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Tad Boyle is the Greatest Coach in CU Men’s Basketball History

Preston Slaughter said:
I think Tad is very good at recruiting on a budget, finding talent, and developing talent. He does that at a far greater level than any of his predecessors. Just look at how many guys we have playing in the NBA or in high level leagues over seas. What he doesn't do well is in-game coaching. His record on the road is terrible given the level of talent. We often blow games because we are slow to adjust to the other team. This is the easy part of coaching and there are many coaches we could find who do this better than Tad. I think that is the source of frustration with Tad even if his results are better than we are likely to get from a different coach. It is easier to accept losing games because we don't have good enough talent versus losing because our talent is out-coached.

P.S. I am not arguing for firing Tad.
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The devil's advocate of that argument would be if he finds and develops lower ranked talent how can we also have such superior talent to our competition.

Arizona, UCLA, USC, Washington, Oregon, Stanford, and Arizona State all have recruiting rankings consistently at or above ours. Yet Tad doesn't consistently finish 8th in conference.

With your argument can we get outcoached by the 8 teams above if they have better perceived talent or do they beat us because they have better talent?

FWIW we are 7-4 against the teams with more talent than us this year. So either Tad's development is so crazy good that it allows us to overcome his bad coaching and inferior talent or his in game coaching decisions are way overblown and Tad is still really dang good at developing compared to his peers.

I'd argue only Wazzu and Cal have far outplayed their talent level this year which amounts them being coached extremely well. Tad has a better win % than both Madsen and Kyle Smith.
 
Buffsbball said:
The devil's advocate of that argument would be if he finds and develops lower ranked talent how can we also have such superior talent to our competition.

Arizona, UCLA, USC, Washington, Oregon, Stanford, and Arizona State all have recruiting rankings consistently at or above ours. Yet Tad doesn't consistently finish 8th in conference.

With your argument can we get outcoached by the 8 teams above if they have better perceived talent or do they beat us because they have better talent?

FWIW we are 7-4 against the teams with more talent than us this year. So either Tad's development is so crazy good that it allows us to overcome his bad coaching and inferior talent or his in game coaching decisions are way overblown and Tad is still really dang good at developing compared to his peers.

I'd argue only Wazzu and Cal have far outplayed their talent level this year which amounts them being coached extremely well. Tad has a better win % than both Madsen and Kyle Smith.
Click to expand...
As I've said before, based on the things I hear fans say about Tad such as:

1. Doesn't recruit well.
2. Doesn't develop talent.
3. Doesn't play the right rotations.
4. Doesn't game manage well.
5. Doesn't prepare his team well.
6. Doesn't have a good offensive system or plays (especially inbounds).
7. Doesn't utilize his talent on defense because he's inflexible about playing man instead of zone.

... it only leads me to the conclusion that we've been blessed to have the absolute luckiest HC in all of sports. It's the only explanation for the winning record every year.
 
Buffsbball said:
The devil's advocate of that argument would be if he finds and develops lower ranked talent how can we also have such superior talent to our competition.

Arizona, UCLA, USC, Washington, Oregon, Stanford, and Arizona State all have recruiting rankings consistently at or above ours. Yet Tad doesn't consistently finish 8th in conference.

With your argument can we get outcoached by the 8 teams above if they have better perceived talent or do they beat us because they have better talent?

FWIW we are 7-4 against the teams with more talent than us this year. So either Tad's development is so crazy good that it allows us to overcome his bad coaching and inferior talent or his in game coaching decisions are way overblown and Tad is still really dang good at developing compared to his peers.

I'd argue only Wazzu and Cal have far outplayed their talent level this year which amounts them being coached extremely well. Tad has a better win % than both Madsen and Kyle Smith.
Click to expand...
I am not putting much stock in recruiting rankings out of highschool as the barometer for talent but how good those guys are in college and if they end up playing professionally. I want to give Tad credit for both finding lower rated guys that have talent and making them better while in his program. It is my perception that year in and year out we have a pretty high level of talent. It definitely varies and expectations on the season vary with that. It is also my perception that we usually underperform the expected outcome based on talent. E.g. This year we should be flirting with 25 wins, solidly in the tournament, and finishing second in the conference.

I am making a distinction between developing players and in-game coaching, though they both fall under the coaching umbrella.

Maybe our players aren't as talented as I think, our in-game coaching is fine, and the difference between our record ATS home vs. away is due to Vegas handicappers not accurately accounting for altitude/home-court advantage. My eyes tell me otherwise.

