To further illustrate my point, it is much more difficult to sustain NCAA tourney bids than bowl appearances. There are far more (347) teams in college basketball than college football (147). There are currently 41 bowl games – 82 teams go bowling! Some even with losing records.
We all know all you need is a few good players to make some noise on the hardwoord. “Small” schools (i.e. Xavier, Gtown, Nova, St. John’s, Butler, Providence, Marquette, Gonzaga, Saint Mary’s, BYU, Wichita State, VCU, N. Iowa, Davidson, SMU, San Diego State, etc.), in addition to the automatic bid, make it much more difficult to qualify.
Doeren took a team bowling by way of beating 4 cupcakes to start the year and then Wake (3-9), BC (3-9), and Cuse (4-8). In sum, he won the games he was supposed to win, and lost all the others. Yet, he was rewarded with a pretty decent bowl bid, and then subsequently got embarrassed on national television to a team that finished in a tie for 5th in the SEC West. He did that by not beating a Power 5 with a winning record.
Doeren’s upside may be greater than Gott’s. Time will tell. But right now, Gott is the better coach relative to the competition.
