CBS Sports’ Most Underrated Coaches List Has Some Head-Scratchers

Bill Self is revered nationally, deified in Lawrence. No, his reputation is not at the level of a Mike Krzyzewski, Tom Izzo or Rick Pitino. And it shouldn’t be. He hasn’t yet approached that level of sustained preeminence in this business. Were it not for a late Memphis meltdown (and poor coaching on the other end), Self would be looking at a coaching legacy to this point in which he’s made a whole lot of tournament noise without a championship to show for it. Bill Self is a great coach, and his national perception is exactly how it should be.

Buzz Williams is loud. His national reputation is quite tame. But don’t mistake the difference as a sign that he’s underrated in his profession. Williams is a shrewd coach with an acute understanding of the X’s and O’s. His basketball expertise, borderline genius, is one of the best kept secrets in the game. And he has instilled—executed to a T, even—a distinguishable system at Marquette that could outlast his tenure at the school. But underrated? Not when folks from Wisconsin are already chirping that he’s the best coach in the Badger State. Buzz gets his fair due.

If anyone is underrated from Wisconsin, it’s longtime Badgers head man Bo Ryan, who consistently wins at a football-first school in a football-centric conference despite marginal talent. Quick, name a relevant player in the NBA from Wisconsin not named Devin Harris. Of course, Ryan’s teams promptly flame out in the NCAA tournament on cue, but what did you expect? Asking Bo to make Final Fours with a collection of system players would be asking him to work magic.

Kentucky patriarch John Calipari may be the world’s most recognizable college basketball coach, perhaps even more identifiable than the world’s best college basketball coach and recent recipient of his second gold medal. Who exactly is underrating Calipari? Even his biggest detractors acknowledge he’s head and shoulders above the rest of his peers in recruiting. Complaints about his limited tactical knowledge relative to some of the game’s sharpest minds are valid. And no, Big Blue nation, the dribble, drive motion offense is not Cal’s creation, or even his specialty; almost every coach in college basketball runs some variation of that offense using its basic principles.

Calipari isn’t underrated [or overrated, either]. His conference nemesis is a different story. If you want a truly underrated coach at a high-major school, look no further than Florida’s Billy Donovan. After years of being tabbed as Billy “Boy Wonder”—this, in turn, could have made Donovan overrated at one time—the Gators head coach is often overlooked today as one of the nation’s great coaches. Funny, because he has a stronger resume than most of the guys who make the list.

Donovan is one of only four active coaches to have won multiple national championships, yet he has won just one SEC coach of the year award and almost never gets mention for national coach of the year consideration. His Florida teams have made three Final Fours in 17 years, the same number of regional championships Jim Boeheim, for example, has been to in 36 years at Syracuse. Donovan is also one of just two coaches since John Wooden’s Bruins—Mike Krzyzewski being the other—to win back-to-back national championships. Billy the kid has taken each of his last two Florida teams to consecutive Elite Eights, having held late leads in each game.

Outside of SEC country, John Calipari is the only conference coach receiving national coverage, almost as if he’s a figurehead for the conference. But Billy Donovan has somewhat quietly held up strongly at powerhouse Florida, giving credence to a hoops program at a school that treats basketball as an appetizer to spring football.

The most underrated coaches list should truthfully only include mid-majors coaches. After all, they’re the ones who are so often overlooked, underappreciated and under-covered. But if high-major coaches who earn their own tab on the ESPN scrolling ticker are eligible for consideration, then Donovan deserves mention somewhere.