@B5Q I tend to agree. The Final Four runs have scrambled fans' memories of the Ryan era. He had a super mixed tournament record (the Cornell, Davidson, UNLV, Ole Miss losses were terrible ones), but because he went out with those two amazing runs, Gard suffers by unfair comparison.
@B5Q Maybe not in any given year, but can and should be a factor over several years time.
@B5Q No victory laps from you lot if they make the sweet sixteen next year then
@B5Q Only those who haven’t had any in it. The great ones have. Name a HoF college coach without a final four appearance
@B5Q It’s a body of work issue for sure. Whole season matters. Tourney matters too. It is the ultimate goal. Recruiting matters. Player development matters. In game adjustments matters. Who you lose to (Mich.) So does the way you lose (1st Neb.) And it can’t be simply one year.
@B5Q And I think it's getting a lot harder to maintain success from season to season also. The wide open transfer portal and NIL deals have turned college ball into a free for all. Too much randomness from year to year now
@B5Q 100%. It is a tiny slice of what makes a coach good. Nobody consistently wins against elite teams every year. Look at KY lately. How many times have AZ, NC, or KAN struggled in tourney? What makes the tourney great (1 game takes all) is what makes it unreliable as a measure.
@B5Q I’d love to be your employee. Every shortcoming has an excuse or bad luck
@B5Q Some poster tried to explain on B5Q on why UW might just ignore tourney success in Gard’s evaluation and another poster had a meltdown. The first person seemed totally reasonable. Plus spoke with what seemed firsthand knowledge. But other person was furious. Bizarre