2010 NCAA Tournament: Elite Coaches Facing Unique Challenges

There isn’t a runaway favorite to win the National Championship left in this tournament. Not after Kansas was Farokhmanesh-ed.

There isn’t a club like the 2009 North Carolina team among the final 8 teams standing. Every team left has a weakness or challenge that it’s had to overcome at some point in the season.

In fact, I can’t remember a year when so many teams playing in the round of 8 had so many question marks or endured so much as the season’s worn on. And that might be the theme of themes for the 2010 NCAA tournament.

Perhaps the “One Shining Moment” montage should feature the talent roaming the sideline instead of the athletes dominating the hardwood. Or at least a few more shots of Huggins’ yellow suit.

Let’s look at the phenomenal coaching jobs that helped these last eight teams become elite.

Tom Izzo: Michigan State

Usually when a team’s had the injury problems the Spartans have endured this season, they’re struggling to stay alive in the NIT, not battling their way to the Elite 8.

Most teams couldn’t survive losing their best player for a half, much less three of them. But Tom Izzo found a way to hold on against Maryland after Kalin Lucas went down, and then gave Korie Lucious a seven day Magic Johnson crash course in tournament guard play.

The kid Lucious came out and led his team as if he was Mateen Cleaves. Credit Izzo for putting Lucious in a position to succeed at the point guard spot within a week. Most coaches struggle to do that in a four year period.

Brad Stevens: Butler

If you were 33 years old and led North Carolina to the round of 8 with a roster littered with McDonald’s all-Americans, it would still be difficult. Pull off the same feat with an obscure team from Indiana, and it’s a once in a decade type of accomplishment. Quick, name a player for Butler that could start for any of the number 1 seeds.

John Calipari: Kentucky

Sure, Kentucky has a veritable NBA rookie team for a starting five, but not even Michigan’s famous Fab five freshmen did what Kentucky’s done at this point in the season.

Coach Cal has gotten a bunch of potential prima donnas to do things like guard and compete for an entire season. I can’t remember a team this young having this much success and for that, you’ve got to tip your cap to Calipari.

Scott Drew: Baylor

Before this year, Baylor was, at best, the third-ranked program in the state of Texas, and ranked in the bottom half of the Big 12 conference. In the offseason, Drew saw that he had a group of athletes in the front court, little depth in the back court, and overall a team that didn’t guard the dribble very well.

In a stroke of coaching genius, Drew switched from a traditional man to man defense to an active zone. The results propelled Baylor, always a good offensive club, into the Elite 8 with a legitimate shot at the Final Four. Good coaching requires adjusting a system to fit its players.

Mike Krzyzewski: Duke

After getting blitzed by Villanova’s army of guards in last year’s tournament, Coach K made a tough decision about Duke’s pressure defense that had served him so well during his career.

Villanova helped Coach K realize he didn’t have the correct athletes to run his pressure. With Singler, Smith, and Scheyer, Duke had smart perimeter athletes with some length, so the Hall of Fame coach decided to soften his wing pressure and force opposing teams to shoot over the top in a trade off that made dribble penetration difficult.

The result is the best Duke team in nearly a decade.

Frank Martin: Kansas State

Taking a team from Manhattan, KS, to the Elite 8 is tough enough. Do it two short seasons after Player of the Year Michael Beasley’s departure, and you’ve validated yourself as a great coach. Frank Martin has come a long way since coaching high school ball in Miami. He went all the way to Manhattan.

Bob Huggins: West Virginia

The fiery coach from West Virginia has a collection of really good players. Unfortunately for Huggins, he doesn’t have the point guard play to make a deep run in the tournament.

Or so said the pundits.

Huggins has defied the age-old theory that guard play is a prerequisite to March success. Teams of wings and forwards need not a apply.

When the Mountaineers lost the only thing resembling a point guard on the roster, Darryl Bryant to a knee injury, Huggy Bear calmly inserted Joe Mazzula, a cat with as much point guard skill Ricky Hatton, albeit just as tough. The result? A mere 40 minutes away from a Final Four berth.

There are many different coaching styles and philosophies, but the coach that can adapt to the unique challenges they’re presented with over the course of a season will most likely be coaching late in March.

This group is proof positive of .Darwin’s coaching theory