The slogan of a political candidate trying to unseat an incumbent goes something like, “Are you better off now than you were four years ago?”   Although the answer invariably is “No” (why else would the candidate ask?), that is not always the case with basketball coaches.   Sometimes schools are better off with the new guy, sometimes not.

So our question for this Rhetorical Tuesday is this: “Which Pac-10 teams are better off now than they were with their previous coach?”    There is no absolute answer, of course, but the choice is obvious in some case, not in others.

So here we go, running down the teams in no particular order:

Tony Bennett is having unexpected success at Virginia after leaving Washington State -- Associated Press Photo by Andrew Shurtle

– Washington State – Current coach Ken Bone.  Previous coach Tony Bennett. Previous coach left by his choice.

 Bone is doing at least as well as expected with a 5-6 conference record and a 15-8 overall mark, especially after dramatically changing the style used under Bennett.  However, the Cougars had two of their best seasons in years ever in Bennett’s first two years as head coach, finishing second in 2007 and tied for third in 2008 before slipping to seventh in Bennett’s third and final season.   Bennett has far exceeded expectations as the first-year head coach at Virginia, which was picked to finish at or near the bottom of the Atlantic Coast Conference but is now 5-3 in the conference, 1 ½ game s out of first.  It’s too soon to pass judgment (see Stanford situation above), but it’s hard to imagine Bone having as much success at WSU as Bennett did.   One caveat: Bennett benefited from the groundwork laid by his father, Dick Bennett, at WSU, although Bennett laid his own groundwork at Virginia.

 – Cal – Current coach Mike Montgomery.  Previous coach Ben Braun.  Previous coach was fired.

 Montgomery got the Bears into the NCAA Tournament last season and has the Bears in first place in his second season.   Plus, he established a Pac-10 track record at Stanford, winning or sharing the conference title four times.   Braun took the Bears to the NCAA Tournament five times, finishing as high as second twice.   Currently the head coach at Rice, Braun’s team is 8-15 this season after going 10-22 in his first year, but the Owls were 3-27 the year before he arrived.    This seems like an upgrade, but the current Bears are primarily Braun recruits, so it remains to be seen whether Montgomery can continue the success.

– Stanford – Current coach Johnny Dawkins.  Previous coach Trent Johnson.  Previous coach left by his choice.

This is the toughest call on the board.   It seemed like a no-brainer last season, when the Cardinal finished ninth in the Pac-10, its worst finish since 1985, in Dawkins’ first season as head coach the year after Stanford finished second under Johnson   Meanwhile, in Johnson’s first season at LSU, the Tigers  went  26-7 overall and 13-3 in the SEC, the best record in the conference by three games.   But it’s not so obvious in the second season now that Stanford has exceeded expectations with its current 4-7 Pac-10 record despite numerous injuries, and LSU is 0-9 in the SEC after losing by 26 points at home to Kentucky.   You may recall that Stanford had Kentucky all but beaten on a neutral court earlier this season before losing in overtime.

– Arizona – Current coach Sean Miller.  Previous coach Lute Olson (no including interim coaches).  Previous coach left by choice (retirement)

 Miller had considerable success at Xavier, and he has the Wildcats are in the running for a Pac-10 title in his first season after getting hired late in the game despite heavy personnel losses.   But the Wildcats are in serious danger of having their streak of 25 straight NCAA Tournament appearances halted.  Olson turned around an Arizona program that was lousy when he arrived and made it to the NCAA Tournament 23 years in a row, winning 11 Pac-10 titles and one NCAA title.   It’s too soon to pass judgment on Miller, but can anyone do more for Arizona than Olson did?   (That’s a rhetorical question by the way.)

– Arizona State – Current coach Herb Sendek.  Previous coach Rob Evans. Previous coach was fired.

Sendek led the Sun Devils to one NCAA Tournament berth in his first three seasons, and the Sun Devils, currently tied for second this season, have improved every year.  Evans was a Southeastern Coach of the Year at Mississippi, but got ASU to the NCAA Tournament only once in eight years.   Evans is now an assistant coach at Arkansas.  This looks like an improvement so far.

Jerry Green (right) did enough at Oregon to land the head coaching job at Tennessee

– Oregon – Current coach Ernie Kent.  Previous coach Jerry Green.  Previous coach left by his choice.

 This one is tricky.   The Ducks had a winning conference record only once in Green’s five years there, but that was enough to get him the job at Tennessee, where he won at least 20 games all four seasons, won the SEC division title twice, and got to the NCAA Tournament all four years before getting fired.   (Green subsequently worked as Indiana’s director of operations under Kelvin Sampson, and is currently retired from coaching.) Kent has taken the Ducks to the NCAA Tournament five times in his 12 seasons, twice got Oregon to the NCAA quarterfinals and won a regular-season Pac-10 title in 2002.   But he is often on the verge of getting fired, which is the case this season with the Ducks 4-6 in the conference after finishing 10^th last year. 

– Oregon State – Current coach Craig Robinson.   Previous coach Jay John.  Previous coach was fired.

 The difficulty Oregon State had in hiring a successor indicated how hard it is to succeed at Oregon State, and Robinson surprised everyone by going 7-11 in the conference to finish eighth in his first season after being picked to finish last.    However, Oregon State was expecting a lot better than what it is getting this season – 10-12 overall, 4-6 in the Pac-10 – so put a hold on sweeping conclusions. Under John, the Beavers never finished higher than fifth and never had a winning conference record.   They were 0-6 in the conference in 2008 when he was fired.  He is now an assistant coach at Cal.

 UCLA – Current coach Ben Howland.  Previous coach Steve Lavin.  Previous coach was fired.

Virtually everyone would say the Bruins upgraded their coaching situation, although you can twist statistics to say just about anything.   The Bruins have finished first three times under Howland and got to three Final Fours, including a berth in the 2006 national title game.  But at 11-12 this season, they could be on their way to their second losing season in Howland’s seven seasons at UCLA.  Lavin had only one losing season in his seven years at UCLA, and his teams got to the NCAA Tournament round of 16 five times, compared with three for Howland.  Lavin is now a college basketball analyst for ESPN.

 – USC – Current coach Kevin O’Neill.  Previous coach Tim Floyd.  Previous coach left amid possible NCAA violations.

It’s impossible to rate this one yet.   Floyd, now an assistant with the NBA’s New Orleans Hornets,  got USC into the NCAA Tournament in three of his four seasons there, and got the Trojans as high as third in the conference standings twice.   He brought in several star players who did not stay at USC long, and he left little for O’Neill, who arrived late in the game.   Despite being ineligible for postseason play (as a result of transgression during Floyd’s time as coach) and being picked to finish near the bottom of the conference, the Trojans are currently tied for second place.

– Washington – Current coach Lorenzo Romar.  Previous coach Bob Bender. Previous coach was fired.

 Washington is probably happy with what it has.  Bender, now an Atlanta Hawks assistant, got Washington into the NCAA Tournament twice in his nine seasons with the Huskies, with his highest Pac-10 finish being fourth, which he accomplished twice. In Romar’s seven seasons at Washington prior to this one,  the Huskies went to the NCAA Tournament four times and finished in the top two in the Pac-10 standings four times, including a conference title last season.   The Huskies are currently 6-5 and tied for second, but probably need to win the Pac-10 tournament to get another NCAA berth.

 We will say UCLA, Cal, Washington, Oregon State and Arizona State upgraded their coaching situation, and Washington State and Arizona got worse.   Oregon is a tough one to call, so we’ll say it was a push, and it’s too soon to make a choice at USC and Stanford.