Outspoken Coaches: Who Was the Best Employee on the College Basketball Coaching Service in 2022?

CBS Sports college basketball writers Gary Parrish and Matt Norlander surveyed nearly 100 coaches for the annual Candid Coaches series. They surveyed everyone from head coaches in elite programs to assistants at some of the smallest Division I schools. In exchange for complete anonymity, the coaches offered complete honesty on a number of topics. Over the next few weeks, we will publish the results of the questions asked.

Some of the biggest jobs have been in college basketball Officially employed after last season — between them dukeAnd the MarylandAnd the Louisville And the FloridaEach has won a national championship in the past two decades.

There were a lot of interesting appointments. But what school is it made of? Better rent?

We’ve asked nearly 100 college coaches exactly this question. What they told us is reflected below.

Who was the best coach in 2022?

Others get votes: Dan Earle, Chattanooga; Chris Gerlovsen San Francisco; Jonas Hayes, Georgia State; Rob Lanier, SMU; Bart Lundy, Milwaukee

Quotes that popped

In Shaheen Holloway

• “I always hire a graduate – especially someone who has proven themselves. He loves this place, this community loves him. He has the charisma for the job. Great hire.”
• “Back at his alma mater, where he was well-liked and knew the nature of the earth, especially the enlistment of the wise. The resume was built on doing more with less – and he accomplished in St. Peter what would never happen again. Also a really good human being.”

on Shawn Miller

• “I’m a good friend of Travis Steele, and I hate how it came about, but Sean is tailor-made for Xavier, Cincinnatistate Ohio. A tough guy, knows the landscape, a really good coach. Loved by the masses and society. Sometimes all players, schools and fans need the concept of confidence when they enter the ring. It brings that out in people.”
• “Fearless, left to die and one of the best coaches in the game. He understands modern-day CEO/coach/talent acquisition as anyone has done before – and now has more room to expand his relationships and resources.”

On Kevin Willard

• “What he did at Seton Hall—with the lack of facilities in the background of the Old Guard Schools in the Big East—is incredible. Now he has all the whistles and bells, and he’s a formidable recruit. Now he has a massive recruiting field, and a place with a big name. I think within Three years Maryland will win the Big Ten.”
• “Kevin has proven to be a great coach who makes no excuses. He finds a neglected talent and makes it better like everyone else in the country. With a great campus, great location, football money – and the way he develops his players – pay attention.”

on john sheer

• “He’s already booked the first consecutive enlistment ranks. Anyone who can do that, even in a place like Duke, is a fantastic recruit. He’s set himself up for the big win quickly.”
• “He should be ready to continue the success at Duke. He’s coming at the right point, as Duke hasn’t won national titles year after year, so expectations are not over the top.”

Takeaway

The fact that we got 20 different answers to this question is a wild truth and proof that there is no clear right answer – Unlike last year when Chris Bird of Texas got 61% of the vote.

(Note: Last year, Tommy Lloyd, who led Arizona to the No. 1 NCAA Championship seed, Hubert Davis, who took UNC to the NCAA Championship Game, received less than 3% of the vote. So things don’t always unfold the way coaches – or any of us – think they will. But I digress.)

If you had asked me to predict the winner of this survey before actually taking it, I might have told you Duke’s John Sher because he’s already recruited the rest of the country for two years in a row. Or maybe I would have gone with Xavier’s Sean Miller or Butler’s Thad Matta because both have established and proven track records of winning at the main level.

However, Shaheen Holloway is a wholly reasonable leading voter.

Not only did he take St. Peter – Peace! – to the Elite Eight of the 2022 NCAA Championship after finishing in the top three at the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference in each of the past three seasons making Holloway a great employee. It’s also the way he seemed to develop a strong culture within the program, one in which players seemed to love and respect him so much that they literally Attended his introductory press conference in Seton Hall.

This said something to me

It’s impossible to know definitively how any hiring will happen – and proof of that Nebraska‘s Fred Hoyberg got more votes than Mick Cronin of UCLA and Eric Mosselman of Arkansas in this poll three years ago. But he’s still looking for his first 11-win season with the Huskers while Cronin’s Final Four and Musselman have had an elite eight in a row. But for whatever it’s worth, you can also consider me a believer in Holloway. He actually did (in a way) more with a little at St Peter’s and thrived on the biggest stage in the sport. I suspect he’ll do big things next at Seton Hall, and based on the results of this survey, many of his colleagues agree.