Athlon Sports: College Basketball's Best Coaches under 40 (Gophers Pitino #5)

per Athlon's:

5. Richard Pitino, Minnesota
Record: 18-14
Age: 31
FIU’s second attempt to hire a coach with name recognition fared much better than the first. Isiah Thomas won 14 Sun Belt games in three season at FIU. Pitino went 11-9 in the league in his lone season in Miami. FIU was on the brink of its first NCAA Tournament bid since 1995 before losing 65-63 to Western Kentucky in the Sun Belt title game. Minnesota took note and made him the youngest coach in the Big Ten. He has the family name, but his old bosses — Rick Pitino and Billy Donovan — have a good success rate with assistants-turned-head coaches.

http://athlonsports.com/college-basketball/college-basketballs-best-coaches-under-40-0

Go Gophers!!

pretty impressive ranking imo just due to his age and and inexperience relative to the guys above him on the list

you could argue that he should be 1 or 2 spots lower but you could also make the case that he deserves #5. But I doubt he is that high without being hired here.

How do they even have a big enough sample size to make this evaluation? He may very well end up being the best on that list, but it's pretty early at this point.

golfing18now said:

How do they even have a big enough sample size to make this evaluation? He may very well end up being the best on that list, but it's pretty early at this point.

Click to expand...

I think It's supposed to be as of right now. And given what he did at FIU with so few scholarship players... he did a great job last year. a few of the other coaches only have 2 years of coaching under their belts. what makes that a good enough sample size. You're just going to have small sample sizes when dealing with young coaches.