Rival Views: Who's the front-runner for Coach of the Year?
National Coach of the Year debates are ramping up, and the list of names in the discussion is long and distinguished. Coaches that have orchestrated rebuilds are featured alongside those that lead juggernaut programs. Below, Rivals national analysts Rob Cassidy and Dan McDonald give their takes on who should be considered the front-runner.
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McDonald's Nuggets: Gonzaga, Baylor, Commit of the Week
2021 Rankings: Rivals150 | Team | Position
2022 Rankings: Rivals150 | Team | Position
2023 Rankings: Top 30
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CASSIDY'S VIEW: Baylor's Scott Drew or Alabama's Nate Oats
I want to shout out Nate Oats here. If this were the Rob Cassidy Coach of the Year Award, he’d be the front-runner. What he’s done with Alabama seems downright miraculous when you consider that the Tide have hovered around .500 for the past few years and were expected to be an NIT team before the season tipped. It stumbled to a 4-3 start and nobody thought much of it. These days, however, the Tide sit atop the SEC and are blowing the doors off of conference opponents.
As impressive as Oats has been, however, voters will probably give the edge (for now) to Baylor’s Scott Drew, who has his team undefeated and casually slapped Kansas 77-69 in a game that looks closer than it was because of a garbage-time 3-pointer. Gonzaga, which also beat KU this season, may well be the better team, but the way Drew is navigating a Big 12 schedule puts him over the top in a race against Mark Few in my mind. Being named something other than the Jayhawks and winning the Big 12 is a significant milestone, and Drew seems to have his ship pointed in that direction. In my mind, the top three goes; Drew, Oats, Few in that order. How’s that for a hot take?
MCDONALD'S VIEW: Gonzaga's Mark Few
It comes down to two coaches and they are Mark Few of Gonzaga and Scott Drew of Baylor. Why? It's quite simple actually. They have the two best teams in the country and it doesn't appear to be terribly close. Right now, I'd give the edge to Few because I think Gonzaga has been a little better overall.
I'm always open to the idea of giving this award to a coach whose team outplays preseason expectations in a big way, but I usually lean towards giving it to the coach whose team has the best season. Given all the obstacles of this past off-season, it's pretty incredible that the Bulldogs started the season off playing so well and have never really dipped off. Gonzaga beat four of the top 16 teams in the country in non-conference play and none of their conference games have been that close either. It seems like a pretty easy call to me to give Few this award.