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The U.S. Basketball Writers Association award for coach of the year always goes to a good coach. And at the level of Division I basketball, all coaches are good coaches. Yet, the writers were tasked to elect who was the best, not just above the mean, and in 2015 it wasn’t Tony Bennett of the Virginia Cavaliers.
In a year where John Calipari has led the Kentucky Wildcats to an unblemished record thus far, Rick Pitino has taken a limping Louisville Cardinals team into the Sweet 16 and Tom Izzo has done the same in what should’ve been a down year with the Michigan State Spartans, I believe awarding Bennett was a misstep of hubris and a failure in the voting system.
You could make the argument that the Cavaliers value system over prowess, but that reasoning is immediately squashed moot with the 2014-15 work of Pitino and Izzo — two coaches who’ve traveled further under similar circumstances.
The one-and-done finality and the possibility of unfavorable matchups quotes the NCAA tournament a little short on fairness. But ask yourself, if you fail to reach the Sweet 16, would you consider your season successful? Does bowing out in the first weekend as a No. 2 seed strengthen your case for coach of the year? The answer is no, and I hope you’re rhetorically nodding in agreement with me.
Tony, your Pack Line defense is great, but you adopted this scheme from your father, Dick Bennett. Many claim you perfected it and applied it well to college basketball’s best conference. Okay, that is an accomplishment. But it’s not yet worthy of this accomplishment. You’re still not coach of the year. You’re fourth, behind Izzo, Pitino and the winner writers were too “cavalier” to nominate, Kentucky’s Calipari.
Jerry Landry is a writer for www.RantSports.com. Follow Jerry on Twitter at @Jerry2Landry, “Like” him on Facebook or add him on Google.
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