Keytron Jordan, CBS Sports design
Once again CBS Sports presents our annual Candid Coaches series, which spotlights relevant topics and issues in men’s college basketball. Gary Parrish and Matt Norlander polled roughly 100 coaches in recent weeks on a variety of subjects. Coaches spoke on background and were provided anonymity to offer unfiltered opinions. This is the second installment in our 2025 survey.
Media outlets often publish a list of the best coaches in college basketball that’s shaped largely by publicly available information like wins and championships. Those are always subjective but also pretty easy to do with more or less the same names slotted near the top each time.
But who are the good guys?
Not just good coaches but also good men, you know, the type of people you wouldn’t mind your son playing for someday, and spending four years with someday, if he developed into a legitimate basketball prospect. A random person probably has no grasp for how to answer that question without real relationships throughout the sport. But do you know who has real relationships throughout the sport?
Coaches!
So, with that in mind, Matt Norlander and I asked more than 100 college coaches the following question:
If your son were a player, which college coach would you want him to spend four years with?
(NOTE: A list of more than a dozen coaches accounted for the other 21% of the vote.)
Quotes that stood out
On Matt Painter:
“He’s like a brother to me. [He’s] one of the most genuine, well-spoken, compassionate, empathetic [people]. Elite thinker [and] elite coach who has produced with less and … his player-development, and how he gets these kids to stay, is amazing to me. He’s a really, really good human being.””Excellent coach. Better…..
