Favorite and least favorite coach in the Big 10

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benmint0n

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Other than Tubby of course :)

Izzo is my favorite hands down, least favorite is definitely Matta.

Izzo is the best coach in college hoops in my mind. Even when mich. state isn't supposed to be that great he brings them up to another level, especially in the tournament.

Matta just rubs me the wrong way, and this view of him was solidified when i saw him take a few steps towards the Illinois bench i think it was, when Turner made that miraculous shot, and he was talking tons of trash to them. I mean, come on man, your best player just made a 1 in a million shot and you're talking trash to the other team? Come on. Plus i don't think he's that great of a coach tbh, especially this season he was just riding the wave of his top 5 guys not having to do much ever during the game.

Who are you guys' favorites and least favorites?
 

most hated Bo Ryan. fav, Crean I think he should have Indiana turned around with 2 years.
 

benmint0n said:
Other than Tubby of course :)

Izzo is my favorite hands down, least favorite is definitely Matta.

Izzo is the best coach in college hoops in my mind. Even when mich. state isn't supposed to be that great he brings them up to another level, especially in the tournament.

Matta just rubs me the wrong way, and this view of him was solidified when i saw him take a few steps towards the Illinois bench i think it was, when Turner made that miraculous shot, and he was talking tons of trash to them. I mean, come on man, your best player just made a 1 in a million shot and you're talking trash to the other team? Come on. Plus i don't think he's that great of a coach tbh, especially this season he was just riding the wave of his top 5 guys not having to do much ever during the game.

Who are you guys' favorites and least favorites?
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I echo your Izzo thought, obviously.

As for least favorite, that's a tough one. I would like to say Bo Ryan, but I'm torn - because as much as I am annoyed by him, I have so much respect for him and can't believe how he performs year after year. So I think I'd have to go with Tom Cream, have heard way too many bad things about him from many, including people that worked with him.
 

Izzo and Matta. Matta's a classless, all-recruit, no coach jerk. At least Bo Ryan's a good coach who just whines a lot. And the fact that he looks like he's in the mob makes refs fear him.
 

Favorite: Izzo + Painter. Both pushed for the Gophers to make the NCAA tournament after losing to them in the BTT. Neither made any excuses about injuries or lost players.

Least: Matta did not shake hands with the Gopher players after the loss in the Barn. Did not play reserves even while blowing the Gophers out in BTT. I did not read any comments from him supporting the Gophers for the NCAA tournament.

I admire Bo. He gets the most out of his teams. Very consistent.
 



I have to go along with the choices of Friend of Tubby, with Matta a close second behind Crean. I must admit though, Matta can recruit.
 

and this view of him was solidified when i saw him take a few steps towards the Illinois bench i think it was, when Turner made that miraculous shot, and he was talking tons of trash to them. I mean, come on man, your best player just made a 1 in a million shot and you're talking trash to the other team? Come on
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I don't like Matta either - but to be fair, Matta was not talking trash to the Michigan bench. He was motioning to the officials that he wanted the basket to count so they would not look at it on the monitor. It wasn't trash talk to the other team.
 

GL

GopherLady said:
I echo your Izzo thought, obviously.

As for least favorite, that's a tough one. I would like to say Bo Ryan, but I'm torn - because as much as I am annoyed by him, I have so much respect for him and can't believe how he performs year after year. So I think I'd have to go with Tom Cream, have heard way too many bad things about him from many, including people that worked with him.
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Agreed. Tubby and Izzo are in a class by themselves. Bo drives me nuts but he isn't a sleaze ball and he actually has kids in the program for 4 years and he wins. You have to admire his results.

TC's antics on the sidelines are a bit much for my stodgy Norwegian heritage to take!
 



Coaches

I think you should make this into a poll. Obviously, coaches can be judged many ways.

Least favorite coaches vs MN: Ryan, Izzo & Crean - they are constantly in the officials faces.