But the question on retaining Tad boils down to if you think that someone can exceed the summation of his abilities. I don't know. I don't know enough about the program to be able to tell how much he overcomes in the way of lack of institutional support.
 
Preston Slaughter said:
I am not putting much stock in recruiting rankings out of highschool as the barometer for talent but how good those guys are in college and if they end up playing professionally. I want to give Tad credit for both finding lower rated guys that have talent and making them better while in his program. It is my perception that year in and year out we have a pretty high level of talent. It definitely varies and expectations on the season vary with that. It is also my perception that we usually underperform the expected outcome based on talent. E.g. This year we should be flirting with 25 wins, solidly in the tournament, and finishing second in the conference.

I am making a distinction between developing players and in-game coaching, though they both fall under the coaching umbrella.

Maybe our players aren't as talented as I think, our in-game coaching is fine, and the difference between our record ATS home vs. away is due to Vegas handicappers not accurately accounting for altitude/home-court advantage. My eyes tell me otherwise.

But the question on retaining Tad boils down to if you think that someone can exceed the summation of his abilities. I don't know. I don't know enough about the program to be able to tell how much he overcomes in the way of lack of institutional support.
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Appreciate the post and hear most of what are saying.

I just will never understand the buffs fan that came into the year expecting 25 wins and second place in the conference first off. (Never in our history has that happened)

Then second off are pissed enough to complain on these boards when we have a good chance to finish with 22 wins pre conference tourney and a 3rd place conference finish.

We’ve only had two seasons in the last 60 years with a higher win percentage than this year. One of those was by Tad on the 23-9 team.

And for the people thinking if we hired a Niko Medved it would fix everything Tad has a higher win % and Niko has 2 losing seasons in 6 seasons in Foco. Tad has one losing season in 14 at Colorado. People take consistency for granted around here it ain’t easy.
 
Buffsbball said:
Appreciate the post and hear most of what are saying.

I just will never understand the buffs fan that came into the year expecting 25 wins and second place in the conference first off. (Never in our history has that happened)

Then second off are pissed enough to complain on these boards when we have a good chance to finish with 22 wins pre conference tourney and a 3rd place conference finish.

We’ve only had two seasons in the last 60 years with a higher win percentage than this year. One of those was by Tad on the 23-9 team.

And for the people thinking if we hired a Niko Medved it would fix everything Tad has a higher win % and Niko has 2 losing seasons in 6 seasons in Foco. Tad has one losing season in 14 at Colorado. People take consistency for granted around here it ain’t easy.
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I agree with you that people are taking things for granted and are quick to disregard all of the good things that Tad does.

I agree that those are exceptional expectations but this team has exceptional talent. We have possibly three first round draft picks in the same class. This has never happened before and I doubt it will ever happen again. The stars aligned that UCLA, Oregon, Washington, USC, and ASU all had down years as well.

If we were ever going to go deep in the tournament it was this year (still might).

I also recognize that the reason we have this much talent and our expectations have risen is because of Tad and how he has run his program. It doesn't mean I am wrong to point out his flaws and hope for improvement.
 
Ruckus said:
If you don’t win your conference tournament, then you’re fighting for one of 36 at-large bids to the tournament. And since the BIG10 automatically gets 10 of those, there’s really only 26 spots available for the remaining 300+ teams.
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oh, so you're saying that making the tournament (non B1G division) is arguably more exclusive than a top 25 finish in FB?
 
Buffnik said:
As I've said before, based on the things I hear fans say about Tad such as:

1. Doesn't recruit well.
2. Doesn't develop talent.
3. Doesn't play the right rotations.
4. Doesn't game manage well.
5. Doesn't prepare his team well.
6. Doesn't have a good offensive system or plays (especially inbounds).
7. Doesn't utilize his talent on defense because he's inflexible about playing man instead of zone.

... it only leads me to the conclusion that we've been blessed to have the absolute luckiest HC in all of sports. It's the only explanation for the winning record every year.
Click to expand...

Of all those critiques, most of which I vehemently disagree with, the offensive complaints have always been the most baffling to me. Year over year, cycle over cycle, our system has developed, responding both to personnel and changes to the game. Tad hired Grier in '16-17, who, at least to my eye, helped modernize the offense (especially against zone). The fundamentals of getting a good shot have always been there, and, generally, we do. Whether we make that shot or not is typically skill, not scheme.

