Best D1 Coaching performance

What no takers?!? I even baited this by purposely excluding D Smith from my top 2.

while dave smith was certainly solid his team didnt perform above and beyond nor did anyone besides lowe make a huge jump so nothing he did warrants mention here

i take lananna out as puskedra went backwards and the only one who really made a jump this year was centro, the mercados and acosta also went backwards...really the only reason they placed so highly was because they sucked less than everyone else

Oklahoma deserves mention, as does harvey, villanova girls

Id say colorado men or william and mary men...definitly did the most with the least

Joe Walker.

Gina Procaccio and Karen Harvey

John McNichols, Indiana State.

Every year the guy takes runners who were 4:30 milers in high school and develops them into a team that can compete with the low end of the elite. This year his Sycamore team came within a whisker of gaining an at-large berth, and that was without their No. 1 runner.

Having a successful team full of blue-chip runners, as the Stanford/Oregon/etc coaches have, doesn't necessarily equate to the "best coaching performance." Give McNichols his due.

I think Lananna deserves mention for managing through a very tough year for the ducks. He was able to bring this team back from the brink a couple of times. So while yes, the Ducks underachieved this year they also were able to step up when it mattered most. A good coach makes the most with what he's got, whether self inflicted or not.While Martin Smith clearly was a crappy fit at Oregon he is doing phenomenal work in Oklahoma and has completely reversed my opinion of him.Still not sold on the other Smith though.I'm starting to think that Harvey is the real genius behind FSU's distance running resurgence and that Braman might just be a figurehead.

hmmmmmmmmm wrote:

while dave smith was certainly solid his team didnt perform above and beyond nor did anyone besides lowe make a huge jump so nothing he did warrants mention here

i take lananna out as puskedra went backwards and the only one who really made a jump this year was centro, the mercados and acosta also went backwards...really the only reason they placed so highly was because they sucked less than everyone else

Oklahoma deserves mention, as does harvey, villanova girls

Id say colorado men or william and mary men...definitly did the most with the least

Dig Deeper wrote:

John McNichols, Indiana State.

Every year the guy takes runners who were 4:30 milers in high school and develops them into a team that can compete with the low end of the elite. This year his Sycamore team came within a whisker of gaining an at-large berth, and that was without their No. 1 runner.

Having a successful team full of blue-chip runners, as the Stanford/Oregon/etc coaches have, doesn't necessarily equate to the "best coaching performance." Give McNichols his due.

A team of 4:30 high school milers? Really?

What he doesn't have any scholarship money? 4:30 milers don't even make it out of their district meet in track. This coach must be the greatest coach in history then.

Coach Gary FTW

Know what is funny, the Oregon men all ran major positive splits in the races, where's the good coaching in that.

OK boys, go out hard and hope you don't die as much as the rest of them.

you baited it? thats stupid, just say what you feel, not what will get a response.

dave smith did a good job with his team this year and had them ready considering his ace was off.

F.Booth wrote:

Dig Deeper wrote:

John McNichols, Indiana State.

Every year the guy takes runners who were 4:30 milers in high school and develops them into a team that can compete with the low end of the elite. This year his Sycamore team came within a whisker of gaining an at-large berth, and that was without their No. 1 runner.

Having a successful team full of blue-chip runners, as the Stanford/Oregon/etc coaches have, doesn't necessarily equate to the "best coaching performance." Give McNichols his due.

A team of 4:30 high school milers? Really?

What he doesn't have any scholarship money? 4:30 milers don't even make it out of their district meet in track. This coach must be the greatest coach in history then.

There is not a single state champ on ISU's roster, in fact all of the runners are in-state guys and the best placing out of those guys was a 3rd place finish at state. Despite all this Coach John McNichols managed to create the 33rd ranked team at the end of the year. So yes I believe he most definetly deserves his due because how many of the teams ahead of them have the same quality of guys as far as pr's in high school? My guess is none but feel free to prove me wrong.

Coach Gary had Jeff See. Everyone else ran bad... try again?

definitely the coaches at liberty, alabama, northern arizona and texas tech.

It has to be Vin Lananna/Andy Powell at Oregon. I mean the Oregon guys were at their season peak on Saturday, and nearly snuck away with the title again. For those who say Puskedra went backwards, they don't have a clue. I listened to an interview where he (Puskedra) said that he is more fit than he has ever been. According to him, his "job" was to pull the rest of the Oregon guys along so that top 5 would finish within 30 seconds of each other. With the guys they have, this was the perfect strategy and was basically achieved (33 seconds, I believe). I also like the fact that Oregon did this with kids from America.

HossierFan wrote:

It has to be Vin Lananna/Andy Powell at Oregon. I mean the Oregon guys were at their season peak on Saturday, and nearly snuck away with the title again. For those who say Puskedra went backwards, they don't have a clue. I listened to an interview where he (Puskedra) said that he is more fit than he has ever been. According to him, his "job" was to pull the rest of the Oregon guys along so that top 5 would finish within 30 seconds of each other. With the guys they have, this was the perfect strategy and was basically achieved (33 seconds, I believe). I also like the fact that Oregon did this with kids from America.

puskedra did go backwards...sorry but puskedra was leading the 2nd chase pack through 5k then died...he pushed through toa solid finish but if you think he was giving up a top 5 finish to pull the teams along youre dreaming (how you think him placing 18th helped the mercados finish in the 60s is beyond me)

that said, the oregon boys (minus puskedra) did have their best day (of the season)when it counted so he deserves props for that

Sorry, but you don't have a clue. The stated goal was for Puskedra to work toward the team goal, by "drafting" the pack of Oregon runners, with a goal of keeping the 1-5 spread within 30 seconds. By the way they were three seconds from achieving this goal. At the mid-way point, he had them only six seconds behind him. Later, when the pack was dropping off a bit, Puskedra tempered his pace appropriately allowing the pack to stay together and still use him to key off of. Hmmmmm, Danny Mercado finished at #31 (right behind Klotz #29, Centrowitz #27). Based on his ability to deliver for the team, I'd say, Puskedra has grown into the leader that Oregon needed, and will now have for two more years. Rather than come here to criticize, get educated on XC running strategy first--Vin can give you a few classes.

Hahahaha

Yeah, why not sacrifice 15 points (Luke's finish) to gain 15 points with your 2-4 runners by "pacing them."

Is it worth mentioning that this all went on BEHIND OSU's top 4 runners (and it would have been top 5 if German was fit)?

I'll give a nod to Sean Cleary of WV. If you look at the high school pr's of his team, and where they are at it is a great performance. West Virginia is not known for producing national level high school talent, but yet the majority of his roster is wv kids.

Look at the splits for the Ducks, they all slowed considerably the last half of the race, not good strategy.

But, next time my team races I will have my #1 runner slow down so that we can have a 30 sec. spread 1-5, nice.