Coaching Carousel (Basketball)
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Rutgers has a great class coming in, but what else about their program makes them different from Minnesota if they had kept the talent the last few years local..Where would you place the incoming B1G schools -- UCLA, USC, Oregon, and Washington? I feel that almost all of these would be in lower tiers.
Also, I think Purdue needs to move up a tier, simply because of their prior successes. I would also drop Rutgers to Tier Three (maybe even lower), but that is just me.
Michigan not even making the list anywhere -- wow Juwan has tanked that program
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1. Michigan State
2. Indiana
3. UCLA
4. Purdue
5. Illinois
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6. Michigan
7. Wisconsin
8. USC
9. Ohio State
10. Maryland
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11. Oregon
12. Iowa
13. Nebraska
14. Minnesota
15. Rutgers
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16. Washington
17. Northwestern
18. Penn State
A friendly reminder that Nebraska is the only major conference basketball team to never win an NCAA tournament game and Iowa has made the second round 19 times.
Hoiberg to Nebraska was a special circumstance of a failed NBA head coach tucking his tail between his legs and returning to the place his grandfather was the head coach.
Iowa kept Lute Olsen for 9 seasons and landed Tom Davis from Stanford. I don't see Nebraska ever poaching a coach from another high major.
True... but we haven't proudly boasted about an anti-nepotism policy the way Iowa has.
Fighter of the Nightman
- Chicago, IL
Guys they were my personal tiers, as I said. 
If you are looking at my list and thinking Maryland is a “better” job than Rutgers so what am I thinking, you’re looking at it wrong. I’m not convinced Coach K has a higher ceiling at Purdue than Rutgers. Just because no one has figured it out at RU yet doesn’t mean the pieces aren’t there. JMO.
If you are looking at my list and thinking Maryland is a “better” job than Rutgers so what am I thinking, you’re looking at it wrong. I’m not convinced Coach K has a higher ceiling at Purdue than Rutgers. Just because no one has figured it out at RU yet doesn’t mean the pieces aren’t there. JMO.Illinicpa14
- Chicago
They won a national title before Izzo with Magic and also had a decent run in the early 90s. No that’s not blue blood status but coupled with the last 25 years that’s a pretty good program.
Compare that to ours that has had 2 total FFs since 1952.
Fighter of the Nightman
- Chicago, IL
History only means so much. Starting on my first day there, is it better to be coaching Iowa than Nebraska just because Tom Davis had them ranked highly in the 1980s while Nebraska sucked?
Fighter of the Nightman
- Chicago, IL
I cannot fathom a reason Purdue is a better JOB than Illinois. At best even instate recruiting prospects. At best equal history all-time. Worse facilities, NIL and a smaller fan base.
pruman91
- Paducah, Ky
Nebraska never has played an NCAA Tourney game....that's even worse than never winning a game....
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IlliniMike_Aurora
Straight outta Champaign
if you can get Ms. Clark on your team, then yes...
OrangeBlue98
- Des Moines, IA
I know a bunch of Iowa fans and have a kid who goes there, so I hear a lot about Iowa. Overall, their current attitude about Fran is a LOT like how we felt about Weber in 2010 or so. They like him personally overall, but they are just tired of him and they feel like the program is on a long, slow decline. A season like we had in Weber’s last season may be enough to ease Fran out. He’s just good enough to not be fired at Iowa compared to other schools, but the empty seats at Carver-Hawkeye say a lot. I bought tickets for the OSU game two weeks ago less than 10 days before the game date and bought tickets for the Illinois game with zero trouble.
Iowa fans just need something or someone to breathe some new energy into that program.
Iowa has had more runs of somewhat sustained success than Nebraska, so yeah, it's better to be coaching Iowa than Nebraska. Period.
Iowa lands better coaches because they're a better place to coach.
Iowa was a 2 seed a couple years ago. They've played in 4 straight NCAA tournaments and in 6 of the last 8. Nebraska has made 6 NCAA tournament appearances ALL TIME. That's not exactly history.
definitely second fiddle to IU and maybe Notre Dame in the state. Lets see how they do once Zack graduates.
Per huskers.com:
"Overall, Nebraska has made 26 postseason appearances, including seven bids to the NCAA Tournament."
Piatkowski had a pretty long NBA career. He played for the Bulls for a year or two. Erick Strickland did as well.
McGowens was at Nebraska a couple years ago. Random 5-star who committed to Nebraska. He's their only top 100 recruit since McCamey's little brother.
Pretty good lists. Personally, I'd put tOSU over Wisky and Oregon over Maryland, as both tOSU and Oregon have better facilities and oodles of $$$.
pruman91
- Paducah, Ky
Well , my bad again...
I stand corrected once again...
Thanks guys for the correction....
Nepotism has nothing to do with ability, talent or job performance. I’ve heard from a lot of folks that Tyler is doing great at his job, but don’t tell me if his dad wasn’t head coach he would have had a snowball’s chance in hell of landing it with zero experience. Literally the definition of nepotism, like it or not.
Fighter of the Nightman
- Chicago, IL
But why? Past success is not an argument in and of itself to be a better job. I think Texas is a better job than Cincinnati, but UC has a MUCH better history. There could be a lot of factors. I’d argue Nebraska’s current support of its basketball program is quite literally not comparable to decades past, and I definitely think Iowa has been luckier with coaches.
I don’t think either Nebraska or Iowa is a particularly great job. But the question here is at what school does the SAME coach have an easier time winning? I don’t think it’s clearly Iowa just because of history alone. It’s subjective, but my POV?
History: Huge advantage Iowa … though I think too much weight is given to this.
Recruiting Footprint: Even? Both bad.
Facilities: Nebraska by a mile and a half.
Fan Support: Nebraska by a wide margin.
NIL Money: Just conjecture, but I’d actually guess Nebby.
Coach Salary: I’d bet Nebraska would pay me more.
At the end of the day, I don’t think “It’s never been done there” is a good argument against a job by itself. Texas A&M was ALWAYS a good football job even when they were terrible; it was full of totally untapped potential.
50 years of more success usually portends that things won't change.
McCaffrey makes $3.2M and Hoiberg makes $1.6M.
Nebraska basketball and Texas A&M football are not comparable whatsoever. Texas A&M's floor is heads and shoulders above Nebraska's floor. Texas A&M was dominant in the late 80s and early 90s and made a bowl game every year from 2009-2020. Nebraska hasn't won a conference championship since 1950 and has 1 NCAA tournament appearance since 1998.
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Short memory for McGowens & Roby?
Fighter of the Nightman
- Chicago, IL
Tier one for sure for me. We have a great tradition, and STILL we’ve punched well below our weight. Historical success, facilities, fan support, recruiting footprint, administrative support, NIL resources, etc. seem as good as the elite jobs across all categories.
- 7 of our last 7 coaches have won at least one NCAA Tournament game.
- 6 of our last 7 coaches have won at least one Big Ten championship.
- 4 of our last 7 coaches have earned a #1 seed.
- 3 of our last 7 coaches have gone to an Elite Eight or beyond.
It’s just not difficult to win here, IMO.
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