Stomp The Lunatic

The Sweet 16 is almost here!!!!

The Lunatic is ready. I have my lucky Purdue T-shirt on as well as the lucky black socks. The Sweet 16 games are just an hour away and my Boilers and the Texas Longhorns are ready to kick things off.

As I get ready for the game, I wanted to mention how amazing the final 16 coaches are in the Sweet 16. Looking at the list of coaches just amazed me.

Currently, there are only 7 active coaches that have won a National Championship (according to AI).

  • Dan Hurley (UConn)
  • Bill Self (Kansas)
  • Rick Pitino (St. John’s)
  • John Calipari (Arkansas)
  • Scott Drew (Baylor)
  • Tom Izzo (Michigan State)
  • Todd Golden (Florida)

So, only 1.9% of the active coaches in Division 1 college basketball. And yet, four (25%) of the coaches in the Sweet 16 have won a National Championship.

Lets look at the whole list:

  • St. John’s – Rick Pitino (915 – 317 – 74.3%)
  • Arkansas – John Calipari (905 – 285 – 76.1%)
  • Tennessee – Rick Barnes (860 – 434 – 66.5%)
  • Michigan State – Tom Izzo (764 – 309 – 71.2%)
  • Houston – Kelvin Sampson (754 – 317 – 70.4%)
  • Purdue – Matt Painter (525 – 228 – 69.7%)
  • Texas – Sean Miller (508 – 210 – 70.8%)
  • UConn – Dan Hurley (347 – 179 – 66.0%)
  • Illinois – Brad Underwood (300 – 136 – 68.8%)
  • Alabama – Nate Oats (266 – 115 – 69.8%)
  • Nebraska – Fred Hoiberg (227 – 170 – 57.2%)
  • Iowa State – TJ Otzelberger (223 – 115 – 66.0%)
  • Michigan – Dusty May (186 – 82 – 69.4%)
  • Arizona – Tommy Lloyd (146 – 35 – 80.7%)
  • Duke – Jon Scheyer (123 – 24 – 83.7%)
  • Iowa – Ben McCollum (54 – 16 – 77.1%)

If you go by win percentage and look at the top 25 active coaches record, 11 of the 16 Sweet 16 coaches are in the top 25 (69.4%).

There are only 19 active coaches with 500 wins. 7 of the 16 Sweet 16 are on that list.

One of the things that I hate are some of the ranking lists that come out. I am sure I will rant about one that Charlie pointed out from CBS Sports at some point. Let re-rank the Sweet 16 teams as if two games on neutral courts suddenly changes whether or not a team like Duke is still one of the top 2-3 teams in the country. Even if they eventually lose, these rankings are silly. We know by now that in March, especially when you get to the Sweet 16, that anyone can beat anyone.

But think about this – the IndyStar ranked who they believe were the best coaches of the Sweet 16 from 1-16. They ranked Hall of Fame coach John Calipari, who has taken three different schools to a Final Four, as the 8th best coach in the Sweet 16. That sounds ridiculous!!!! But then you look at who they ranked.

  • Dan Hurley (who has won multiple titles at UConn)
  • Rich Pitino (who has won the most games as an active coach)
  • Kelvin Sampson (828 wins who has been to the last 7 Sweet 16s)
  • Dusty May (took mid-major Florida Atlantic to the Final Four)
  • Tom Izzo (Hall of Fame coach)
  • Nate Oats (coaches in the Final Four and the Elite 8 in the last two years)
  • Jon Scheyer (who has won 83.7% of his games and made the Final Four in only his 3rd season)

I probably still put Calapari better than a few of these, but you can’t say the logic of the writer is crazy.

Well the game is ready to start – enjoy the games!!!

the_lunatic

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