“Who should win Coach of the Year?” is reliably the most debatable topic in college basketball, mostly because the criteria are even more debatable than the résumés. There are conflicting philosophies that contend it should be a which-coach-has-the-best-team award, an overcoming-“adversity” award, an outperforming-expectations award, and so on. Whom you vote for is mostly determined by what you believe the rules are. Thus my February breakdown of the race is not a singular list, but Five Ways of Looking at Coach of the Year:
I. The Most Mainstream Approach: Blending Team Performance with Degree of Difficulty
1.