Coack K, Roy Williams Guitar Hero commercial

Pitino- Took Providence to 1 Final Four in 1987
Took UK to 3 Final Fours (1993, 1996, 1997) and 1 Championship
Took Louisville to the Final Four in 2005

K- Took Duke to 10 Final Fours and 3 Championships

Knight- Took Indiana to 5 Final Fours and 3 Championships

Williams- Took KU to 4 Final Fours and UNC to 3 Final Fours and 1 Championship



It's not even close. Props to Pitino for taking 3 schools to the Final Four, and that Providence team is right there with George Mason as the most surprising FF entries ever, but he's fourth on the list. Perhaps my personal dislike for the guy would put Calhoun above him, and Izzo being there is just silly, but he's at the bottom of this particular coaching rung.

Obviously his totals would be higher had he not left for Boston, he gave Tubby a FF and a NC.

 

Grid doesn't have discussions. He trolls. He won't be back to discuss this or defend his trolling points. He's more of a hit-and-run-and-hide troll.

 

edit: maybe he didn't get fired

 

The good thing for now, is that they havent overplayed it. If I see the red head and her labtop commercial one more time I'll scream.

 

So, Roy Williams has 2 more final fours, but the same number of championships. I'm sure we can all agree that if Pitino had stayed one more year, he would have won another title at UK and had another final four.

I recognize that for the record books, those go to Tubby Smith, but Pitino has taken over three schools who were in nowhere near as good a shape as Kansas or Chapel hill and turned them into F4 caliber teams. He has also had two programs at a championship level. There is no reason to assume he can't win at least one more title at UL.

He is a better coach than Calhoun, Izzo or Williams. You could probably make a case for him being a better coach than K too, but he left the college game at his prime. I personally think Knight is head and shoulders above the rest of that crowd.

 

This makes two of my non confrontational threads ya'll have turned into a bitch fest Good Job

 

Kansas was on probation when Roy took over.

I agree that Knight is the king of that group, he's the last guy to take a team undefeated through a season (a team with HUGE expectations at that, having been eliminated the previous year in the FF.)


edit: Let's not forget that while UK and Louisville were down when Pitino took them over, it's not like he went to East Tenn State or something. Those two schools are both among the top 10 in basketball history, with UK only giving in to UCLA (they would argue that in Kentucky.)

 

Yeah, but Denny Crum was pretty much fired for the state he left UL and UK hadn't won a title in 18 years when Pitino did it.

I'm not saying he didn't take over elite histories, but they were not coming off a national title like Kansas, nor did they have the players that Chapel Hill did when Roy Williams took over. Yes, Kansas was on probation, but they had JUST won a national title.

 

And lost their only good player.

I'm willing to listen to Pitino over Williams, that's the only one I'd listen to.


And if you read my first response, I pretty much say "If he wins this year with his players it will be clear that Pitino doesn't belong. " If UNC doesn't win, clearly the discussion is a lot more valid.

 

i don't think there's any doubt pitino belongs in that group. final fours in three decades? success at different schools in different conferences? immediately recognizable face? nba coaching experience? who would be there if it weren't pitino?

knight is the one who's not coaching anymore -- so, he'd be the odd man out.