Bracket - Coaches With Most Past March Madness Success

Here is the quick reference of brackets with the links to this and each of the other brackets.

The final bracket to present is based on coaches with the greatest history of March Madness success pulling out the games when teams are fairly evenly matched. I start out sorting each team's coach by the furthest run they have made in the tournament. Here is that breakdown:

National Champs (6) – Baylor ( Scott Drew), Connecticut (Dan Hurley), Kansas (Bill Self), Kentucky (John Calipari), Michigan St. (Tom Izzo), and Virginia (Tony Bennett).

Runner-up (3): Gonzaga (Mark Few), North Carolina (Hubert Davis) and San Diego St. (Brian Dutcher).

Final 4 (5): Auburn (Bruce Pearl), Florida Atlantic (Dusty May), Houston (Kelvin Sampson), Marquette (Shaka Smart) and Oregon (Dana Altman).

Elite 8 (5): Auburn (Bruce Pearl), Florida Atlantic (Dusty May), Houston (Kelvin Sampson), Marquette (Shaka Smart) and Oregon (Dana Altman).

Sweet 16 (9)

1^st Round Win (11)

Have not won an NCAA Game (29)

Then I rank them within their groups - picking John Calipari as No. 1 from the six with national titles because he is the only coach besides Rick Pitino to also take three different schools to the Final 4. In a few cases I leap frog out of a group. For example, Bruce Pearl's longest run was to the Final 4, but he has not only clearly had the best success of the five Final 4 coaches, but not only did he do that with an Auburn team missing its best player, but he has taken Milwaukee and Tennesse teams ranked around 40th to the Sweet 16.

Therefore I rank him 6th overall in March Madness success, ahead of the three who had Runner-up teams and two of the coaches with National Champs. 

I rank even the 29 coaches who have yet to win a tournament game, with a number who have taken small schools to near upset.

Here is the final ranking, and when I apply this to each of the teams this year I end up with Calipari winning another title with Kentucky with Baylor's Scott Drew just missing his second title in four years. Despite ranking Pearl slightly ahead of Drew overall, I believe Drew coming off the title just three years ago lets him get the Bears just past Auburn before falling to Kentucky.

And that is our last bracket for your consideration in 2024.

 

