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Message: [QUOTE="SoBristol, post: 78141, member: 485"] I suppose you can say Coach Mac was "very mediocre" if you mean he couldn't work miracles with the very average talent he had in his first 4 years (other than beating Nebraska when it was #1). But he became a hall of fame coach because he rebuilt two programs (UMass and SU with some NFL time in between) into solid winning teams. We were talking about game management earlier, but Coach Mac was good at that, good as a sideline motivator, terrific at selling SU to kids (consider the skill kids he began to bring in as soon as his third season of recruiting), and great in interviews. The sign of an outstanding coach is taking a program and making it several rungs better -- as, for example, Brad Stevens is doing at Butler. Other guys win (say at North Carolina) but the program was already at the top of the heap or was working with advantages (tradition, location, easy virtue -- say, Kentucky) that other schools don't have. As for JB, he has been a consistent big winner, and won his share of contests against other very good coaches (Michigan State; North Carolina), although he has had recent issues with Pitino and Dixon. His 1996 team (John Wallace) wasn't picked to go far; it lost in the final two to an absolutely loaded KY team. His 2003 team has Melo, but was ranked only 12th or so before it made the run. Didn't hurt that Melo was always the best player on the court, and getting better week to week, but JB coached that team through a tough spot or two (Oklahoma State comes to mind) and it was his zone or his press that got the most out of that bunch. Marrone -- hope the best game management days come when he has better skills guys to work with. So far, we know that Shafer can pull off some game day success, winning games last year when the offense struggled. [/QUOTE]

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