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View Full Version : Best NCAA Tournament Coaches (since 2000)



JimmyMcAdocious
03-17-2015, 04:54 PM
Interesting read with the tournament coming up.
http://rotoviz.com/2015/03/which-college-basketball-coach-is-the-best-pure-tournament-coach-the-answer-may-not-surprise-you/


A word on methodology in case you care. First, I pulled in data from the NCAA tournament going back to the 2000 season. (http://www.sports-reference.com/cbb) Then I calculated an expected wins number for each seed. Then I summarized each coach based on the number of wins above expectation that they had. For instance, a one seed over that time averaged 3.26 wins. A one seed that goes on to win the tournament will accrue six wins, or 2.74 wins above replacement.

Top Ten

COACH Tournament WAE
Tom Izzo 12.42
John Calipari 10.05
Roy Williams 9.63
Billy Donovan 9.42
Brad Stevens 7.60
John Beilein 6.30
Jim Calhoun 6.27
Rick Pitino 5.87
Kevin Ollie 5.05
Sean Miller 4.53

Bottom Ten

Rick Stansbury -3.08
Stew Morrill -3.20
Mike Brey -4.20
Mike Krzyzewski -4.37
Jamie Dixon -5.03
John Thompson -5.05
Fran Dunphy -5.07
Steve Alford -5.18
Oliver Purnell -5.20
Mike Montgomery -5.62

Obviously sample size for some should be taken into consideration. Like I think Ollie has only been to one tournament, so... 15 years is pretty substantial tho. 4+ classes and all of the oad era.

ILLsmak
03-21-2015, 11:39 PM
Already was thinking of Izzo. Honestly has to be the best. The way he gets teams ready for the tourney even when they go thru the whole year being "pretty good" and then end up in the Final Four. or Elite Eight.. it's crazy. It'd be mind blowing if it didn't happen all of the time.

-Smak