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COLUMN: Why Bill Self should be the Big 12 CotY

Anyone who claimed at the beginning of Big 12 play that the winner of the Big 12 would only have three losses on the season would have been laughed off this board. If KU wins Saturday, that is where they will be. For no other reason than that I would give it to Self. Yeah, they were picked first preseason but honestly, that is 99% because of the fact that KU will be auto-picked #1 preseason every year until they do not finish first and not based on any objective reasoning. You could have easily picked ISU or OU 1st preseason if you ignored history and judged the teams solely on their rosters. There have been a lot of good coaching jobs done in the Big 12 because there are a lot of good coaches in the Big 12. Self, Huggins, Kruger and Smith are all top tier coaches historically and not surprisingly, all did a really good job this year. Both Prohm and Smart are excellent up and coming young coaches and also did a good job maneuvering through their first seasons in the Big 12.
 
Self is desrving considering the improvement KU has made in from late January to today in March. Tubby has done a very good job at TT but still only a 7th place finish even in the Best Conference isn't enough to get it.

Considering th source I'm more suprised the CW didn't write this blog as "Why Scott Drew should be the Big 12 CoY." actally. :pwink:
 
randomfan44 said:
Anyone who claimed at the beginning of Big 12 play that the winner of the Big 12 would only have three losses on the season would have been laughed off this board. If KU wins Saturday, that is where they will be. For no other reason than that I would give it to Self. Yeah, they were picked first preseason but honestly, that is 99% because of the fact that KU will be auto-picked #1 preseason every year until they do not finish first and not based on any objective reasoning. You could have easily picked ISU or OU 1st preseason if you ignored history and judged the teams solely on their rosters. There have been a lot of good coaching jobs done in the Big 12 because there are a lot of good coaches in the Big 12. Self, Huggins, Kruger and Smith are all top tier coaches historically and not surprisingly, all did a really good job this year. Both Prohm and Smart are excellent up and coming young coaches and also did a good job maneuvering through their first seasons in the Big 12.
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Well, CW, you at least convinced tuco that Self should win, so good job on that.
 
rholtgraves said:
Self should be coach of the year but saying you would take Elijah Johnson over Mason, Selden or Graham is crazy talk. Mason is a sure fire second team all big 12 for the second year in a row and Selden will at least be 3rd team after getting honorable mention the past two years. johnsons best year was his senior year averaging 10 and 4 and he was only honorable mention All Big 12. I think you are selling their roster short. They still have the most talented team in the league but he should get it bc this is one of the most competitive years I can remeber and he won it outright
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Agreed. There are a few recent KU perimeter players I might take over Mason or Selden but Johnson isn't one of them. I am not a fan of knucklehead players and he was a world class knucklehead. I am hoping the removal of Tharpe from the team last year broke the contagious string of knuckleheaded PGs of Collins to Taylor to Johnson to Tharpe. Mason and Graham seem to have their heads on straight.
 
How is it an 'easy decision' to give it to Self?..What Tubby has done with this Texas Tech team is more impressive than what Self has done with this Kansas team.

The award is for the 2015-16 season. It's not a career achievement award. The previous 11 years shouldn't factor into this year.

Every publication out there had KU as a national title contender. NOBODY had Texas Tech even sniffing the NCAA tourney...
 
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Clone_12 said:
What Tubby has done with this Texas Tech team is more impressive than what Self has done with this Kansas team.

The award is for the 2015-16 season. The previous 11 years shouldn't factor into this year.
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I don't agree with that at all. It is incredibly impressive that KU will likely finish 15-3 and on a huge winning streak, considering the competition in this conference. That is more impressive than finishing 9-9 with a solid team with two good veteran guards.

I'd vote Self, Huggins, Tubby. In that order.
 
Tubby? Come on! That's ridiculous to give it to the coach of the 7th place team. Huggins is more deserving than Tubby. At the beginning of the year I would have picked them 8th but with OSU's injuries I would say 7th which is exactly where they are.
 
rholtgraves said:
Tubby? Come on! That's ridiculous to give it to the coach of the 7th place team. Huggins is more deserving than Tubby. At the beginning of the year I would have picked them 8th but with OSU's injuries I would say 7th which is exactly where they are.
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You thought this Texas Tech team would be around .500 in conference and headed to the NCAA tourney?..they have outperformed every single 'expert' and pundits expectations massively.

