5 college football coaches who would make good basketball coaches

Nick Saban – Alabama

Coach Williams once said that basketball wasn’t about the x’s and the o’s but about the ‘Jimmys and the Joes.’ Gameplan all you want, but better talent can still beat you. Recent seasons of college basketball have been about who has that talent, specifically one-and-done freshmen type talent. John Calipari was king of that idea, but he is being challenged by Duke.

Saban has built a dynasty at Alabama because he is able to go and get the best players year in and year out. There are always next men up, limiting the impact of injuries and early defections to the NFL. Alabama is a title contender every year because of that type of personnel management.

It would be easy to see how that could translate to college basketball. Saban could run a Calipari-like program where he brought in the top recruits in the nation every year. Then he would go and do it again the next year.

The only disadvantage for Saban in the basketball world is that he could only have thirteen scholarship players. Enough talent would end up going elsewhere so that the talent gap would not be as great. He would also have to wary of better tactical coaches.

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These are the five men that I think would translate best to coaching college basketball from the football ranks. Each is a little different from the others, but that reflects the college basketball coaching landscape anyway. Who do you think should be included? What criteria do you think were left out? Let me know in the comments below.