CBS Sports college basketball writers Gary Parrish and Matt Norlander surveyed more than 100 coaches for our annual Candid Coaches series. They polled everyone from head coaches at elite programs to assistants at some of the smallest Division I schools. In exchange for complete anonymity, the coaches provided unfiltered honesty about a number of topics in the sport. Over a span of two weeks, we're posting the results on the 10 questions we asked them.

We're slowly but surely making our way through a fairly newsworthy offseason in college basketball. So you'd be forgiven if you forgot about many of the seemingly impactful coaching hires that were made all the way back in March, when college hoops was at its noisiest. 

There are no sure things in college coaching, at least not at the start of a coach's tenure, but many hirings often do work out as expected.  

I'll refer you to Tony Bennett at Virginia, Roy Williams at North Carolina, Bob Huggins at West Virginia, John Calipari at Kentucky, Lon Kruger at Oklahoma, Frank Martin at South Carolina and Ed Cooley at Providence.

When all of those men were hired to their jobs, lured in from another program, the response was generally optimistic and positive. Both the college coaching fraternity and the general public expected each of the programs above to improve due to who got hired to those posts. 

And, to varying successes, each of them has.

So which coaches among the 2018 batch of hirings will wind up upgrading their programs? Which school identified the right candidate and has set itself up for a better future?

We asked more than 100 coaches across the country just that. 

Who was the best coaching hire of 2018? 

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CBS Sports / Mike Meredith

Chris Mack to Louisville

32 percent

Dan Hurley to UConn

31 percent

Penny Hardaway to Memphis

14 percent

Tom Crean to Georgia

8 percent

Kermit Davis to Mississippi

7 percent

Quotes that stood out

On Chris Mack ...

  • From a Big East coach: "He's a proven guy. The amount of success he had at Xavier speaks for itself. It's a natural fit going to Louisville. Excellent recruiter, gets the best out of his guys, and there's so much you can do at a place like Louisville, with what Louisville's ceiling is, Chris is talented enough to match that and what they expect of him."
  • "He has a track record of already of winning big at a high-major. Plus, Louisville is the job that he coveted so he will be driven to be successful."
  • "Look at Chris Mack's résumé. Great evaluator. Great at developing players. Great personality, which is needed in that market. I don't know if he'll win a national championship at Louisville. But he's going to win big at Louisville."
  • "Clear choice -- Chris Mack. Did a remarkable job at Xavier and now has an even greater platform at Louisville. Has to get through the NCAA recruiting mess but he will do great things there."
  • "Mack is a natural fit, like Hurley at UConn. Louisville will be able to rebound off the Pitino stuff. Mack recruits that area, his wife is from there, and he's known from that region."

On Dan Hurley ...

  • "Perfect fit. East Coast guy. Dialed in with all those guys. He was successful in a lower conference that was trending on becoming a powerhouse anyway. Now he's at a program with more prestige, that has cache and history to it, and way more of a budget. Home run. Sleeping giant. It was the Kentucky, Duke -- they were a blueblood just five years ago. I don't see why they would not become or why they can't get back there."
  • "UConn was bordering on irrelevance as a national player and needed to get this one right or they could never come back. Hurley is a proven winner and will bring the life and energy back to that program that's needed."
  • "When you say best hire, it's UConn. Big-time school, big-time brand. They got some rich roots up there."
  • "It's a great fit, I think he hired really good assistants. He's such a fit for that region and style. I think he's exactly what UConn was looking for and needed."

On Penny Hardaway ...

  • "Memphis born. Memphis raised. Memphis made. Penny was literally built by the city that needs him more than ever. There isn't a better time. There isn't a better fit. There isn't any other way. Memphis has and always will win with Penny Hardaway."
  • "That's going to work. First of all, he can coach. Second, he's got a great staff. Third, they have ridiculous advantages in recruiting. Lastly, it's Tiger Town. I don't give a shit about the Grizzlies. Unless they f--- it up and get in trouble by getting stupid, I'd get on that bandwagon. Sam Mitchell is a really, really good pro coach. They're going to recruit like f------ crazy. I'm telling you, that thing is ready to explode."
  • "For me, Penny is going to transcend their recruiting kind of like Cal did at Memphis. His name will allow him to go further. All the Memphis kids are going to go to Memphis."
  • "Penny without question. He will get great talent and he made a great hire in Sam Mitchell who can handle the Xs and Os. I don't think Tubby (Smith) deserved to get fired. But the way they have taken off in recruiting, I would say that they have achieved what they were going for. Wins and championships may or may not come. But the hype of the recruiting and energy around the program has certainly been all and more that they asked for."

On Tom Crean ...

