College Basketball Coaches with Sneaky Good Records in the NCAA Tournament
When it’s time for the NCAA tournament, all the familiar faces tend to steal the show late.
What you may not realize is once you get past the Jim Boeheims, the Tom Izzos, the Mike Krzyzewskis and the Rick Pitinos, there’s a wealth of coaches who have performed quite well in March.
When trolling the Internet for the sneaky good records in the NCAA tournament, I skimmed every single Division I coach alphabetically and saw who had a respectable number of appearances in the tournament. After that, I looked at whether they are a current coach, and after that, I researched whether they have a record somewhere in the neighborhood of .500 in the tournament.
A record of .500 suggests, on average, that most coaches get their teams past the first rounds (now the second round, I suppose).
With that said, read on to see some of the coaches who, come tournament time, are sneaky good and successfully rage against the machine.
All stats are current as of Feb. 15.
Larry Brown, SMU
1 of 8
NCAA Tournament Record: 19-6
Final Four Appearances: Three
Championships: One
Paradoxically, Larry Brown has been coaching so long across so many different teams that it’s easy to forget he’s still active and thriving.
That’s sneaky good and in seven trips to the Big Dance, his record of 19-6 is stealth. Hailing from the Big 8 back in 1988, Brown won the national championship with Kansas.
He has won wherever he’s gone. He owns a 42-17 record at UCLA, 135-44 at Kansas and 63-32 at Southern Methodist.
The feel-good story of how Brown has turned around SMU may not have a rosy ending. Academic issues swirling around Justin Martin and Keith Frazier have sidelined them. Ulric Maligi has left due to a “private matter.”
"“I’m ready to coach the kids I’ve got,” he said. “The team has played great and the kids are dealing with whatever happened in a real positive way. I just have to wait until the process plays out, and I’m confident that things are going to be OK.”
"
If Brown can keep the distractions at bay and lead this team to the tournament, history suggests SMU will be a tough beat.
John Beilein, Michigan
2 of 8
NCAA Tournament Record: 16-9
Final Four Appearances: One
John Beilein may have trouble getting into the NCAA tournament this season, and that’s a good sign for competitors. His record in nine trips is outstanding.
Beilein even led the Wolverines to the Final Four two years ago. He won the NIT in his final year at West Virginia. Beilein is a big-game coach.
Michigan is having a down year with embarrassing losses to NJIT and EMU. The Wolverines are currently in their second four-game losing streak of the season and can kiss any chance of reaching the Big Dance goodbye, especially since Caris LeVert, the team’s best player, will miss the rest of the season after fracturing his foot last month.
“What I’ve learned in all these 40 years is that you don’t know what to expect,” Beilein told The New York Times. “Anything can happen. Just as crazy. You’ve just got to adjust.”
No, they won’t make the tournament this year, but once allowed to regroup, there’s no reason to think Beilein won’t have this team back in the NCAA tournament a year from now.
Jim Larranaga, Miami
3 of 8
NCAA Tournament Record: 7-6
Final Fours: One
Jim Larranaga made waves when his George Mason team made the Final Four a few years back, and he’s doing it again down in Miami.
He slayed Duke this year at Cameron Indoor Stadium using some of the most explosive players in Sheldon McClellan and Angel Rodriguez.
Vishnu Parasuraman of ManCaveDaily.com wrote:
"What Jim Larranaga has done at Miami, to not only flash brilliance, but to build it into the culture, cannot be praised enough. Already this year, Miami has won three road games that would have been called “program defining” by the previous coaching staff. And yet, it almost goes unnoticed. Perhaps the greatest sign of progress is not that Miami is able to win games in Gainesville, Durham, and Syracuse, but that none of those wins came as a surprise.
"
As Larranaga continues to build confidence in South Florida, he will find no shortage of athletes to build into his program. The success he has shown so far in his four-year tenure at Miami is emblematic of the winning tone he brings.
Get this man into the tournament and watch giants fall.
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Shaka Smart, VCU
4 of 8
NCAA Tournament Record: 7-4
Final Four Appearances: One
This story about Shaka Smart is outstanding, and you should read it in its entirety.
You get a sense of not just who Smart is, but why he is, if that makes any sense. This is a coach who has remained at little-known VCU and has turned down jobs at UCLA, N.C. State, Illinois and Tennessee.
