Complete Bracket [PDF]
Complete Bracket [GIF]
Coaches Switch In the Same League
Jim Baron, trading places in the Atlantic 10 Conference (St. Bonaventure to Rhode Island), is the fifth coach in the last nine years to switch head coaching jobs in the same league.
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The Win Crowd
Two of this year's Final Four coaches--Michigan State's Tom Izzo and Duke's Mike Krzyzewski--enter the national semifinals at Minneapolis ranking among the top four all-time in NCAA Tournament winning percentage.
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Generation Hex
Temple's John Chaney, participating in more NCAA Tournament games than any coach without reaching the Final Four, is 5-0 in regional semifinal outings but 0-5 in regional finals after bowing to defending champion Michigan State in the South Regional final.
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Nobody's Looking Out For No. 1
Stanford, despite playing all four of its West Regional games in California, discovered what other elite clubs encountered--a curse of sorts against top-ranked teams--when the Cardinal bowed to Maryland, 87-73.
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Not Exactly Greener Pastures
Bob Knight and Rick Pitino are dominating the headlines by returning to the coaching sideline at Texas Tech and Louisville, respectively. But if history means much, it's difficult to envision either of them being as successful as they were while capturing NCAA crowns at Indiana and Kentucky.
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Changing In Midstream
It apparently is beneath the dignity of the high-and-mighty Big Ten Conference to hire interim coaches as full-time mentors even after they earned acclaim by guiding schools to the NCAA Tournament. Soon after Indiana toyed with Mike Davis' emotions, Wisconsin exhibited a comparable "national reputation" haughtiness by shunning Brad Soderberg.
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Opening-Game Jitters
There is no easy answer to excelling in the NCAA Tournament, especially for coaches entering the playoff pressure cooker for the first time. Legendary coach John Wooden appeared in 12 Final Fours, but he established the amazing record after a shaky start, losing his first five NCAA playoff games with UCLA from 1950-'56 by an average of 11.4 points.
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U-Turns
A long-term contract isn't necessary for a coach to reverse the fortunes of a struggling program. Numerous enterprising mentors have engineered turnarounds that included an NCAA Tournament appearance in their first year at a new job although the school compiled a losing record the previous season. The ultimate rags-to-riches story in the previous decade involved current Xavier coach Skip Prosser, who guided Loyola (Md.) to a school Division I-best 17-13 record in 1993-94 after the Greyhounds set a school standard for defeats the previous year with a 2-25 mark.
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All-Time All-NCAA Tournament Team
Who were the most pristine postseason players in the premier sports spectacle--the NCAA Tournament? So many stars to choose from. So many divergent opinions on individual playoff performances. Who always seemed hot? Who was not? Well, chill out. Help has arrived with an all-time All-NCAA Tournament team separating pertinent facts from school-submitted fax.
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NCAA Tournament: From A To Z
Here is a perceptive A-to-Z Guide dealing with the only
coach, player, conference or school linked to a distinguished achievement before, during or after participating in the NCAA Tournament. The following points to ponder and insightful statistics constitute a letter-perfect historical menu of tourney tidbits and trends.
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All In The Family
In 1997-98, Tubby Smith became the first man to coach one son against another son--point guards Saul Smith (Kentucky freshman) and G.G. Smith (Georgia junior). In 1996, Tubby was in his first year at Georgia when G.G. helped him become the only coach to guide three consecutive clubs to regional semifinals despite not being accorded a top four seed during the span. Tubby's two previous tourney teams were with Tulsa. Tubby entered the 2001 East Regional semifinals with the fifth-best record in NCAA Tournament history with more than 20 decisions (18-6, .750).
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Self Worth
Bill Self will remember the Alamodome. The first-year Illinois coach will become the first coach to reach a regional final in back-to-back seasons with two different schools if the Illini defeat Kansas in the regional semifinals at San Antonio.
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Summaries of careers for 2001 Sweet 16 coaches
Bottom Of The Bracket Racket
Gonzaga became the first school to advance to regional semifinals in three consecutive campaigns despite having a double-digit seed each year. Prior to the Zags' streak, LSU had been the only "double trouble" school to advance to regional semifinals in back-to-back seasons with double-digit seeded teams (1986 and 1987).
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Remember me?
Georgia State's Lefty Driesell became the 10th coach in NCAA playoff history to go up against an opponent he previously coached in the national tournament when the Panthers opposed Maryland in the second round of the West Regional.
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One-and-Only Coaches' NCAA Tourney Trivia
Is that your final answer? Standardized testing is controversial, but it's time to take your NCAA playoff knowledge to the line and take a shot at many difficult questions. Your score on this one-of-a-kind trivia quiz probably will reflect your ability to retain critical knowledge, jog your memory, exhibit your lack of attention to detail or reveal once and for all that you didn't major or even minor in "hoopology".
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Like Father, Like Son
The NCAA Tournament probably has never embraced so many key players whose fathers previously played in the tourney. Three No. 1 seeds fall into the category.
