With coaching turnover happening more rapidly than ever the complexion of a league is ever-changing. One of the elements that makes college basketball great is the way that different leagues can evolve into unique styles of play based on what coaches are there, and the best programs are the ones that look at what styles are prominent in their league and make adjustments in order to respond.
Here are some quick notes on each of the new coaches in the SEC and what style of play they might bring to the league.
Mark Pope
Kentucky
Some people were underwhelmed with this hire considering that Mark Pope has never won an NCAA Tournament game, but depending on how you look at things he still has a tremendous resume. In five years at BYU Pope had three top-20 KenPom teams, and he accomplished something that very few coaches could–transitioned from the West Coast Conference to the Big 12 and instantly be relevant. It was expected that BYU would struggle in their first year of high-major basketball but Pope made sure that didn’t happen and the Cougars ended up with a 6-seed (which would have been a 5-seed, but they would have been in a Friday-Sunday first weekend slot and with BYU unable to play Sundays, they dropped a spot). Of course they ended up losing, which adds to the narrative that Pope can’t win in March–but it was still awfully impressive that they could get a great seed in their first year at a high-major coming from the WCC.
Pope is going to bring a high-octane offense. BYU has been elite offensively the last five years and Pope’s offense has been extremely unique, switching between intricate 5-out options and variations of side ball screen motion. Last year BYU was 14th in KenPom’s adjusted offensive efficiency, and you can bet he’ll probably come close to replicating that in his first year at Kentucky.
It had become a little bit of a joke around coaches in the SEC that the Wildcats were one of the easiest scouts on the schedule, but that won’t be the case anymore. Look for Pope to instantly be one of the best offensive coaches in the SEC right away, though he’ll need to find some ways to get stops considering his teams at BYU were known to struggle defensively.
Mark Byington
Vanderbilt
Mark Byington comes to Vanderbilt after a successful stint at James Madison that saw the Dukes not only make the NCAA Tournament but win a game as they soundly thumped Wisconsin. James Madison finished with a 32-4 record and it seemed like Byington was going to have his pick of a number of high-major openings and he turned down several in order to choose Vanderbilt.
Throughout his career Byington has played a number of different styles. Last year he was a purely man-to-man coach, but earlier in his career his teams played primarily zone. They’ve also jumped back and forth between being a defense first or offense first team, but they definitely had the most success as an offensively focused team a year ago. Byington plays a modern spread pick and roll style that uses a lot of movement before getting into the action, something that saw them pick apart Wisconsin in the NCAA Tournament as well as get them a win against Michigan State in the season opener. Byington’s teams have also played extremely fast, something that won’t be a surprise to the SEC which has a number of up-tempo programs.
John Calipari
Arkansas
Okay, obviously this isn’t a new coach in the league, but we had to touch on this coaching change.
Obviously Calipari knows SEC basketball, and at this point it’s hard to imagine him changing up his predictable dribble drive style that he has leaned on for over a decade. It’s also worth noting that Calipari brought much of his Kentucky staff along with him to Arkansas, so you can expect things to look very similar.
Will the style of play and March shortcomings that got Calipari run out of Kentucky be any different at Arkansas? Time will tell.
Porter Moser
Oklahoma
Did this one catch you off guard? Get used to it, because starting this upcoming season the SEC will have two new programs and that means two new coaches to get used to.
Unfortunately for Florida, Porter Moser has had their number throughout his career. You might remember that while at Loyola-Chicago Moser came into Gainesville on the road and completely controlled the game handing the Gators a frustrating loss. Of course, that Loyola-Chicago team did go on to make a Final Four, but at the time it felt like a crushing blow to the Gators.
Then, Moser went to Oklahoma and handled the Gators with relative ease with a 74-67 win in Mike White’s final season in orange and blue. Then, he handed Todd Golden a 62-53 loss to open his stint with the Gators.
We can debate, but he got all three of these wins with what would be considered the less talented team by consensus, and that speaks to Moser’s coaching ability. Sure, there have been some player acquisition issues and their rosters haven’t always been built the greatest but when it comes to straight up coaching–Moser gets the most of his guys. While his Loyola-Chicago teams were known more for their offense he has been known more for his defense at Oklahoma–always man-to-man, and often with heavy help in the gaps. It’s a different style of man defense than a lot of teams in the SEC play, and as you can see–multiple Florida coaches have struggled to play against it.
Moser might be one of the best pure coaches in the SEC, but the rosters have lacked talent and that could negate any X’s and O’s advantage he might have.
Rodney Terry
Texas
This could once again be something strange that you’ve got to get used to–the Texas Longhorns being in the SEC.
Rodney Terry got the Texas job in somewhat bizarre fashion as he was promoted to that role following Chris Beard being dismissed mid-season and the team going on to have success. If you looked at Terry’s resume you’d see a decent run at Fresno State before really struggling at UTEP, and it certainly wouldn’t be the body of work that would traditionally get someone one of the marquee jobs in college basketball.
Plenty were skeptical of the move, and in his first full year at Texas he did an okay job with a team loaded with talent, finishing 25th in KenPom and winning a single game in the NCAA Tournament.
Texas plays a very aggressive brand of man defense playing aggressively in the passing lanes and trying to come up with steals. This style was largely successful for them, and it made up for an offense that was occasionally stuck in the mud.
This style looks like the exact way a number of teams in the SEC play, and it will be interesting to see if they can do it better than a bulk of the league, or if they’ll simply get caught up in the mix with a bunch of other teams that are also loaded with talent that play aggressively on the defensive end.
This is far from the biggest shift the SEC has ever seen in terms of coaches but with two new programs and a major change at one of the league’s marquee programs, look for the league to look noticeably different this upcoming season.