The why is why he’s accomplished what he has in such a short amount of time with a team who shocked the world and reached the Final Four a few years ago.
He has a connection with his players, unlike many coaches. He, in essence, recruits himself—kids without father figures. Nine players on his team grew up without fathers, just like Smart.
"But what Smart will never do, it's already clear, is leave VCU just to get a bigger job in a bigger league, and money doesn't seem to be a factor, either. He's still very young for his profession and already really wealthy. And with the way he's recruiting at VCU, and with the investment the school has made into the program, there's no reason to think Smart's place in the college basketball world, or his celebrity, will diminish any time soon.
"
Smart is young and in the position, if he chooses to remain at VCU, to build a legacy program not unlike Duke or Michigan State.
That sneaky good record in the tournament makes it all possible.
Tubby Smith, Texas Tech
5 of 8
NCAA Tournament Record: 30-16
Final Four Appearances: One
Championships: One
Tubby Smith, like Bobby Knight, found his way to Texas Tech in the twilight of his coaching career.
Smith’s record this season won’t have people sharpening his net-cutting scissors, but he has big-game experience and a killer record in the tournament when he gets there.
His team is so-so on defense, 99th according to KenPom.com, but the offense is offensive, a chilly 271. He has yet to breach the .500 mark at Texas Tech, something he accomplished at Tulsa, Georgia, Kentucky and Minnesota.
It’s easy to forget how successful Smith was as a coach, especially when you consider that the prime Google searches for Smith curate links that show him crashing a motorcycle during Midnight Madness, which may be a symbol for his time at Texas Tech.
Steve Lavin, St. John's
6 of 8
NCAA Tournament Record: 11-7
Final Four Appearances: Zero
Steve Lavin led UCLA to 145 wins and 78 losses in his time in L.A., and has a record of 87-68 at St. John’s.
Lavin may not be considered one of the game’s elite coaches, but that 11-7 record in seven trips to the NCAA tournament is a solid mark that makes him a sneaky good coach in the postseason.
St. John’s is a tad down this season, ranked only 43rd, according to KenPom. The Red Storm sit at 5-6 in the Big East behind teams like Villanova and Butler.
Maybe he hasn’t been the recruiting maestro he was purported to be by the harsh and jaded New York media, but come March, having Lavin on the bench is more of a positive than a negative.
Steve Fisher, San Diego State
7 of 8
NCAA Tournament Record: 25-13
Final Four Appearances: Three
Championships: One*
Steve Fisher has had one of the better second acts you’ll ever see in coaching.
For the more seasoned college basketball fan, Fisher was the architect behind Michigan’s Fab Five, the team that won a national championship in the baggy-shorted '90s.
Of late, Fisher has revamped San Diego State and coached one of the more viciously defensive teams. KenPom.com ranks San Diego State as the fourth best team, according to adjusted defense. The past two seasons, it has been a top-10 team defensively.
"Few coaches have recruited the west coast more effectively in the past five years. Fisher hasn't always landed the top 10 players, but he has consistently found the right players for his system -- unselfish, athletic, defensively minded. Once found, Fisher and his staff must be among the most consistent in the country in delivering their message, their emphases, their style of play. And then those players develop.
"
His track record is deep and his coaching style travels well. San Diego State demands respect in the tournament.
*Vacated
Bob Huggins, West Virginia
8 of 8
NCAA Tournament Record: 27-20
Final Four Appearances: Two
Bob Huggins is rarely considered one of the game’s great coaches. This guy manages to win wherever he lands, whether that’s Akron, Cincinnati or West Virginia. He’s never one of the first coaches you think about when you consider elite coaches.
He’s one of those, “Oh, yeah, I forgot about him,” kind of coaches.
And through the years, if nothing else, he’s been adaptable.
Huggins said in The Cleveland Plain Dealer:
"You're almost forced to change. Kids are different. Whoever doesn't think kids are different don't deal with kids. When I started, there were no video games and there weren't cell phones. I thought it was awful when we got pagers. Now look at them.
"
His record suggests that every time Huggins takes a team to the tournament, they have a higher-than-average chance of reaching the Sweet 16.
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