CBS Sports polled 110 college basketball coaches throughout the month of July, and one of the questions they asked the large group was which active coach would be the most likely to make the jump from college to the NBA? Thankfully, John Calipari isn’t #1, but who is might surprise you.
22 coaches, or 20% of those surveyed believe UConn’s Kevin Ollie will be the next college coach to make the leap after Billy Donovan left Florida to go to Oklahoma City. Bill Self followed with 17% of the coaches who responded, and the oft-rumored Calipari tied with Villanova’s Jay Wright at 16%.
Below are some of the anonymous quotes from the coaches on that question, and many of them are fascinating:
– “Calipari wants to do it. But he wants big money, total control and the chance to win big immediately. And I just don’t know if anybody in the NBA is ever going to be willing to give him that.”
– “(Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski) is the obvious one with his Olympic pedigree, but I’d say Kevin Ollie is next. Former player, has had some success at the college level already. (Alabama coach) Avery Johnson is an obvious throw-in too.”
– “Kevin Ollie is probably next. But Cal is going to happen eventually.”
– “I’m sure Bill Self comes to people’s minds when this question comes up. And I think he would do great. I like Jay Wright, though. Does a great job with spacing, and while I’m sure he has an ego, I think he does a great job of suppressing it. And Villanova was underrated defensively. Kevin Ollie has a (Cavaliers coach) Tyrone Lue feel as well.”
CBS also did this poll three years ago, and two of the three high vote getters, Fred Hoiberg and Billy Donovan, are now both NBA coaches as predicted. The fact that there isn’t clear consensus among the group leads us to believe that there is a very solid group of coaches, including Ollie, Calipari, and even Virginia’s Tony Bennett that could be making the leap some time in the near future.
Two of the major linking threads between coaches making the leap are they’ve either won national titles or played in the NBA, and all of the coaches linked closely with NBA jobs meet one or both of those qualifications.
CBS also asked the same group of coaches a plethora of other questions, including whether North Carolina should be banned from hosting NCAA Tournament games thanks to the controversial HB2 law, which player in all of college basketball they’d take over all others, shoe companies, and more. It’s a good read.
