Being College Coach Vs NBA Coach

[tzjung]

To the extent you're not joking, you're telling me that ISU plays as hard against Texas Tech as they do against Kansas? If you believe that, then I have a bridge to sell you. Hell, our team couldn't even muster the sense of urgency to take a team in UAB seriously in the NCAA tournament. There is no difference. Your position is based on a romanticized notion that college athletes are amateurs that put their heart and soul into every performance and that professional athletes are spoiled brats that only care about money. Neither generalization is true.

Do you watch the NBA regular season? These guys don't just not play hard against bad teams...they don't play hard agaisnt GOOD TEAMS!! SERIOUSLY. Do you watch the games? If you like talented players playing 82 pickup games a year, where each game really doesn't matter much individually, then you'll like the NBA. Unfortunately, I'm not one of those guys. BUT...I do end up watching probably 50 games a year because there is nothing better on in their time-slot. I just appreciate that college basketball is much better.

 

[Skyh13]

A good example of NBA coaching is Lebron scrapping his coaches inbounds play to run his own (I'll just get open and make a shot) play.

I'll say it again. The pinnacle of coaching is Self, Knight, Coach K, Roy, Calipari, Pitino., Boeheim, Sean Miller, Lute Olson Those guys coach and have maintained elite programs.

1 out 10 people maybe could tell you who coached Lebron during his Miami tenure.

To say that those guys are the pinnacle of coaching says only one thing:

1. You like college basketball more than the NBA

That's it. Anybody who follows the NBA at all knows EXACTLY who the coach was at Miami, as well as the 90's bulls, as well as the Spurs, as well as the Celtics... And you know what? I bet a lot of those 9 out of 10 people aren't sports fans, and probably don't know who most of those college coaches are either.

Just because coaches are the "stars" of college basketball as opposed to the NBA, where the players are the stars and household names, doesn't mean they are better or the best.

 

[CyJack13]

Do you watch the NBA regular season? These guys don't just not play hard against bad teams...they don't play hard agaisnt GOOD TEAMS!! SERIOUSLY. Do you watch the games? If you like talented players playing 82 pickup games a year, where each game really doesn't matter much individually, then you'll like the NBA. Unfortunately, I'm not one of those guys. BUT...I do end up watching probably 50 games a year because there is nothing better on in their time-slot. I just appreciate that college basketball is much better.

I watched a middle school game where everyone was trying soo hard, much better than college games.

 

[SeaClone]

A good example of NBA coaching is Lebron scrapping his coaches inbounds play to run his own (I'll just get open and make a shot) play.

I'll say it again. The pinnacle of coaching is Self, Knight, Coach K, Roy, Calipari, Pitino., Boeheim, Sean Miller, Lute Olson Those guys coach and have maintained elite programs.

1 out 10 people maybe could tell you who coached Lebron during his Miami tenure.

So, you're comparing hall of fame level college coaches to a relatively young coach in Miami? Why not mention Greg Popovich or Phil Jackson or Pat Riley. And, in reality, it's much harder to maintain a level of success in the NBA. Coach Cal at UK has a substantial recruiting advantage and allows him to reload every year with the best high school players in the country when the best players from the previous year leave. This is true at any blue blood program. In the NBA, there is not a similar advantage for any team. If your best player leaves in the NBA, there is no ability to automatically replace that player with another high level player...you have to hope someone signs in free agency or that you hit the draft lottery after having a down year.

 

[Skyh13]

Do you watch the NBA regular season? These guys don't just not play hard against bad teams...they don't play hard agaisnt GOOD TEAMS!! SERIOUSLY. Do you watch the games? If you like talented players playing 82 pickup games a year, where each game really doesn't matter much individually, then you'll like the NBA. Unfortunately, I'm not one of those guys. BUT...I do end up watching probably 50 games a year because there is nothing better on in their time-slot. I just appreciate that college basketball is much better.

The NBA season is definitely WAY too long. Sadly I don't see that changing.

You may find college basketball more entertaining, but in terms of talent, pace of play, etc, the NBA is much much better. And this is someone who is much more invested in watching and cheering for ISU than my Chicago Bulls.

 

[Skyh13]

I watched a middle school game where everyone was trying soo hard, much better than college games.

lol, touché.

 

[SeaClone]

Do you watch the NBA regular season? These guys don't just not play hard against bad teams...they don't play hard agaisnt GOOD TEAMS!! SERIOUSLY. Do you watch the games? If you like talented players playing 82 pickup games a year, where each game really doesn't matter much individually, then you'll like the NBA. Unfortunately, I'm not one of those guys. BUT...I do end up watching probably 50 games a year because there is nothing better on in their time-slot. I just appreciate that college basketball is much better.

I do watch the NBA, occasionally. But I don't have much interest in it. I prefer to watch college basketball. But it's not because I think the NBA game is worse. It's sort of because I think the players are too good. I like that the college players are a bit less skilled. It makes the games more interesting to me. I think part of your misperception about effort is that the players in the NBA are so skilled that they make it look like they are not trying. The game looks so different because everyone is so skilled, but it has nothing to do with effort.

