Who Has the Best Coach in the MVC?

[valleychamp]

McD is no where near discussion as a best coach. Marshall and Jacobson are the best. Somebody else cancompile the numbers, but it seems the argument for HCBJ is the job he has done with subpar talent. Sure, he has/had Kochs, and Ali was a sharpshooter, but everyone else. My counterpoint for HCGGGM is this- he doesn't have to worry about subpar talent because he is the better recruiter,hires the better recruiters, and wins with talent he has brought in. The 'does more with less' argument flies darn well for the first two seasons at a job. After that, if you can only bring in subpart talent, with the occasional all valley player, it is not something to be proud of.
And comparing success before the currently held position is completely valid. After all, we are talking about the ability to win games and recruit. I don't know a lot about McD. Didn't he come from Iowa State? If so, and that is indeed a BCS school, Marshall wins that all day long, because HCGGGM had more success at a lower level.

Do you honestly believe that the talent level that Jacobson has had at UNI was/is inferior? People always like to use that argument but I don't believe it to be necessarily true.

Coleman, Stout, Koch (x2), Eglseder, Ahelegbe, plus role players like Farokhmanash, O'Rear, Moran. Those are really good players in this conference for any team. And UNI currently has young guys like Tuttle and Mitchell that look to be very promising to say the least.

[Ricardo del Rio]

And comparing success before the currently held position is completely valid. After all, we are talking about the ability to win games and recruit. I don't know a lot about McD. Didn't he come from Iowa State? If so, and that is indeed a BCS school, Marshall wins that all day long, because HCGGGM had more success at a lower level.

You do realize that before he coached at Iowa State, he built the UNI program right? When he coached at UNI, they played basketball games in the football dome for goodness sake! In his five years at UNI, he won one conference tourney, plus garnered two additional at large NCAA bids. Unless I'm mistaken, that means he coached at UNI for the exact same amount of time that Marshall has been at WSU, but earned two more NCAA tourney bids than Marshall has earned in the same time frame.

Might want to do a little research before deeming somebody unworthy.

I won't say I hate McD, but I've never been a fan of him (including his time at UNI, but he is very much "Yeah, he's a freaking ass clown crybaby...but he's our freaking ass clown crybaby") but what he did at UNI can never be taken away and should never be discredited.

UNI has a very talent team coming this year, and while all of you will talk down the talent because we are mostly white or whatever reason. The "athleticism/talent" that is on this years team is double that of the teams McD coached at UNI.

Now, it could be said that he failed at Iowa State (and did) and UNI continued to get better talent and continued to get better. The constant at UNI over that time, Ben Jacobson.


You could give Lowery Doug and he would compete for for a conference title. He is very lucky to have Doug, and without Doug Creighton is a 4th-6th place team.

Give Gregg or Ben Doug McD and they win the league by 4 or 5 games. Ben because of how good of a X's and O's coach he is, and Gregg because of the overall talent he would have with Doug.


Ben took a UNI team that started 2 true freshman (point guard and center, two pretty important positions in the valley), replacing one of the better PG's in conference history (no I didn't say best or top 3 or 5 I said one of the better) and a team who's only post presence was one of the freshman (due to the infamous friend hat situation that pulled UNI's top recruit away), a team who only had 4 players who had seen significant minutes at any point in their careers, etc... to within 2 points of the NIT quarters and a team that beat that Creighton team (and was within 3 of beating them twice).


To say Ben does more with less has been true. However, for only the second (maybe third) season in his career Ben has a truly experienced team returning.

6 seasons
21.5 wins per season (64.5% win %)
4 post season tournaments
2x coach of the year
2 conference titles
2 tournament titles
2 NCAA's
1 S16


Most successful 6 year stretch in UNI history - and only looking better for the coming years.



Not bad for it being your first head coaching gig and being only 41 years old

Yup, I agree. Coach Jacobson has performed the best in the MVC of the three coaches under consideration.

For the long term and for the best results, I will take Coach Marshall.

[bleach]

Barry.....who else?
He should win 30 games this year with that sched.

[shock]

HCBH has a better chance at a thirty win season with the SIU chess club. The team would be better academically as well. Win win.

[troutangler]

I see some of our fans haven't made it on this thread yet to tell you guys that Lusk is the best coach in the Valley.

My vote is Jacobson.

[bleach]

I don't recall anyone even on Bearnation saying Lusk was the best. He may be (don't think so) but it would take much more time to tell.

[Wufan]

I agree with the UNI folk that say BJ has had talent. I think the misconception is because they are fundamentally sound and play a slow style. Not exactly the best showcase for athleticism. As an added bonus, slow basketball can hide a lack of athleticism if needed. That is totally different than a lack of talent.

[beatingrillz]

My vote is for Jacobson, anyone that can convince thier governing body to only suspend a star for 3 games after a DWI is a big time coach. Most other programs in the league would kicked him off the team.

[DoubleJayAlum]

The "athleticism/talent" that is on this years team is double that of the teams McD coached at UNI.

I doubt that. Ben Jacobson (the player, not the coach) was one of the best players in the MVC over the last decade. Grant Stout was every bit as good at his position as Koch. McDermott had plenty of talent at UNI.

On top of that, McDermott coached at UNI when the MVC was at its strongest point since the 1980s. The conference was getting multiple bids most of McDermott's years and even three and four bids on occasion. By comparison, under Ben Jacobson (the coach) the conference has been at its weakest, going 5 years with only one bid.

[unipanther99]

I'm not going to argue that Ben's teams are more athletic than Mac's UNI teams. I don't really think there is much difference. I will say that both Ben Jacobson (the player) and Grant Stout were called slow and unathletic ---compared to other Valley players at the time--- by several posters on the old board.