  • "From a strictly coaching hire: Tom Crean to Georgia. I think the pedigree and résumé he brings is exactly what Georgia hasn't had in a decade. With the hires the SEC has made over the past three years he falls in line with the Ben Howlands, Rick Barneses and Cuonzo Martins of the league."
  • "I like what Georgia did. What Tom did at Indiana is better than most realize. It wasn't good enough for Indiana fans. But it was good. He's too smart and too good to fail [at Georgia]."
  • "Probably the most high-profile coach UGA has had ever, at least since Tubby and not counting Jim Harrick, who was terrible at UGA. Will he be able to co-exist and thrive at a football school, and will he be able to recruit the state and the South, [those] will be the questions."

On Kermit Davis ...

  • "It's hard to find anyone better [than Kermit Davis] who can create program culture, recruit above his level, develop players, including those with unconventional backgrounds, and flat-out coach -- especially in tight games. Not to mention he's a Mississippi native."
  • "Dark horse is Kermit Davis. Obviously has a history of beating teams that are supposed to be better than his, Michigan State and Minnesota, in NCAA Tournament. May not be right away but I bet he gets Ole Miss in position to win SEC championships."

The takeaway

Previous winners in this survey question include Archie Miller to Indiana in 2017, Brad Underwood to Oklahoma State in 2016 (Tubby Smith to Memphis was second; whoops), Shaka Smart to Texas in 2015 and Buzz Williams to Virginia Tech in 2014. Though we didn't run this poll in 2013, it's reasonable to present the possibility that Andy Enfield to Southern California or Chris Collins to Northwestern would have won out.

And all the coaches listed above are still at their schools, with the exception of Underwood, who was so immediately successful in year one at Oklahoma State in 2016 that Illinois was able to poach him away from OSU for a lot more money. (His top-finish in our 2016 poll in a way feels even more validated.) So if nothing else, the coaches seem to correctly identify the best of the best hires in the big-league programs.

Which is obviously a great sign for Louisville and UConn. Chris Mack has surely established himself as a top-level coach. At Xavier, he took over the program from Sean Miller and went on to make the NCAAs in eight of his nine seasons, including getting X to its first No. 1 seed in program history. That came last season. In 2016, Xavier was a No. 2 seed. In between those years, Mack took the Musketeers to the Elite Eight.

His career record is 215-97. He averaged five league losses with the Musketeers. An overlooked aspect about Mack: He's one of the top tacticians when it comes to devising creative out-of-bounds plays. Louisville needed a big-name coach who can handle the pressure of that job. Mack is wired for it. Yes, the Cardinals still await any potential leftover punitive action from the NCAA due to Louisville flagrantly violating its probation after what the FBI uncovered in 2017. But the level of severity -- now that everyone associated with Louisville basketball under Rick Pitino's regime is now gone, president and athletic director included -- is only up for speculation.

Hurley nearly winning this poll was no surprise, by the way. Remember, after URI was knocked out of the NCAA tourney by Duke, Hurley vacillated for a few days between UConn and Pitt. The Huskies job -- if he lives up to the potential -- is the right pick. And Hurley took it for less money. Hurley was good right away at Wagner, then took some time to get Rhode Island to top-dog status in the A-10. If he'd stayed, they'd be the favorite in that league again. 

But in moving, he still stays local and gets to fix something again. And as the reformed Hurley told me last season, one of his defining character traits is fixing broken things. You can't be so sure of every step you take, but Hurley's leaped into the UConn job and has the state of Connecticut brimming with anticipation. 

As for Hardaway, the early returns are fantastic. He's recruiting at an elite level already, and if No. 1 2019 prospect James Wiseman winds up passing on Kentucky for Memphis, it will make for one of the most enticing storylines of the season. No one yet knows how good Hardaway will be as a college coach, because he's never done it, but the coaches I spoke to who endorsed him as the best hire did so because they believe his dedication to basketball and to that city will not be denied. 

Overall, it was a good 2018 for hirings. Tom Crean's made a Final Four, Kermit Davis pulled off one of the most stunning NCAA Tournament upsets ever in 2016 when No. 15 seed Middle Tennessee wiped the floor with No. 2 Michigan State, and Jeff Capel's move to Pitt has that school back in the mix on the recruiting trail. 

Louisville and UConn were the two biggest jobs, though, and it was no guarantee they were going to get widespread public approval. They did because both of those universities were able to hire their No. 1 choice. 

And now Mack and Hurley are set to embark on the biggest gigs of their career, with both those fanbases expecting a national championship at some point in the years to come. 

CBS Sports' Candid Coaches series for college basketball

CBS Sports' Candid Coaches series for college football