 

[twocoach]

Coaching professionals vs coaching amateurs.

No recruiting and less drama. Five members of the '14-'15 ISU team got arrested for stupid stuff that a basketball coach shouldn't have to deal with. No members of the '14-'15 Bulls got arrested last year that I recall. And the grind of recruiting constantly has to be incredibly physically taxing and mentally frustrating.

 

[HFCS]

College fans don't realize it's a 100-ish game season with preseason and playoffs.

NBA coaches have 4x the number of games ISU played away from Hilton last year.

Also even compared to MLB and NFL, the NBA fires successful coaches pretty frequently. Several coach of the year winners have been fired within 2 years of winning the award recently. Thibs getting fired with an impressive .647 win % is unusual but not that out of line when you consider the Magic fired Doc Rivers.

It seems like the Bulls brass love Hoiberg, but in general if you aren't coach/gm combo you can get irrationally fired just about any time as an NBA coach.

 

[CyJack13]

College fans don't realize it's a 100-ish game season with preseason and playoffs.

NBA coaches have 4x the number of games ISU played away from Hilton last year.

Also even compared to MLB and NFL, the NBA fires successful coaches pretty frequently. Several coach of the year winners have been fired within 2 years of winning the award recently. Thibs getting fired with an impressive .647 win % is unusual but not that out of line when you consider the Magic fired Doc Rivers.

It seems like the Bulls brass love Hoiberg, but in general if you aren't coach/gm combo you can get irrationally fired just about any time as an NBA coach.

Rivers was two games over .500 in Orlando and never won a playoff series, how does that compare to firing Thibs?

 

[besserheimerphat]

One of those guys is still coaching. The others have been out of the NBA for how long?

Popovich and Karl are still coaching in the NBA and Brown is at SMU. Jackson stopped coaching after the 2011 season and is currently in the Knicks front office. Riley retired the same year as your boy Bob Knight.

For other active coaches, Rick Carlisle and Doc Rivers both have over 1000 career games with >0.570 win%, and Eric Spoelstra and Stan Van Gundy both have over 550 career games with >0.600 win%. So there's four more active guys who could join the NBA list.

But you're right, Red Auerbach has been out of the game for a while.

 

[twocoach]

Do you watch the NBA regular season? These guys don't just not play hard against bad teams...they don't play hard agaisnt GOOD TEAMS!! SERIOUSLY. Do you watch the games? If you like talented players playing 82 pickup games a year, where each game really doesn't matter much individually, then you'll like the NBA. Unfortunately, I'm not one of those guys. BUT...I do end up watching probably 50 games a year because there is nothing better on in their time-slot. I just appreciate that college basketball is much better.

I agree that there is less of a sense of urgency in many NBA games than there are in most regular season college games although I'd say most good college teams have a pretty decent handful of games every year where you could question just how "hard" they played. From a pure basketball perspective, watching the Cavs mail it in against the 76ers is really no different than watching ISU not really need their full effort against a cupcake in an early non-con game.

 

[Spam]

Hoiberg, for one, has said that the brightest coaching minds are in the NBA

 

[HFCS]

No recruiting and less drama. Five members of the '14-'15 ISU team got arrested for stupid stuff that a basketball coach shouldn't have to deal with. No members of the '14-'15 Bulls got arrested last year that I recall. And the grind of recruiting constantly has to be incredibly physically taxing and mentally frustrating.

Your assistants can help you recruit. They can't coach 50 road games instead of 15.

The Bulls specifically have less player problems than most because they mostly build through drafting high character players from high character college programs (McDermott is a very typical GarPax draft pick). Lots of NBA teams are loaded with character problems including the Bulls post-Jordan, pre-Paxson GM. I'd deal with the problems of Matt Thomas (typical college kid) 1000x before I dealt with the problems of Eddie Curry (certified nutjob) once.

 

[Spam]

If NBA teams played 25-35 games a year like college teams do, the intensity and passion of fans would be much greater in the NBA

 

[deadeyededric]

No dealing with boosters, no recruiting - which I think it's pretty obvious Fred is not a big fan of, get to coach the best players in the world.

This!

 

[besserheimerphat]

Another item to note is that right now there isn't that big a pay gap in NBA/NCAA salaries. In the Hornacek article, Hornacek himself noted that many NCAA coaches are getting paid more than NBA coaches and that extended down to assistants as well.

 

[HFCS]

Hoiberg, for one, has said that the brightest coaching minds are in the NBA

It's not appealing because it's easier or less stressful. Anyone who thinks that isn't even a casual NBA fan.

 

[ISUME]

Hoiberg, for one, has said that the brightest coaching minds are in the NBA

That is why ISU has had a crazy % of baskets made after deadballs, Hoiberg was drawing up NBA plays.

 

[HFCS]

If NBA teams played 25-35 games a year like college teams do, the intensity and passion of fans would be much greater in the NBA

People who claim to be "basketball fans" and hate the NBA baffle me. They should just watch the playoffs...there's no way you love basketball and can hate the NBA playoffs. If they are really basketball fans they are missing out on the best basketball in the world every single year.