NCAA Basketball Props – Wagering on Coach of the Year
There are a lot of great college basketball coaches, but only one can be named the coach of the year. BetUS Sportsbook has laid out a list of possible candidates, though it is just a small percentage of the names who are out there. Here are the sports betting odds:
BetUS NCAA College Basketball Proposition Odds
NCAA Coach of the year
Ben Howland, UCLA 5/1
Tom Izzo, Michigan State 5/1
Mike Brey, ND 7/1
Dave Rose, BYU 8/1
Mark Few, Gonzaga 8/1
Mike Krzyzewski, Duke 10/1
Roy Williams, North Carolina 10/1
Fran McCaffery, Siena 10/1
Mark Fox, Nevada 12/1
Rick Pitino, Louisville 12/1
Jim Calhoun, UCONN 15/1
Jamie Dixon, Pitt 15/1
Stew Morrill, Utah State 20/1
Field 4/1
The really good coach of the year candidates, in my opinion, are the guys who make a giant leap of sorts with their program, or the ones who are faced with unforeseen adversity and overcome it anyway, not the ones who are always recruiting blue-chip players, expected to do well and do just that.
So what I’m saying is that I wouldn’t put my money on someone like Ben Howland. I mean, even if he gets his team a couple of steps further and wins a championship, does that mean what he has accomplished from one year to the next has been so stupendous to win the award? No. Same holds for Krzyzewski at Duke, who has had such recruiting advantages over other teams that you can’t help but think he’s UNDER-achieving when he gets knocked out in the first round of the tourney, as he was last year.
For others guys like Izzo, Brey, Williams, Pitino, Calhoun, Dixon – hell, if they DON’T do very very well, that will be the surprise.
The guy on this list who may be a candidate is Fran McCaffery of Siena, one of those mid-majors (or small majors, really) who could find themselves pulling off upsets in the Big Dance. Of course, enough people have talked about Siena being a surprise player in this year’s landscape that the surprise may be if they DON’T do it.
My play here would be on the “Field.” And that’s really no contest. There are so many guys who could break through here. Let me tell you about just a few of them:
* Bill Grier, San Diego — He does more with less than just about anyone. And he has all five starters back from th team that upset U-Conn in the NCAA’s last year.
* John Beilein, Michigan – He did such an overhaul of this team and its style that it experience a lot of growing pains last season, and lost 22 games. But there’s a lot of youth that has come together, and the upset of UCLA proves that.
* Keno Davis, Providence – Wow, would this be an upset or what? Davis won coach of the year honors last year from the Associated Press, Sporting News and Basketball Times as he piloted Drake to a 28-5 season. Now he’s at Providence, which was 15-16 last year, and he’s got nine of the top ten players back, including Sharaud Curry. The Friars could make big strides in the Big East, and if that happens this guy’s in the hunt yet again.
* Tony Bennett, Washington St. — He employs a very deliberate style that points lots of success back to a coach. He’s got experience on his team, and some of the other top clubs in the Pac-10 have gotten younger, which may create an opening
* Craig Robinson, Oregon St. — Brought Brown into the post-season last year. And his OSU team was 0-18 in the Pac-10 last year, so there’s nowhere to go but up. Hey, he’s Barack Obama’s brother-in-law. So maybe some of those sportswriters who voted for Obama can vote for him too.
* Trent Johnson, LSU — New in Baton Rouge, Johnson has some talent to work with. And there is definitely some upside.
* Gary Waters, Cleveland State — If the Vikings can beat out Butler and Wright State in the Horizon, you’ve got to put his name in the hat.
* Dino Gaudio, Wake Forest — The Deacons should make strides this year with some great freshmen. Remember that Gaudio took over on short notice and under tough circumstances after Skip Prosser’s death last year.
* Herb Sendek, Arizona State – He has to bring his Sun Devils to the next level, which means an NCAA bid. That’s for starters.
And there are some old reliables as well:
* Billy Donovan, Florida — He’s got a load of youth to deal with. If he can bring them all together and become a national title contender, he deserves every bit of consideration.
* Bill Self, Kansas — What could this guy do for an encore? Well, he can make Kansas important on a national scale this year, after losing so much talent from last year’s title team.
* Lon Kruger, UNLV — Don’t look now, but Kruger is putting together a Rebel program that can compete with just about anybody.
