected coaches in the country.” Chris Beard 3-4-2017
*Coach lobbying to save job of coach in his league he knows he can beat for years to come.
 

CtownCyclone

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“I did not like anything about today except for being able to shake hands with one of the best coaches in the country after the game. He has won eight games in this league and had his team in the top-25 this year. They lost a couple of heart-breakers. The Kansas game, the guy takes about four steps and they beat K-State there. I think you got a really good coach here. He does it the right way and is one of the most respected coaches in the country.” Chris Beard 3-4-2017

Did you expect him to say something like, "I can't believe I lost to that guy! He's terrible!"