Rnk	Team	Coach	Best	Ranked based on best runs or at least almost winning R1
1	Kentucky	John Calipari	1 - Champ	KY 2012 title; only he and Pitino have led 3 schools ot Final 4
2	Kansas	Bill Self	1 - Champ	National titles in 2008 and 2022.
3	Michigan St.	Tom Izzo	1 - Champ	Nat'l title 1979 and last title for any Big Ten team in 2000
4	Connecticut	Dan Hurley	1 - Champ	Nat'l title 2023 domination, all double digit wins.
5	Oregon	Dana Altman	4 - Final 4	2017 Final 4, 2016 Elite 8, three Sweet 16s
6	Auburn	Bruce Pearl	4 - Final 4	Tough call 2019 Final 4; low ranked teams Sweet 16 (Milwaukee 2005) and Elite 8 (TN 2010 for 3rd Sweet 16.
7	Baylor	Scott Drew	1 - Champ	National title 2021
8	Virginia	Tony Bennett	1 - Champ	National title 2019.
9	Gonzaga	Mark Few	2 - 2nd	National Runner-up 2017 and 2021.
10	San Diego St.	Brian Dutcher	2 - 2nd	Stunning National Runner-up 2023.
11	North Carolina	Hubert Davis	2 - 2nd	National Runner-up in first season 2022.
12	Texas A&M	Buzz Williams	8 - Elite	Elite 8 Marquette 2013 for 3rd straight Sweet 16, then Sweet 16 Va Tech 2019.
13	Houston	Kelvin Sampson	4 - Final	OK Final Four 2002, Houston 2021.
14	Purdue	Matt Painter	8 - Elite	2019 Elite 8, Suite 16s 2022, 2018, 2017, 2010, 2019
15	Florida Atlantic	Dusty May	4 - Final	Stunning Final 4 in 2023
16	Marquette	Shaka Smart	4 - Final	Stunning VCU Final 4 in 2010
17	Nevada	Steve Alford	16 - Sweet	Sweet 16s SW MZ St 1999, UCLA 2014, 2015, 2017
18	TCU	Jamie Dixon	8 - Elite 8	Pittsburgh 2009, Sweet 16s 2007 and 2004
19	Creighton	Greg McDermott	8 - Elite 8	Elite 8 in 2023
20	Tennessee	Rick Barnes	8 - Elite 8	Texas 2008 Elite 8
21	Texas	Rodney Terry	8 - Elite 8	Texas 2023 Elite 8
22	Long Beach St.	Dan Monson	8 - Elite 8	Gonzaga 1999 Elite 8
23	Akron	John Groce	8 - Elite 8	Sweet 16 shocking Ohio 2012
24	Illinois	Brad Underwood	32- win	2022, 2021, Stephen F Austin 2014, 2016
25	Alabama	Nate Oats	16 - Sw16	Sweet 16s in 2021 and 2023
26	Duke	Jon Scheyer	32- win	1st year 2023 crushed Oral Roberts
27	Wisconsin	Greg Gard	16 - Sw16	Sweet 16s first 2 seasons 2016, 2017
28	Iowa St.	T.J. Otzelberger	16 - Sw16	Shocking Sweet 16 in 2022
29	Arizona	Tommy Lloyd	16 - Sw16	Sweet 16 in 1st season 2022
30	McNeese St.	Will Wade	16 - Sw16	Sweet 16 LSU 2019
31	Clemson	Brad Brownell	16 - Sw16	Sweet 16 in 2018
32	Nebraska	Fred Hoiberg	16 - Sw16	Sweet 16 in 2014
33	Saint Mary's	Randy Bennett	16 - Sw16	Sweet 16 2010
34	Northwestern	Chris Collins	32- win	Won 1st round both NCAAs - 2017 & 2022
35	Colorado	Tad Boyle	32- win	on 1st round in 2012 and 2021
36	Yale	James Jones	32- win	Won first round in 2016
37	Dayton	Anthony Grant	32- win	VCU won 1st round in 2007
38	Drake	Darian DeVries	32- win	won first round in 2021
39	Mississippi St.	Chris Jans	32- win	won first round with New Mexico State 2022
40	Texas Tech	Grant McCasland	32- win	North Texas won first round 2021
41	New Mexico	Richard Pitino	32- win	Minnesota won first round 2019
42	UAB	Andy Kennedy	32- win	Mississippi won first round 2013
43	N.C. St.	Kevin Keatts	64 -close	NC-Wilmington 2016 almost stunned Duke, 85-93, then 2017 almost stunned Uva 71-76, NC State 2023 led Creighton 2nd half
44	Vermont	John Becker	64 - close	In 2022 almost stunned Arkansas, 71-75, in 2019 almost stunned FSU 69-76,
45	Colgate	Matt Langel	64 - close	in 2022 came close vs Wisconsin 60-67, in 2019 lost to TN 70-77
46	Charleston	Pat Kelsey	64 - close	in 2022 almost stunned Nat's runner-up SD State 57-63; with Winthrop 2021 held Nova to 63-73 and 2017 held Butler to 64-76
47	Grand Canyon	Bryce Drew	64 - close	for Valpo in 2015 almost stunned Maryland 62-65, and respectable 2013 loss to Michigan St. 54-65
48	Florida	Todd Golden	64 - close	for San Francisco in 2022 took Murray St. to overtime, 87-92
49	Boise St.	Leon Rice	64 - close	in 2023 lost 67-75 to Northwestern, and 2022 lost to Memphis 53-64
50	Oakland	Greg Kampe	64 - close	in 2011 almost stunned Texas 81-85,
51	South Dakota St.	Eric Henderson	64 - close	in 2022 played Providence close, 57-66
52	South Carolina	Lamont Paris	64 - close	for Chattanooga 2022 lost heartbreak to Illinois 53-54
53	Duquesne	Keith Dambrot	64 - close	Akron 2009 lost 64-77 to Gonzaga
54	Utah St.	Danny Sprinkle	64 - Lost	for Montana St in 2023 lost to K-State 65-77
55	BYU	Mark Pope	64 - Lost	in 2021 lost to UCLA 62-73
56	Colorado St.	Niko Medved	64 - Lost	in 2022 lost to Michigan 63-75
57	W.Kentucky	Steve Lutz	64 - Lost	for Texas A&M-CC in 2022 won playin then lost to Alabama 75-96
58	Morehead St.	Preston Spradlin	64 -Crush	in 2021 lost ot West Virginia 67-84
59	Longwood	Griff Aldrich	64 -Crush	in 2022 lost to Tennessee 56-88
60	Howard	Kenny Blakeney	64 -Crush	in 2023 lost 68-96 to Kansas
61	Montana St.	Matt Logie	64 - Debut	1st season, 1st appearance
62	Wagner	Donald Copeland	64 - Debut	2nd season, 1st appearance
63	Samford	Bucky McMillan	64 - Debut	4th season, 1st appearance
64	Grambling	Donte Jackson	64 - Debut	7th season, 1st appearance
65	Saint Peter's	Bashir Mason	64 - Debut	11th season at 2 schools, 1st appearance
66	James Madison	Mark Byington	64 - Debut	11th season at 2 schools, 1st appearance
67	Stetson	Donnie Jones	64 - Debut	13th season at 3 schools, 1st appearance
68	Washington St.	Kyle Smith	64 - Debut	14th season at 3 schools, 1st appearance