Six years is enough time to evaluate. That's why we've chosen to go with the 2009 coaching class for our first edition of regrading the coaching hires.
It was one of the lightest years in the past decade, with just 32 openings, but it also had plenty of high-profile vacancies with Kentucky, Arizona and Memphis.
Of the 32 job changes, just four used a search firm. Fifteen coaches remain, 13 have been fired and four (Shaka Smart, Pat Chambers, Buzz Peterson and John Cooper) moved to other destinations.
Regrading the 2009 coaching carousel
Kentucky
Hire: John Calipari (current)
Replaced: Billy Gillispie
Record: 190-38
Search firm: None
Kentucky targeted Billy Donovan (again) and Tom Izzo before going after Memphis coach John Calipari. It's been the ideal marriage of a coach who welcomes the attention and adulation, and a rabid fan base that needed someone like Cal after the two-year disaster that was Billy Clyde Gillispie. Calipari has gone to four Final Fours in six years and won a national title in 2012. I'd say that's worthy of an A-plus.
Original grade: A
Regrade: A+