To catch up on Andrew Jones' tournament of ACC coaches, so far we've had the following matchups: K vs. Frank Haith, Dave Odom vs. Jeff Jones, Lefty Driesell vs. Herb Sendek, and Norm Sloan vs. Oliver Purnell.
The winners: K, Driesell, Odom and Sloan.
Perhaps you could quibble with Sloan. Once David Thompson left, State came back to earth, and the rest of his time in Raleigh was uneven. He never won another ACC Tournament, and only got back to the NCAA tournament once more at State.
The Thompson era was brilliant, but we're not sure that's enough to say he was a better coach than Purnell. The imagination came from recruiting Monte Towe and Tom Burleson, but things ran dry after that bunch graduated.