Most respected coaches (other than Tubby): Izzo, Ryan, Carmody, Painter & Weber.
 

benmint0n said:
Other than Tubby of course :)

Izzo is my favorite hands down, least favorite is definitely Matta.

Izzo is the best coach in college hoops in my mind. Even when mich. state isn't supposed to be that great he brings them up to another level, especially in the tournament.

Matta just rubs me the wrong way, and this view of him was solidified when i saw him take a few steps towards the Illinois bench i think it was, when Turner made that miraculous shot, and he was talking tons of trash to them. I mean, come on man, your best player just made a 1 in a million shot and you're talking trash to the other team? Come on. Plus i don't think he's that great of a coach tbh, especially this season he was just riding the wave of his top 5 guys not having to do much ever during the game.

Who are you guys' favorites and least favorites?
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+1,000
 

My least favorite, in order (least favorite first): Ryan, Weber, Crean, Matta.

My favorite outside of Painter is Izzo. Great recruiter, great coach, seems like a great guy.
 

My favorite is John Beilein and least favorite is Matta
 



benmint0n said:
Matta just rubs me the wrong way, and this view of him was solidified when i saw him take a few steps towards the Illinois bench i think it was, when Turner made that miraculous shot, and he was talking tons of trash to them. I mean, come on man, your best player just made a 1 in a million shot and you're talking trash to the other team? Come on. Plus i don't think he's that great of a coach tbh, especially this season he was just riding the wave of his top 5 guys not having to do much ever during the game.
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Couldnt agree with you more about Matta being my least favorite coach, all he does is recruit 5 all stars and lets them do all the work for him, Does he even make substitutions?

Izzo is probably my favorite coach other than tubby
 

Pure Class = Smith, Izzo, Painter, Pearl
Classless = Matta
Clueless = Lickliter
Big Ten Coach of the Year 2028 = Little Lick
 



Favorite: Izzo
Least: Bo. I dont care if hes good.. i dont care if he is consistent... It's Bo Ryan, he coaches Wisconsin, and he stole Christmas.
 

I love all of the Big Ten Coaches...I have no least favorite.
 

Izzo's a great coach period. He could take a tiddly-winks team and having them playing winning basketball by the end of the year.

Bobby Knight will always be my least favorite Big 10 coach even though he's long gone. The guy is simply a classless jackass.
 

Matta just rubs me the wrong way, and this view of him was solidified when i saw him take a few steps towards the Illinois bench i think it was, when Turner made that miraculous shot, and he was talking tons of trash to them. I mean, come on man, your best player just made a 1 in a million shot and you're talking trash to the other team? Come on. Plus i don't think he's that great of a coach tbh, especially this season he was just riding the wave of his top 5 guys not having to do much ever during the game.
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BigGopherFan said:
+1,000
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That post receives a +0 for not knowing that it was Michigan and not Illinois that the shot was against. Also receives a 2/10 for grammar.

Favorite: Izzo

Least Favorite: Lickliter (posthumously) -- because his kid looked like a guido.
 

50PoundHead said:
Izzo's a great coach period. He could take a tiddly-winks team and having them playing winning basketball by the end of the year.

Bobby Knight will always be my least favorite Big 10 coach even though he's long gone. The guy is simply a classless jackass.
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Head...You have your opinion of Bob Knight, I have mine. That guy has forgotten more about the game of basketball than any and all of us commenters combined ever knew. And, in addition, he won with less talent than what's his face currently at Kentucky. And never an NCAA violation.
 

Don, not saying he doesn't know basketball. Just saying he's a classless jerk.
 

This thread got me thinking about how great the stock of coaches in the Big Ten are. Matta is definitely the sleazy one of the bunch, and Crean can rub me the wrong way.

As for the General, I admire what he did. He is the epitome of old school, he poured his heart and soul into the game and gave everything he had. I think he had a harder time each year as the power shifted from the coach to the kids in college basketball. Remember when Wall dissed on Calipari after their first loss? Can you even begin to imagine ANY player doing that to Knight? I don't condone whatever violent actions he has been accused of, but we should not forget that he is one of the great ones...of all time.
 


