College basketball experts predict: Who will be the 2021-22 Coach of the Year?
theathletic.com
Nov 8, 2021
...our panel took its best shot with this difficult task. And two coaches received 10 of the 15 total votes...
A sampling of our experts’ responses:
In a dogfight between a bunch of coaches who will try to wrangle a bunch of talent in the same direction, Matt Painter gets that done at a high level — especially balancing Trevion Williams and Zach Edey in the frontcourt — and also gets some lifetime achievement award credit. — Brian Hamilton
Give me Matt Painter at Purdue, perennially one of the more underrated coaches in the country. This season, though, Painter finally has the talent to go along with his basketball mind. Usually this award goes to the coach of a team who overachieves, and while Purdue is a top 10 outfit to open the year, that’s not familiar territory for the Boilermakers. If Painter can keep this group in that realm all season, he’ll be a strong candidate here. — Brendan Marks
This award is always weird. It tends to go to the coach who most defied preseason expectations, and I’m happy to admit I don’t know what’s going to happen in the future; it’s hard to project which coach is going to do better than I currently think. So I’ll just skip those mental gymnastics and say MattPainter, not only because it will take some real finesse to optimize this Boilermakers roster — particularly in the frontcourt, where Painter is going to genuinely try to get Trevion Williams and Zach Edey on the floor at the same time — but also because he’s one of the best coaches in the country every year and only occasionally gets the accurate amount of praise therein. — Eamonn Brennan
Chris Beard brought in basically a whole new team and coaching staff, but he is used to bringing in a bunch of different parts on the fly and assembling a fine-tuned machine. — Seth Davis
Chris Beard. Talent hasn’t been the problem at Texas. Despite losing Greg Brown III and Jericho Sims to the NBA, the Longhorns have a talented roster strengthened by incoming transfers Timmy Allen (Utah), Marcus Carr (Minnesota) and Tre Mitchell (UMass). Beard knows how to assemble the pieces and get the most out of his players. — Austin Meek
Mick Cronin. UCLA found magic last season thanks to Johnny Juzang and Jaime Jaquez Jr. I think Cronin takes the team to similar heights this season. — Charlotte Carroll
Penny Hardaway. If my surprise prediction is correct, he will have earned the award by massaging and managing egos, creating a point guard and learning from Larry Brown. — Dana O’Neil
I picked Indiana as my surprise team; ergo, why not go with Mike Woodson? Juwan Howard won some national coach of the year awards in his first season at Michigan, and there’s some similarity here with a beloved alumnus returning to his alma mater after spending years in the NBA. The difference is that Howard inherited a program coming off a Final Four run. Then again, Woodson doesn’t have to hit those heights to show great improvement over the Hoosiers’ 12-16 campaign last season. — Brian Bennett
College basketball experts predict: Who will be the 2021-22 Coach of the Year?
Purdue's Matt Painter and Texas' Chris Beard are our panel's early favorites to win the award.
theathletic.com
Nov 8, 2021
...our panel took its best shot with this difficult task. And two coaches received 10 of the 15 total votes...
| Matt Painter |  Purdue | 6 |
| Chris Beard |  Texas | 4 |
| Mick Cronin |  UCLA | 1 |
| Penny Hardaway |  Memphis | 1 |
| Brad Underwood |  Illinois | 1 |
| Mike Woodson |  Indiana | 1 |
| Jay Wright |  Villanova | 1 |
A sampling of our experts’ responses:
In a dogfight between a bunch of coaches who will try to wrangle a bunch of talent in the same direction, Matt Painter gets that done at a high level — especially balancing Trevion Williams and Zach Edey in the frontcourt — and also gets some lifetime achievement award credit. — Brian Hamilton
Give me Matt Painter at Purdue, perennially one of the more underrated coaches in the country. This season, though, Painter finally has the talent to go along with his basketball mind. Usually this award goes to the coach of a team who overachieves, and while Purdue is a top 10 outfit to open the year, that’s not familiar territory for the Boilermakers. If Painter can keep this group in that realm all season, he’ll be a strong candidate here. — Brendan Marks
This award is always weird. It tends to go to the coach who most defied preseason expectations, and I’m happy to admit I don’t know what’s going to happen in the future; it’s hard to project which coach is going to do better than I currently think. So I’ll just skip those mental gymnastics and say MattPainter, not only because it will take some real finesse to optimize this Boilermakers roster — particularly in the frontcourt, where Painter is going to genuinely try to get Trevion Williams and Zach Edey on the floor at the same time — but also because he’s one of the best coaches in the country every year and only occasionally gets the accurate amount of praise therein. — Eamonn Brennan
Chris Beard brought in basically a whole new team and coaching staff, but he is used to bringing in a bunch of different parts on the fly and assembling a fine-tuned machine. — Seth Davis
Chris Beard. Talent hasn’t been the problem at Texas. Despite losing Greg Brown III and Jericho Sims to the NBA, the Longhorns have a talented roster strengthened by incoming transfers Timmy Allen (Utah), Marcus Carr (Minnesota) and Tre Mitchell (UMass). Beard knows how to assemble the pieces and get the most out of his players. — Austin Meek
Mick Cronin. UCLA found magic last season thanks to Johnny Juzang and Jaime Jaquez Jr. I think Cronin takes the team to similar heights this season. — Charlotte Carroll
Penny Hardaway. If my surprise prediction is correct, he will have earned the award by massaging and managing egos, creating a point guard and learning from Larry Brown. — Dana O’Neil
I picked Indiana as my surprise team; ergo, why not go with Mike Woodson? Juwan Howard won some national coach of the year awards in his first season at Michigan, and there’s some similarity here with a beloved alumnus returning to his alma mater after spending years in the NBA. The difference is that Howard inherited a program coming off a Final Four run. Then again, Woodson doesn’t have to hit those heights to show great improvement over the Hoosiers’ 12-16 campaign last season. — Brian Bennett
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