ESPN Best Young Coaches

by **Salukimadness86** » May 13th, 2020, 10:11 am

https://www.espn.com/mens-college-baske ... basketball

**Sponsor**

by **Salukimadness86** » May 15th, 2020, 9:27 am

Besides Bryan Mullins and Dana Ford being on this top 40 list, what other MVC coaches deserve to be on this list? Thoughts/opinions?

by **Majik45** » May 15th, 2020, 9:33 am

You gotta think Wardle would have been on this list, but he just turned 41 so was not eligible.

by **BEARZ77** » May 15th, 2020, 10:52 am

I thought it was a bad list because it mixed assistant coaches and head coaches. Just no way to say a guy who hasn't been a HC is better than someone who has; apples and oranges.

by **VUGrad1314** » May 15th, 2020, 1:01 pm

I agree that assistants shouldn't be on the list but that makes his list shorter and he probably had length stipulations he had to meet. It is nice to see that Matt Lottich and Drew Valentine made the just missed list. The Valley got some good solid respect here though I think Mullins and Ford should have both been ranked higher.

by **glm38** » May 15th, 2020, 9:38 pm

I'm a little shocked that Dana Ford made this list. He did ok at Tennessee state. But his overall head coaching record just isn't impressive. He still has a lot to prove.

by **VUGrad1314** » May 15th, 2020, 10:09 pm

I have no objection to Ford being on the list but I am shocked to see Mullins that low. I thought he deserved to be much higher and ahead of many of the head coaches they ranked in like the teens and 20s.

by **Jsnhbe1Birds** » May 16th, 2020, 6:44 am

Ford is an AMAZING recruiter but a subpar head coach. Maybe he'll figure it out. If not he'll be one hell of an assistant head coach at a P5+BE program which will probably be about the same amount of money.

by **BEARZ77** » May 16th, 2020, 7:24 am

VUGrad1314 wrote:I have no objection to Ford being on the list but I am shocked to see Mullins that low. I thought he deserved to be much higher and ahead of many of the head coaches they ranked in like the teens and 20s.

Two things; I agree with the sentiment that Ford still has alot to prove and his spot as a lower ranked name on this list is probably about right. I really like Mullins,but what has he done to warrant a high rank; Mullins is less proven than Ford. His 1st year in the Valley was almost a carbon copy of Ford's , both had a nice streak that got them in contention , then both of their teams faded as veteran coaches made adjustments to what they were doing. Now I think Mullins is exactly the right guy at SIU and will be successful, but he has to do it first.

I've been as critical of Ford's 1st two years as anyone, and he has much to improve on, but there is probably no more important skill to have as a coach than being able to recruit.Somehow his recruiting sometimes is held against him because the expectations then are higher than perhaps they should be. Now i think his recruiting is a little overrated, and recruiting isn't just about the number of stars a guy has , and that is one area Ford has to improve; ie. assembling a team not just a collection of talent. But I'd rather have a guy that can get talent and hope he develops than know you don't have the horses most years. But eventually, you have to be able to do more than recruit, and I really don't know if Ford has those skills.

I do laugh a little bit about all the praise for Wardle these days, and know, I said 3 years ago, I really thought he was going to do well in the Valley eventually, and of course winning the tourney is the end all in many discussions. But still, with a veteran team he won exactly one more regular season MVC game the last two years than Ford; what that tells me is the margin here is very thin on most of these guys. I expect Bradley , Loyola, UNI to all be good in the coming years as they have established programs and coaches. Illinois State and Indiana State have veteran coaches who have both shown they can win, but also be inconsistent even after establishing their programs. Everyone else is still an unproven as far as can they get a program to a high level let alone sustain it.

by **VUGrad1314** » May 16th, 2020, 2:28 pm

I think Lottich might get Valpo there (yes that's a 180 from how I and a lot of Valpo fans felt about him a year or two ago) the JFL transfer was more circumstance and bad luck than a reflection on Lottich's program. I think we'll start seeing what he's building this year. We're not winning the Valley by a long shot but would I be absolutely floored if we finished as high as fourth? Not at all. I believe a lot in the talent we have and what we have coming in. I just felt like Mullins (and Ford) deserved higher rankings than say the coach that went 1-26 in his first year at Kennesaw State. Yeah you can really see the signs already of a great rebuild. That wasn't even as good as Wardle's first year at Bradley.