Weber is getting too little attention here on the positive side of things. I've heard nothing but great things about him. Easily Izzo and Weber have my respect more than any other coach not named Tubby Smith. Good people and good coaches.

I can't stand Bo Ryan. I respect his system but I've watched enough of him on the sidelines and heard enough interviews to skew my opinion of him. I'd take him over BB any day of the week but I'd take anyone over BB so that doesn't say much.
 

Friend Of Tubby said:
I work with a guy who played for him at Army.

He's EVEN TOUGHER in person than his reputation.
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OK, FOT...Is that good or bad? What the hell is wrong with a little discipline these days?

Who runs the ship?
 

Izzo is Number 1 and a genuine nice guy.

I have strong dislike for Bo Ryan priamarily because he coaches at Wisconsin and his whining is way over the top. I am not a fan of the smug Thad Matta either. I think he cheats. JMO

I have to give some love to Carmody and DeChellis who coach doormat programs with real grace. Pre Tubby I would have had to include Monson in this group but no longer thank God.

I kind of like Bielien or is it Bielien? It should be Bielein but it's not.
 

All you people calling Thad Matta sleazy/a cheater, please find me one legitimate source (e.g., a newspaper article) that mentions any violation of any kind that he or his staff has committed. I can save you some time and tell you that you won't be able to, so your opinions are nothing more than baseless speculation. He recruits well, but so does Izzo and a lot of other coaches. It's not like he's bringing in 5* kids from California or Texas or Florida - all the 5* recruits he's gotten are from Ohio and Indiana (Turner was a 4* recruit from Illinois whose father lives in Columbus). There are a lot of things that make OSU attractive as a school to play basketball at and they had a lot of very talented players over the years before Matta got there - he's only made the basketball side of things even more appealing than they were before with his teams' style of play.

As mentioned before, Matta wasn't talking trash to the Michigan bench - he was yelling at the ref to count the shot, because they were reviewing it at the monitor & I know a reporter who was there that heard what Matta was saying and he confirmed that he was just yelling at the ref - all the people who say he was talking trash are just looking for something visible to dislike him for because apparently they don't have enough other evidence. He doesn't play the bench as much as other coaches do, that's the main thing people in general complain about. I can think of a lot worse flaws in a coach. I don't think people realize he only had 5 scholarship players on the team this year that came to OSU out of high school - he's lost a lot of guys after 1 year for one reason or another (8 the past 3 years to be exact), and has (in spite of the common sentiment that his recruiting is too good to be true) struggled to fill all those spots with players that belong in the Big Ten.

I would say Bo Ryan is my least favorite Big Ten coach. His teams have stained on the image of the Big Ten, making it look more like a talent-poor, physical, boring league.
 

OSUfan- My own personal reason to question Matta deals with how quickly he got elite talent to come to OSU after the sanctions/scholarship restrictions from the O'Brien era. We had our own situation here, and we were not so fortunate. I certainly respect Matta's ability to recruit, I just question if it was done above board. I still credit the guy with bringing some great talent to OSU and winning a lot of games without a true point guard the past couple years.

I hate Bo Ryan for his whining/ranting to the officials, but what he's done at Wisconsin is nothing short of amazing. He gets my vote for least favorite coach, but he probably does more with less than anyone in the conference.

I like Izzo a lot for all the reasons already mentioned, plus his big guys always remind me of Clem's big guys: physical, tough, and know their role is not to shoot jumpers.

As an example of the strength of the Big Ten coaches, if Tubby were to leave, how many of the leagues coaches would you be happy with as a replacement? I'd take 7 guys: Izzo, Matta, Painter, Crean, Weber, Beilien, and Bo Ryan probably in that order. It would obviously never happen, but that's a big change from a few years ago when Monson and Amaker were roaming Big Ten sidelines.
 

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