When we think of March Madness, we tend to think of the players. But let’s not forget who’s coaching them.
After all, player talent and ability are far from being everything. It is at least as important that the players have someone who knows how to put that talent and ability to good use.
Here are the top five coaches worth keeping an eye on before heading into the NCAAB betting sites.
In this list, I mention three well-reputed coaches: Florida’s Todd Golden, Oregon’s Dana Altman and Michigan State’s Tom Izzo. I also mention two coaches who struggle in March Madness: Tennessee’s Rick Barnes and Purdue’s Matt Painter.
5. Todd Golden
Up-and-Comer
It is worth asserting that Florida’s head coach is worth keeping an eye on because people will focus so heavily on the big names.
Those big names – I am thinking of John Calipari of Kentucky, for example – do deserve attention, but we should recognize that there are other good coaches rising in the ranks.
Golden is a young coach. He started serving as a head coach in 2019, when he was at San Francisco. In 2022, he became Florida’s head coach. The Gators clearly like Golden a lot: they just extended him through 2030. As part of this extension, he received a one-million-dollar raise.
Is He Worth the Hype?
Does Golden deserve this love?
He did finish the regular season by losing at Vanderbilt, although the referees truly were unfair to Florida. He did, then, take his team deep into the SEC Tournament.
Florida had to play more games than other teams did because of its seeding. It beat Georgia, Alabama and Texas A&M before losing to Auburn in the SEC Final. The Tide’s struggles notwithstanding, beating Bama and A&M is no small matter, and Golden’s coaching contributed to these accomplishments.
We’ll get a better sense, in the NCAA Tournament, of whether Golden deserves the contract extension.
4. Dana Altman
Altman Deserves More Respect
While I truly respect John Calipari of Kentucky, Tom Izzo of Michigan State and Bill Self of Kansas, I can’t help feeling like Oregon’s head coach is not talked about enough. I suspect that there is a bias against West Coast schools.
Altman is a winner on an all-time scale: he has won 753 games in his career. When things weren’t going so well for his Ducks this year, rumors actually circulated that he was going to retire. He denied these rumors.
Altman is actually turning things around. And this isn’t uncommon for him. Think of 2019, for example, when his Ducks won their conference tournament to land as a 12 seed. In that year, they gave eventual national champion Virginia a good run for their money in the third round.
Oregon is an 11 seed this year after winning the Pac-12 tournament.
3. Tom Izzo
Controversial Praise
Michigan State’s head coach is a Hall-of-Famer, often talked about as being one of college basketball’s best coaches in general and in March. However, praising Izzo has increasingly become a controversial thing.
On the one hand, his accomplishments in March are undeniable. In 2019, he took his Spartans to a Final Four appearance against Texas Tech after they downed a Duke team for which superstar Zion Williamson was playing.
Izzo has led his Spartans to seven other Final Four appearances, which is an incredible number. However, on the other hand, his accomplishments seem to rather be a thing in the past. His Spartans have won three tournament games in the last three seasons.
Forecast
It is interesting to consider whether Izzo can take a break from this three-year rut by taking his team far. His Spartans face a Mississippi State team that top-rated sportsbooks hold to be pretty equal to them.
In the second round, Michigan State would face a North Carolina team that, along with fellow ACC golden team Duke, has owned Izzo’s Spartans historically. However, his failures came against UNC’s previous head coach, who was 7-2 against Izzo.
It is worth seeing whether Izzo could overcome this historical struggle, if he can even get his team past the first round.
2. Rick Barnes
March Struggles
Tennessee’s head coach has had a lot of regular-season success in his career – nobody can deny him this. However, his teams have experienced a lot of upsets in March.
While Tennessee did make the Sweet 16 in 2019, Barnes’ group lost to Loyola Chicago in 2018 and another double-digit seed in 2021 (Oregon State) and yet another double-digit seed in 2022 (Michigan). Overall, he has also experienced twelve first-round exits.
It is worth keeping an eye on Barnes’ ability to turn things around in March.
1. Matt Painter
Overcoming Historic Failures
Last year, Purdue’s head coach became the second ever to lose to a 16 seed – FDU defeated Purdue.
His team has now lost to a double-digit seed in each of the last three years: 13 seed North Texas beat Purdue in 2021 and 12 seed St. Peter’s beat Purdue in 2022.
Painter is worth keeping an eye on to see if he can follow the path of Virginia’s Tony Bennett, another coach who struggles in March, by leading his team to a national title win in order to redeem its historic upset in the previous year.