We're a recruit and develop program (or at least we have been -- we'll see how we adapt to the NIL era), so progress and development is typically seen over a 3-4 year cycle, tied to when the point guard is at their peak. To that point, adjusted offenses:
  • '11 (albeit, Bzdelik's recruits) - 117.7 PPP, 9th in the country
  • '14 - at the time of Spencer's injury, 117.7 PPP, which would've been good for 18th in the country
  • '17 - 112.6ppp, 45th in the country
  • '21 - 116.3 PPP, 13th in the country
  • '24 - currently 118.4 PPP, 23rd in the country
Seems to me like the offensive results are pretty solid, all things considered.
 
Preston Slaughter said:
I am not putting much stock in recruiting rankings out of highschool as the barometer for talent but how good those guys are in college and if they end up playing professionally. I want to give Tad credit for both finding lower rated guys that have talent and making them better while in his program. It is my perception that year in and year out we have a pretty high level of talent. It definitely varies and expectations on the season vary with that. It is also my perception that we usually underperform the expected outcome based on talent. E.g. This year we should be flirting with 25 wins, solidly in the tournament, and finishing second in the conference.

I am making a distinction between developing players and in-game coaching, though they both fall under the coaching umbrella.

Maybe our players aren't as talented as I think, our in-game coaching is fine, and the difference between our record ATS home vs. away is due to Vegas handicappers not accurately accounting for altitude/home-court advantage. My eyes tell me otherwise.

But the question on retaining Tad boils down to if you think that someone can exceed the summation of his abilities. I don't know. I don't know enough about the program to be able to tell how much he overcomes in the way of lack of institutional support.
Click to expand...
Give Tad at least the first two years in the Big 12. If we flame out under him in the new league......take a shot at Mark Few or Tony Bennett.
 
RumblinBuff said:
Of all those critiques, most of which I vehemently disagree with, the offensive complaints have always been the most baffling to me. Year over year, cycle over cycle, our system has developed, responding both to personnel and changes to the game. Tad hired Grier in '16-17, who, at least to my eye, helped modernize the offense (especially against zone). The fundamentals of getting a good shot have always been there, and, generally, we do. Whether we make that shot or not is typically skill, not scheme.

We're a recruit and develop program (or at least we have been -- we'll see how we adapt to the NIL era), so progress and development is typically seen over a 3-4 year cycle, tied to when the point guard is at their peak. To that point, adjusted offenses:
  • '11 (albeit, Bzdelik's recruits) - 117.7 PPP, 9th in the country
  • '14 - at the time of Spencer's injury, 117.7 PPP, which would've been good for 18th in the country
  • '17 - 112.6ppp, 45th in the country
  • '21 - 116.3 PPP, 13th in the country
  • '24 - currently 118.4 PPP, 23rd in the country
Seems to me like the offensive results are pretty solid, all things considered.
Click to expand...

Pre Kin/Grier I was a critic of the offense. There didn't seem to be much of a plan there, especially playing against a zone. Since then though I agree. Felt like Tad found religion on PG's when Kin came to town.
 
Buffnik said:
As I've said before, based on the things I hear fans say about Tad such as:

1. Doesn't recruit well.
2. Doesn't develop talent.
3. Doesn't play the right rotations.
4. Doesn't game manage well.
5. Doesn't prepare his team well.
6. Doesn't have a good offensive system or plays (especially inbounds).
7. Doesn't utilize his talent on defense because he's inflexible about playing man instead of zone.

... it only leads me to the conclusion that we've been blessed to have the absolute luckiest HC in all of sports. It's the only explanation for the winning record every year.
Click to expand...
You forgot “Doesn’t know how to use time outs.” Although maybe that falls under 4.
 
Last edited:
I still think my favorite Tad Boyle team was his second. They got absolutely robbed not getting an NCAA tourney invite the previous year, came out in the Pac 12 tourney and said "F U!" to the selection committee by winning the whole damn thing. They then knocked off #6 UNLV to advance to the 2nd round of the NCAA tourney.
 
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Highlander said:
I still think my favorite Tad Boyle team was his second. They got absolutely robbed not getting an NCAA tourney invite the previous and came out in the Pac 12 tourney and said "F U!" to the selection committee by winning the whole damn thing. They then knocked off #6 UNLV to advance to the 2nd round of the NCAA tourney.
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My favorite team of the Boyle era broke my heart on an unsafe basketball court in Seattle.
 
Dark Bohner said:
Yep, I’m gonna gladly stick my foot in my mouth on thinking Tad had hit his ceiling at Colorado and was declining.
Finishing this season on a 6 game win streak was simply clutch.
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Yup. Now it’s time to round into form and spend the offseason trying to bring in someone - either front office or assistant coach - who can manage NIL efforts. Need to open up the pocket books and bring in someone in a “GM” role to help Tad and Co.

And recruit some effing PGs.
 
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