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Playing And Coaching Excellence
Being a great player has never had anything to do with being a good coach. But the 2001 East Regional had a couple of former NCAA consensus first-team All-Americas coaching teams in the playoffs--Iowa's Steve Alford and Southern California's Henry Bibby. Alford and Bibby are among the following 11 individuals in history to coach a team to the NCAA Division I Tournament after earning a spot on an NCAA first- or second-team All-America squad.
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Pupils in 2001 playoffs
This season marks the 25th anniversary of the last major-college team to go undefeated. Indiana was 32-0 in 1975-76 under Bob Knight. But many believe the Hoosiers' team the previous season was a superior squad. IU, undefeated entering the tourney (29-0), lost the Mideast Regional final against Kentucky (92-90). Consensus first-team All-American forward Scott May's broken arm possibly cost Indiana the national crown. May returned to the lineup against Kentucky, but he was rusty and scored just two points.
Knight boasted one of the all-time greatest coaching staffs in 1974-75. His four assistants--Dave Bliss, Bob Donewald, Mike Krzyzewski and Bob Weltlich--all eventually became head coaches for at least two different major colleges and compiled more than 1,600 major-college victories among them.
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Records in Postseason Competition for Active Coaches
Records in Postseason Competition for Active Coaches Conference tournaments occasionally are lost in the shuffle but shouldn't be when considering coaching excellence in pressure situations. No coach rose to the occasion in the previous two years like Michigan State's Tom Izzo, who directed the Spartans to 16 victories in 17 games in the Big Ten Tournament and NCAA playoffs.
Connecticut's Jim Calhoun is the only active coach to win at least two-thirds of his games in the NCAA Tournament, NIT and conference postseason tourneys. Here is a look at how many of the current Division I coaches stack up against each other in overall postseason play through 2000:
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National Postseason Tournament Raw Essentials
Did you know factoids on 65 DI coaches
There's a tendency to overindulge at an all-you-can-eat buffet. Anyone digesting the following assortment of incisive facts on the 65 NCAA Division I Tournament coaches should find that variety is the spice of this occasionally irreverent smorgasbord. Remember: If a morsel isn't appetizing, don't be a glutton for punishment in trying to comprehend what makes the coaching community tick. Just proceed directly to the next tidbit. Sooner or later, there's bound to be a factoid that you can savor while enjoying this year's playoffs.
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Players become coaches in NCAA playoffs
North Carolina's Matt Doherty became the 15th member of an exclusive club of coaches who directed their alma mater in the NCAA Tournament after leading the school in scoring in at least one NCAA playoff contest. Jimmy Collins, who coached Illinois-Chicago to the 1998 NCAA Tournament, at least shared New Mexico State's team-high scoring total in all 11 of his NCAA playoff contests with the Aggies from 1968 through 1970.
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Regal Rookies
A striking number of mentors who coached this season directed schools to the NCAA playoffs right from the start of their head coaching careers. Indiana's Mike Davis, Butler's Thad Matta and Princeton's John Thompson III joined the following alphabetical list of active coaches this year who guided teams to the NCAA Tournament in their first full season at the Division I level.
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Assorted notes on coaches
Running the Table in League Tourneys
Steve Alford became the seventh coach to pass the ultimate test of a postseason conference tournament when the Iowa Hawkeyes captured a league tourney by winning four games in four days. Sizing up the fortunate seven:
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Active veteran coaches in NCAA competition
It's debatable whether there is any substitute for consistent season-long excellence, but a key criteria employed in evaluating coaches is how their teams perform in postseason competition. Following are the career NCAA playoff records of the 38 active coaches with at least 10 games in the Division I Tournament through 2000 and their highlights or lowlights (FF denotes Final Four appearances):
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Coaching Records in NCAA Playoffs of Current Major Colleges (Through 2000)
If incisive items assessing tournament history of the Division I coaching community is what you're looking for, then you've come to the right place. The following assortment of NCAA playoff records should help fans gain an idea of how their school has performed in the "Big Dance".
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School W-L Records in Postseason Play
All-time coaching comparisons in postseason
Duke's Mike Krzyzewski would need to capture the next four NCAA Tournament titles to overhaul UCLA's John Wooden as the winningest coach by percentage in national postseason play. Connecticut's Jim Calhoun is the only coach in college basketball history to win at least two-thirds of his games in both the NCAA Tournament and NIT for coaches with more than 10 decisions in each event. Former North Carolina coach Dean Smith is the only mentor in college annals to win at least 70 percent of his contests in both the NCAA playoffs and NIT with at least 10 verdicts in each event.
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Conference Tournament Coaching Records
For quality teams in the upper echelon leagues, conference tournament action is only the beginning of what they hope will be a long postseason experience culminating with memorable success in the NCAA playoffs. Because of their season-long excellence, schools such as these are virtually immune to exclusion from the NCAA Tournament. So along with trying to win the league tournament title, the squads are tuning up for the main event by jockeying for position in the NCAA bracket.
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