1. Gard
2. McCaffery
3. Underwood
4. Painter
5. Pikiell
This is solid list but I would move Pikiell ahead of Painter. Purdue is struggling right now and has more talent than anyone. Their D is old Iowa like.
I give Underwood props for patching it together all year, but we are pretty inconsistent heading into tourneys. Have high ceiling if we pull it together.
Gard gets top spot as they have the W's and they have competed consistently and won with less talent than several other teams. They are actually 5th in KENPOM in the BT. Crazy.
I could see an early out in NCAA's.
McCaffery has a hot team right now that has improved. Player development has been impressive. If they beat us on Sunday and win one or two in BTT they get a 4/5 seed in NCAA.
Pikiel has a tough group of kids. Well coached. Overachieved and they deserve to get an NCAA bid.
The worst jobs have been Howard, and Izzo.
And Collins and Hoiberg are just bad, period.
I still think an EE is ceiling for any BT team.