SEC Basketball: Rating the first season SEC coaches

SEC Basketball” ‘Not Top’ New Hires

Ranked from not quite good enough, to quite bad, the top of the remaining list goes to Mississippi State, head coach, Chris Jans. In five seasons at New Mexico State, Jans’ teams won 79.2% of their games, including three trips to the NCAA Tournament.

He may get Mississippi State to the Big Dance this season. In terms of record, his first season in Starkville is not decidedly better than Ben Howland’s last season. Last year the Bulldogs were 17-14 and 8-10 in the SEC. Jans has them at 17-9 and 5-8. MSU is on an upward trend with wins in five of their six games.

Todd Golden joins Jans in the ‘not quite good enough’ category. This is just his fourth season as a head coach. In the other three seasons, at San Francisco, he did an outstanding job. So far, Golden is getting results with the Florida Gators, on par with what Mike White did last season. The Gators were 19-12 under White and 9-9 in the SEC. Golden has Florida at 14-12 and 7-6 and could finish the regular season with Florida having a worse record than last season. The Gators have lost four of their last six games.

All that is left is a pair of first-year SEC coaches that can be fairly labeled as having ‘quite bad’ seasons. Given the mess Matt McMahon inherited at LSU, he is not at the bottom of the list. Following Will Wade was always going to be a slog for anyone. LSU’s mismanagement of its basketball program under Wade was close to criminal. The Bengal Tigers are currently 12-14 and 1-12 in SEC play, with a recent record of 13 straight losses.

Which leaves LaMont Paris at South Carolina. Paris had Chattanooga in the NCAA Tournament last season. The Gamecocks are currently 9-17 and 2-11 in SEC games. Since beating Kentucky on Jan. 10, South Carolina has lost nine of 10 games. The big difference between McMahon and Paris is the South Carolina program was in better shape when he arrived.

These rankings are not meant to suggest unsuccessful SEC futures for any of the six coaches. Even in the worst situations, at South Carolina and LSU, coaches struggling now can build winning programs in the future.