Report Cards: Grading offseason coaching changes

We're pushovers here at CBS SportsLine.com. Check out our report card of the top Division I coaching hires entering the 2005-06 season. We give out more A's than the Duke sociology department.

Not all of the 37 coaching changes are documented here. Life's too short. If your favorite team didn't make it, there's a reason:

Your team is bad. Really, really bad.

Straight A's

Travis Ford will turn the UMass program around. (Getty Images)

Tennessee: Reasonable people can disagree on the righteousness of Bruce Pearl's role as a whistle-blower in that 1989 NCAA scandal that put Illinois on probation and took a decade off Pearl's Division I head coaching career. But about this, there is no dispute: The man's a coaching savant. After leaving his assistant's position at Iowa, he led Division II Southern Indiana to a national championship and UW-Milwaukee to the 2005 Sweet 16.

Massachusetts: Travis Ford isn't from the Northeast. Big deal. He has the enthusiasm, pedigree and name recognition to win in Guam. He'll win at UMass.

New Mexico State: Combine the recruiting ability of ex-Louisville assistant Reggie Theus and the recruiting lure of new membership in the WAC, and the Aggies will attract a new level of athlete. The only question: Can Theus manage a game? Our answer: Theus played in the NBA, worked under Rick Pitino, and seems like an awfully sharp guy. Of course he can manage a game.

Florida Atlantic: More than a good coach, FAU needed a relevant coach. In Matt Doherty, the Owls got both. Dollar for dollar, this was the best hire of the offseason.

Coastal Carolina: See FAU. Coastal did the same by landing Buzz Peterson, a Carolina native who won big at Appalachian State.

Virginia: Our objections to the process notwithstanding, Virginia hit pay dirt with Dave Leitao, whose regal bearing, ACC address and new arena (next season) will translate into coup after recruiting coup.

IPFW: Few schools can afford to gamble on a 25-year-old with negligible coaching experience. Indiana-Purdue-Fort Wayne is one of those schools. And Dane Fife is worth the gamble. He has enormous name recognition in Indiana, having led the Hoosiers to the 2002 Final Four. He's the youngest head coach in Division I, but it's not like older coaches were getting it done there.

Purdue: This is the blueprint to replacing a legend. Purdue not only landed an alumnus, but in Matt Painter it landed an alumnus who won 25 games in his only season at Southern Illinois and then returned to his alma mater to spend the 2004-05 season as Gene Keady's replacement-in-waiting. Along the way Painter put together the top-rated recruiting class in the Big Ten. Great start.