ESPN Men's Basketball

Two years after the highest-profile coaching carousel, three of the coaches who changed jobs are in the top six in the latest poll.

Illinois is No. 1 under second-year coach Bruce Weber.

Kansas is No. 2 under second-year coach Bill Self.

North Carolina is No. 6 behind second-year coach Roy Williams.

All three coaches were supposed to be this good, this fast, at these programs. No one would be surprised if any one of the three won the national title.

That wasn't the case with the first-year coaching class of 2004-05.

It was a relatively quiet offseason (compared to the previous year when UCLA and Pittsburgh also changed hands) but that doesn't mean it didn't have as much significance on the respective campuses.

Two weeks into conference play, three coaches who weren't supposed to be contenders suddenly are and three who were expected to have their teams at the top are doing just that early in conference play.

All of them love to downplay the turnarounds or the ability to sustain their programs, pointing that it's too early to judge their efforts, but they're all playing games that matter in mid-January and that is already an accomplishment.

Let's start in Miami, where Frank Haith and the Hurricanes take on No. 4 Duke Wednesday night in one of the biggest games in school history.

How did this happen?

"I was hoping we would get to the NIT," said Haith of his preseason expectations.

No athletic director took as much of a gamble as Paul Dee. Haith was an unproven and little known assistant at Texas. He was a name within the ACC from his days at Wake Forest, but not to the casual fan. He is now.

Miami is tied with North Carolina in the ACC standings by winning three of its first four games, including a win at Virginia and at home over N.C. State.

Suddenly, basketball is cool in Coral Gables and we're not just talking about Shaq, D-Wade and the Heat.

"I didn't think we were terrible," Haith said. "I thought we would get better. Everyone said we would finish last in the league and rightfully so."

The 'Canes lost all-Big East forward senior Darius Rice. Point guard Armondo Surratt transferred to San Francisco, Karron Clarke transferred to DePaul and the top recruit, C.J. Giles, landed at Kansas.

"Why not pick us last?" Haith said. "We lost so much. But we kept getting better."

Haith said he started to believe he could have a squad when Boston College coach Al Skinner told him at the ACC meetings that his guards -- Robert Hite and Guillermo Diaz -- were as good a tandem as anyone had in the league.

Hite is averaging 19 points, Diaz 17.6 overall. But Haith said the play of sophomores Anthony Harris (12.4 ppg) and Anthony King (6.6 ppg) might be the difference for this squad.

The season changed when the 'Canes won at Florida after losing to South Carolina State and Xavier.

"We needed a win like that to have confidence," Haith said. "We won a game on the road, no one expected us to win."

Miami then had a tough city-rivalry game with Florida International before beating Massachusetts by 27, the same week the Minutemen upset Connecticut at home.

When the 'Canes opened the ACC with a road loss at Georgia Tech, Haith got into the team to ensure they weren't satisfied with just being competitive. He wasn't sure how they would respond to his rare meltdown. Miami won its next three.

"After that UMass win, we started to say we're pretty good, there's something here," Haith said. "We found out that we have to utilize our guards and play to their strength."

Miami is in position to get an NCAA bid if it can stay in the top five in the ACC. The 'Canes need to beat one of the big boys, beginning with Duke Wednesday.

Miami goes to North Carolina on Saturday and still must play at Wake Forest, Duke and host Georgia Tech in its toughest games remaining.

Who else is exceeding expectations?

What did he expect?
When ESPN.com visited JT3 in his Georgetown office in September, he was resolute about the G'town job being a major project. He didn't quite say it was akin to Boston's Big Dig, but there was a sense that this was a monumental task.

Well, either Thompson is a miracle worker or the talent improved vastly over the past few months.

Georgetown enter Tuesday night's game at Syracuse with a 3-1 conference record, 11-4 overall. The Hoyas have already won at Pittsburgh, beat Rutgers and won at Villanova last week. The only loss was by seven at home to Connecticut after the Huskies had just lost to Boston College at home (read: tough game for the Hoyas to play with a hungry Huskies team coming into D.C.).

Thompson didn't take on the usual cupcakes. He played No. 1 Illinois (loss). He went to Davidson (win). He brought in Temple (loss) in the opener. He beat Penn State and San Jose State (at least you've heard of those schools). He played in the Rainbow Classic in Honolulu and lost to one of the top mid-majors in Oral Roberts before beating Long Beach State and Clemson.

"We've had a resilient group," Thompson said. "We've had a lot of close games and we've pulled a few out. We've won different ways and we haven't quit."

What's significant about the start?
The Hoyas found out they're more than just Brandon Bowman and Ashanti Cook. Freshman Jeff Green was a steal, averaging 13.5 points and 7.5 boards. He has been one of the top rookies in the Big East and has star written all over him in this league.

Why is there hope?
The Hoyas play six more road games in the Big East and have a chance in at least three of them -- at Rutgers, Notre Dame and St. John's. They also have six more home games that are all winnable. This team could finish in the upper half of the Big East, make the NIT and push Thompson toward a stellar recruiting season to get this program turned faster than anyone would have imagined.

What did he expect?
The Aggies didn't win a game in the Big 12 last season so Gillispie wasn't sure what was going to occur.

"I had no idea," Gillispie said. "We had new guys, new principles and I didn't know if the roster was good enough."

