A nice short analysis of the AAC men's basketball becoming better with the addition of a number of good coaches by BB analyst John Rothstein.
The level of coaching in the American Athletic Conference has gone up a notch
This league has been vastly underrated in terms of its caliber of coaches over the past few years and that narrative should probably stop now.
The American Conference currently has three coaches who have won a national title -- Larry Brown (SMU), Kevin Ollie (UConn), Tubby Smith (Memphis) -- as well as another that’s led a program to a Final Four in Houston’s Kelvin Sampson when he was at Oklahoma in 2002.
Add two others in Mick Cronin (Cincinnati) and Johnny Dawkins (UCF) that have taken to the teams to the Sweet 16 during their career and Mike Dunleavy Sr. (Tulane), who’s coached four NBA teams and you’ve got a heck of a league from a coaching perspective. Tulsa’s Frank Haith was also National Coach of the Year in 2012 at Missouri and Temple’s Fran Dunphy is now the winningest coach of the history of the Big 5 in Philadelphia.
The American Conference had four teams in the NCAA Tournament last season.
Don’t be surprised if that number becomes a more consistent theme moving forward thanks to the caliber of the guys pulling strings from the sideline in this league.
The level of coaching in the American Athletic Conference has gone up a notch
This league has been vastly underrated in terms of its caliber of coaches over the past few years and that narrative should probably stop now.
The American Conference currently has three coaches who have won a national title -- Larry Brown (SMU), Kevin Ollie (UConn), Tubby Smith (Memphis) -- as well as another that’s led a program to a Final Four in Houston’s Kelvin Sampson when he was at Oklahoma in 2002.
Add two others in Mick Cronin (Cincinnati) and Johnny Dawkins (UCF) that have taken to the teams to the Sweet 16 during their career and Mike Dunleavy Sr. (Tulane), who’s coached four NBA teams and you’ve got a heck of a league from a coaching perspective. Tulsa’s Frank Haith was also National Coach of the Year in 2012 at Missouri and Temple’s Fran Dunphy is now the winningest coach of the history of the Big 5 in Philadelphia.
The American Conference had four teams in the NCAA Tournament last season.
Don’t be surprised if that number becomes a more consistent theme moving forward thanks to the caliber of the guys pulling strings from the sideline in this league.
