Who is the Best Coach in College Basketball?
By Ryan Feldman rfeldman@thehoopsreport.com Monday, March 23, 2009 The most evident theme is this year’s NCAA tournament is elite coaching. Many of the best college basketball coaches are still alive in the Sweet 16, and that’s no coincidence. Of the 16 teams remaining, only one coach – Arizona’s Russ Pennell – isn’t considered a great college basketball coach, as Pennell is in his first year as Arizona’s head coach, because of the abrupt retirement of Lute Olson. And the Wildcats have had arguably the easiest path to the Sweet 16, defeating Utah and Cleveland State. In the first two rounds of the tournament, there were many close calls when it came to upsets, but in the end the teams with better coaches prevailed in almost every matchup. The only instance where clearly the better coach lost was in Illinois’s loss to Western Kentucky – Bruce Weber is clearly superior to WKU first year coach Ken McDonald. The only other cases where the better coach may have lost, depending on perspectiv
