RealGM Analysis
This week the Boston Celtics announced Brad Stevens as their new head coach. It was a move that made a lot of sense for Stevens. The former Butler coach loves the X’s and O’s of the game, but doesn’t have nearly the same love for recruiting battles. In the NBA, for better or worse, he will have to deal with the talent he has on hand. His job will be to maximize that talent, not to attract it to town.
But this does make the situation at Butler more bleak, at least in the short run. With Andrew Smith and Rotnei Clarke graduating, Butler was going to depend more than ever on Stevens’ basketball knowledge next season. The team probably has the seventh to ninth most athletic roster in the Big East next season. And whoever takes over at Butler may not have Stevens’ magic touch with three star recruits.
Speaking of recruiting, that was a topic I wanted to talk about today, at least tangentially. Today I am updating a table I first presented 18 months ago. The table shows D1 coaches in major conferences and how willing they are to give minutes to freshmen. To no one’s surprise, John Calipari and Rick Barnes show up at the top of this list. Both coaches have been willing to give major minutes to first-year players. On the flip side coaches like Bruce Weber, Bo Ryan, Mike Brey, and Buzz Williams have been unwilling to use freshmen in their rotation. When I ran this table 18 months ago, I called it the “anti-recruiting tool” because for these coaches the lack of commitment to fist year-players could be a detriment on the recruiting trail.
Elite recruits want to showcase their game for NBA scouts, and a large part of recruiting is promising elite players the chance to play right away. When a coach like Bo Ryan has been known to red-shirt McDonald’s All-Americans, that likely prevents Wisconsin from competing for some of the top high school athletes.
The following table shows major conference coaches with at least 5 years of D1 coaching experience and the average number of minutes they have given to freshmen during the last 11 seasons. I include all schools where the coach was employed as a head coach. I.e. this table includes John Calipari’s time at Memphis as well as his time at Kentucky.
|
Team |
Coach |
Conf |
PctMinFr |
|
Kentucky |
John Calipari |
SEC |
37% |
|
Texas |
Rick Barnes |
B12 |
31% |
|
Wake Forest |
Jeff Bzdelik |
ACC |
27% |
|
Purdue |
Matt Painter |
B10 |
27% |
|
Santa Clara |
Kerry Keating |
WCC |
27% |
|
Duquesne |
Jim Ferry |
A10 |
27% |
|
Michigan |
John Beilein |
B10 |
26% |
|
Florida |
Billy Donovan |
SEC |
26% |
|
Mississippi |
Andy Kennedy |
SEC |
26% |
|
South Carolina |
Frank Martin |
SEC |
25% |
|
Indiana |
Tom Crean |
B10 |
25% |
|
Providence |
Ed Cooley |
BE |
25% |
|
George Mason |
Paul Hewitt |
A10 |
25% |
|
Loyola Marymount |
Max Good |
WCC |
25% |
|
Boston College |
Steve Donahue |
ACC |
24% |
|
Seton Hall |
Kevin Willard |
BE |
24% |
|
Iowa |
Fran McCaffery |
B10 |
24% |
|
Evansville |
Marty Simmons |
MVC |
24% |
|
Fordham |
Tom Pecora |
A10 |
24% |
|
San Francisco |
Rex Walters |
WCC |
24% |
|
Oklahoma St. |
Travis Ford |
B12 |
23% |
|
Kansas |
Bill Self |
B12 |
23% |
|
Portland |
Eric Reveno |
WCC |
23% |
|
Villanova |
Jay Wright |
BE |
23% |
|
Washington |
Lorenzo Romar |
P12 |
23% |
|
Alabama |
Anthony Grant |
SEC |
23% |
|
Colorado |
Tad Boyle |
P12 |
23% |
|
South Florida |
Stan Heath |
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