KU returned nearly everyone from a conference title team and brought in a highly touted recruiting class.
 
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When deciding COY for 2015-2016, is it fair to take previous years into consideration? I would say no, therefore Tubby would get my vote, because few expected them to make the tournament.
 
Clone_12 said:
What Tubby has done with this Texas Tech team is more impressive than what Self has done with this Kansas team. The award is for the 2015-16 season. The previous 11 years shouldn't factor into this year.
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Sometimes the schedule breaks your way and you get a good team when they are struggling. Tech picked off ISU, Baylor and Oklahoma right when they were all faltering. Texas Tech's wins over those three teams was the third loss of a stretch of three losses in four games for EACH of those three teams. Outside of that hot three game stretch, they had one quality win against a good Big 12 team when they beat Texas less than a week after losing Cameron Ridley to a broken foot. All their other wins were against the bottom feeders of the Big 12. Smith has done a good job but Tech has also been the benefactor of some seriously good luck this year. I wouldn't be shocked to see them drop right back down to 4-5 Big 12 wins next year.
 
CycloneWarrior said:
When deciding COY for 2015-2016, is it fair to take previous years into consideration? I would say no, therefore Tubby would get my vote, because few expected them to make the tournament.
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Do you vote for Player of the Year by who is better than you thought they'd be or do you vote for the player who played the best?
 
Self definitely earned the B12 COTY. It turned into a great season for him. Kruger choked, Shaka was swept by Self, Huggy was close.

Another B12 title was nice for KU but I think they need to do something in the tourney. They have won 4 tourney games in the last 3 season.
 
Disturbing. One day it's an article on how our offensive line is going to totally suck and the next it's an ode to the greatness of coach of the evil empire. One could just be objective but two in a row sounds like Chris's account has been hacked.

:skeptical:
 
KU was the unanimous preseason pick by the coaches to win the league...don't see how you can give it to a coach that did what he was supposed to do...

Tech was picked to finish dead last...has to go to Tubby.
 
Personally if I had a vote, the league champion's coach would get coy every year, unless there was something crazy, like a bottom feeder finishing top 3 or something.
 
clonehenge said:
KU was the unanimous preseason pick by the coaches to win the league...don't see how you can give it to a coach that did what he was supposed to do...

Tech was picked to finish dead last...has to go to Tubby.
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You're looking at it completely wrong. It would be different if the big 12 was down this year, or ku tied for 1st with a 13-5 record, but they went 15-3.

THREE losses. And oddly enough, they were 3 straight road losses. If you would have told me that ku would easily win the league, after those 3 losses, I would've said you're crazy.
 
HFCS said:
This is exactly the year you make Self CotY.

If I could pick one roster to coach right now it would be OU, and it's not like Kruger is some horrible coach or OU has done horrible.
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Why pick OU? Self has a roster in which he plays 8 guys almost regularly and that's NOT including two 5-stars who can hardly get double digit minutes because of their experience on the floor and bench. Just saying it must be nice to have two 5-stars just waiting their turn.
 
To me it comes down to how one defines coaching. If 'coaching' is defined purely as the ability to get the best effort out of the talent they have to work with, Tubby Smith should win without a doubt. If 'coaching' is defined as getting the best results from your team regardless of talent, the coach for the regular season champ should win every year.

I think COY should be based on the first definition. Self had more to work with than any other team in the league (except possibly Lon Kruger), so does winning the league really mean that he is the best coach?
 
WastedTalent said:
You're looking at it completely wrong. It would be different if the big 12 was down this year, or ku tied for 1st with a 13-5 record, but they went 15-3.

THREE losses. And oddly enough, they were 3 straight road losses. If you would have told me that ku would easily win the league, after those 3 losses, I would've said you're crazy.
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Aren't you jumping the gun a bit? I don't think CSP has conceded Saturday's game just yet.
 
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