Where Does the Texas Head Coaching Job Rank

[Bigtex112]

I was thinking about this this morning trying to wrap my mind around the Football Season being finished. Right now, where does the Texas Basketball Head Coaching job rank. Is Texas now a "destination school" like the Football job has been since Royal's days? Would a coach leave Texas to go to another school? Here are my school's that I think still are above Texas in the pecking order of Basketball jobs.

Kansas, UCLA, Duke, North Carolina, Kentucky

Here are my picks for school's that may be equal to the Texas job:

Arizona, UConn, Georgetown, Indiana, Memphis, Florida

What say you?

 

[blonthang]

IMHO.....

destination schools for various sports, let's stick to the "big 3 -- football, baseball, men's basketball" are such for more than just one coach who's done a bang up job.

First, long tradition of not just winning, but winning it all. This comes from more than just one coach, it happens over decades, generations.

Next, facilities, infrastructure, money.

Third, recruiting base, most of which is the school's physical location, but also which is based upon the first two (kids want to play where they think they have the best chance to win, due to winning tradition and facilities/infrastructure/money).

So, regarding UT's big 3:

1. Football, even before DKR had a good winning tradition, somewhat overlooked because of pre-TV big press bias, but DKR really put UT on the map with those 2 1/2 MNCs.

After a few bumps, Mack Brown has a NC, another Heisman (I know, it's becoming a joke, but still has high press and fan interest), and just finished playing in the NC game, along with a slew of BCS and other bowl wins over Michigan, tOSU, USC, Iowa, Arizona State and LSU.

Facilities, infrastructure, money? Duh.

And, of course, Texas is in the middle of recruiting heaven. Double duh.

Conclusion for football --- yes, DESTINATION school for college football coaches. Triple duh.

2. baseball, can you imagine that Texas has had only 4 baseball coaches since at least the 1940s?

And the last 3 (including the present coach) have all won the College World Series, 2 more than once each.

Texas has been to the CWS more than any other team, is tied for 2nd in all-time CWS wins with LSU (got a way to go to catch USC, but possible), holds many records or 2nds or 3rds for all-time wins, regional play, regional wins, etc., etc.

Tradition? yes

Infrastructure/facilities/money? yes

Recruiting hotbed? yes

Conclusion on baseball. Yes, UT-Austin is a college baseball destination location.


3. Basketball. Well, before Abe basketball was spotty.

Oh, sure, we had that FF appearance in the 40s which took 2 wins to get to, and Texas competed pretty well regionally (interesting to check out the NCAA record book and find that Texas is actually around 20th or so all-time wins/win % nationally, so Texas had traditionally won more than it lost).

Abe got Texas an NIT title, when it still had some luster. And Texas could battle UH and piggy and not get killed when UH and piggy were both national top-5 powers.

But that faded and the lull with Weltlich didn't help. Penders showed promise, but the ship went down in flames after some elevation to annual NCAA appearances. But, still, no one really considered Texas in that "elite" group,......yet.

Barnes has turned out, IMHO, to be the best coaching hire at UT since Eddie Reese, even a slight edge over Mack, considering the history at UT.

He has Texas at the "elite" level, where just about every sports writer each year has good things to say about the coming year and Texas' chances to win it all.

He's recruited some of the best players in the nation. At UT-Austin!

He's gotten the UT squad to the NCAAs each year he has coached at the 40 acres.

So, 3. basketball, Tradition?, sorry, not so much.

Facilties/infrastructure/money. Yes, Barnes' instigation to have the Cooley Pavilion built took a little sting off the Erwin Center not being the best venue for college basketball, but on average, Texas' BB facilities are among the best.

Recruiting hotbed? Since Barnes has finally broken the "hardwood ceiling" and has convinced Texas prep stars to "stay at home in Texas" and not go to UNC, Duke, Ariz, etc., yes, Texas is in a recruitingf hotbed, IMHO.

Summary on basketball: that tradition thing is mostly tied to Barnes. He needs to win a national title or 2, and even then, it's still iffy.

Whoever one day replaces Barnes needs to continue on what he's built. THEN, Texas could join, though not exceed, not in 50 years, the traditions of UK, KU, UNC, Duke, UCLA, etc.

So, IMHO, UT-Austin is not yet a college basketball destination for the big names in coaching.

Yet.

2 cents.

 

[musubi]

I think the UT job is right about where you've rated it: top 7 or so. I don't think it's better than the first 5 you've listed.

Memphis is not one of the top jobs in the country. Weak conference, poor athletic department...no way they would've hired Josh Pastner if they were one of the top dogs. I can think of better ones, for sure. Syracuse, Michigan State, Louisville (just to name a few) are better jobs.

As for the idea of tradition (according to the other poster), what does Rick Barnes winning a National title (or 2) have to do with how attractive the UT job is to another coach? It's all about resources, recruiting, and AD support. That generally translates to winning, but it doesn't work the other way around. If you don't have those other factors, you might get lucky and catch lightning in a bottle one year and win it all, but you won't sustain excellence.

 

[Bob in Houston]

IMO, tradition/fan support don't mean much without facilities, infrastructure, and money. Barnes himself has proved this. He's been at it for a dozen years and now is regularly in the top 10. You don't have to be in a recruiting hotbed, either. Kansas isn't. Kentucky, not particularly. But those are destination jobs.

As to the original list, I don't think UCLA belongs on the list. The Bruins have won one title since John Wooden retired. They're finally redoing Pauley Pavilion. I imagine that will help.

As to the next five, I guess I'd judge them this way: Would you foresee Barnes taking any of these jobs? I wouldn't. Memphis, particularly, as a non-BCS school, is out.

Texas, once available, would be a very popular job. They could call anybody and not get ignored. So yeah, I'd say it's very close to being a destination job.

 

[blonthang]

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[Bob in Houston]

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