That's why Gillispie played the perfect schedule, filled with home dogs A&M could beat. He did beat one name team in Houston and went on the road to win at Penn State before opening the Big 12 with only a five-point loss to Kansas. A&M then stunned the league with a home win over Texas before losing last week at Texas Tech.

"I didn't know that (freshman) Joseph Jones (12.4 ppg, 7.9 rpg) would develop the way he did and that (sophomore) Acie Law (13.3 ppg, 5.4 apg) and (junior) Antoine Wright (17.1 ppg) would improve so much," Gillispie said. "I didn't know that could happen so quick."

What's significant about the start?
The Aggies suddenly care about hoops. They had a great environment for the Texas game. Gillispie, who infused tremendous hope at UTEP and got the Miners into the NCAAs last season, might have found the elixir to getting one of the traditional cellar dwellers out of the Big 12 and into the top six.

"We're taking baby steps," Gillispie said. "Everyone wants to see a team that plays hard. We practice hard."

Why is there hope?
The Texas win shows that this team can compete in this league. The Aggies have a long, long way to go to get into NCAA position, but they might be an NIT team if they can stay above .500. They would have to fall far from 12-2 to miss out on that, even in this league. But there isn't a game left on their schedule, save going to Oklahoma, Texas and Oklahoma State, that they can't reasonably win.

What about the coaches who had to deal with the pressure of maintaining an NCAA team?

The Miners (14-3, 4-1 in the WAC) already have big wins against Arizona State and at Nevada.

"The expectations were really high here," Sadler said of maintaining the Miners' success after they moved from 6-24 to 24-8 over the past two seasons. "The reason things are going well are we had Omar Thomas and Filiberto Rivera," Sadler said.

Rivera actually missed the loss to Texas Tech with an ankle injury and the Miners have also struggled with injuries to Will Kimble, John Tofi and Miguel Ayala.

UTEP is one of the favorites to win the WAC, despite getting clipped at Fresno State last week on a buzzer-beater. The Miners host Hawaii in a critical game Thursday night.

Like Sadler, Fox had huge shoes to fill. Trent Johnson helped turn the Wolf Pack into a Sweet 16 team before he went to replace Mike Montgomery at Stanford. Fox, who like Sadler again was an assistant, had to deal with a major loss when Kirk Snyder declared for the NBA draft.

The Wolf Pack started off slowly, losing at Kansas (expected), at Toledo (harder game than people think) and at Pacific (one of the tougher home courts no one promotes), before ripping off seven in a row. The streak snapped when UTEP won in overtime last week. But Nevada (12-4, 5-1 in the WAC) got back on track with a win over Boise State.

The difference? Returning Nick Fazekas and Kevinn Pinkney. These two players were integral parts of the Sweet 16 team and understand how to win. Fazekas (20.3 ppg, 8.6 rpg) is a WAC player of the year favorite while Pinkney (12.9 ppg, 7.8 rpg) has been just as reliable.

"I inherited a good group," said Fox, who also reminded us that he also lost guards Garry Hill-Thomas and Todd Okeson off of the Sweet 16 team. "We still haven't played our best."

Fox realized he could make another run after the sweep of Louisiana Tech and SMU on the road. That trip came after the home win over Hawaii.

The Salukis have been a revolving door of success of late with Bruce Weber getting to the Sweet 16 in 2002 and again to the NCAAs in 2003 before Matt Painter won the MVC and got to the NCAAs in 2004. Lowery, an assistant to both coaches, took over a team that was loaded again, with returning player of the year Darren Brooks.

Lowery had offseason issues to deal with when Stetson Hairston and Mike Dale were suspended for a fight in Carbondale. But the team stuck together and won the Las Vegas tournament over Thanksgiving with wins over Vanderbilt and UTEP. Southern Illinois lost at Hawaii and to Arkansas-Little Rock and also lost at the buzzer to Louisiana-Lafayette on the road. Other than that it has been smooth sailing with a 14-3 record, 5-0 in the Valley.

Hairston is back, having missed only one game, and is third on the team in scoring at 10.3 points a game behind Jamaal Tatum (10.6) and Brooks (14.5 ppg), while Dale has played in 14 of 17 games (4.8 ppg).

"After we beat Vandy and UTEP, then lost at Hawaii and Little Rock, we won seven in a row, and that's when I knew," Lowery said of this team being special. "We lost that game at Lafayette but our older guys got us through (to win the next three)."

Southern Illinois is in position to get an at-large berth with the wins over UTEP and Vanderbilt if the Salukis can finish in the top two in the MVC. Do that and Lowery has met the expectations yet again of a first-year coach in Carbondale.

Who else should we mention? You can toss in Ray Giacoletti of Utah (15-3, 3-0 Mountain West), Chris Mooney of Air Force (11-6, 2-0 MWC) and Joe Scott of Princeton (8-5, 0-0 Ivy), too, who are all still in position to get an NCAA bid out of their respective leagues.

Utah is looking the strongest and is the only one of the teams that has a shot to get in as an at-large berth. Xavier's Sean Miller (7-6, 1-2) probably has to win the A-10 after an erratic non-conference season while Stanford's Johnson (8-7, 2-3) might need to win the Pac-10 tourney.

Andy Katz is a senior writer at ESPN.com.