UConn Also No. 1 Based on Experience (Guards and Coaches Who've Made Runs)

Another factor that can lead to a team having a big run is the experience of both the coach and the guards as teams are hit with tournament pressure. 

Often the most experienced back courts are lower level teams who do not have the NBA talent of bigger schools with some one-and-dones, so in many cases these ratings can be the opposite of the rankings I posted earlier based on how much NBA-level talent on each team. The scary thing about this tournament is that UConn has the most NBA-level talent AND is tied with Michigan State for the most experienced team.

I use two criteria for this.

The coaches' deepest NCAA run to date gets them a rating from 10 (has won a national title) to 0 (has never even made a tournament). My basic scale on this is "8" if they have made a Final 4, "6" if they have made an Elite 8, "4" if they have made a Sweet 16, "2" if they have won a tournament game. However I adjust up a point or so if they took a surprise team that far, or reached that level multiple times, and might take it down a point if they did it once but a long time ago or with a program that always makes it. The number under "Runs" by each coach is the number I gave them from 10 (best) down to "0" - might be a great coach but hasn't had a run yet to prove it.

The experience of the two guards, listed as starting Point Guard and Shooting Guard at www.kenpom.com for each team determines the second rating "Sr. Guards." A team with two senior guards is a 10, with a senior point guard but junior shooting guard is a 9, etc. all the way down to a 0 for a team starting two freshmen guards like Kentucky.

The overall experience rating is the average of the two. Kentucky has the two extremes with those two freshman guards giving them a "0," but coach John Calipari having won the national title to give them a 10 - so their average of the two is 5.0 and they rank right in the middle. Here are all 68 teams ranked in order.

 

Rnk	Team	Coach	Runs	Sr. Guards	Exp. Rating
1	Connecticut	Dan Hurley	10	10	10
2	Michigan State	Tom Izzo	10	10	10
3	Houston	Kelvin Sampson	9	10	9.5
4	Baylor	Scott Drew	10	9	9.5
5	San Diego State	Brian Dutcher	9	10	9.5
6	Creighton	Greg McDermott	8	10	9
7	Florida Atlantic	Dusty May	8	10	9
8	Marquette	Shaka Smart	8	9	8.5
9	Virginia	Tony Bennett	10	7	8.5
10	Kansas	Bill Self	10	6	8
11	TCU	Jamie Dixon	6	10	8
12	Texas A&M	Buzz Williams	8	8	8
13	Tennessee	Rick Barnes	7	8	7.5
14	Gonzaga	Mark Few	8	7	7.5
15	Texas	Rodney Terry	7	8	7.5
16	Akron	John Groce	6	9	7.5
17	Alabama	Nate Oats	4	10	7
18	Clemson	Brad Brownell	4	10	7
19	Purdue	Matt Painter	7	6	6.5
20	Auburn	Bruce Pearl	9	4	6.5
21	Northwestern	Chris Collins	3	10	6.5
22	Nevada	Steve Alford	3	10	6.5
23	McNeese State	Will Wade	4	9	6.5
24	Montana State	Matt Logie	3	10	6.5
25	North Carolina	Hubert Davis	8	4	6
26	Wisconsin	Greg Gard	5	7	6
27	N.C. State	Kevin Keatts	2	10	6
28	Long Beach State	Dan Monson	3	9	6
29	Iowa State	T.J. Otzelberger	5	6	5.5
30	Colorado	Tad Boyle	3	8	5.5
31	Duquesne	Keith Dambrot	1	10	5.5
32	Vermont	John Becker	2	9	5.5
33	Howard	Kenny Blakeney	1	10	5.5
34	Longwood	Griff Aldrich	1	10	5.5
35	Illinois	Brad Underwood	3	7	5
36	Kentucky	John Calipari	10	0	5
37	Saint Mary's	Randy Bennett	4	6	5
38	Dayton	Anthony Grant	2	8	5
39	Colorado State	Niko Medved	1	9	5
40	Oregon	Dana Altman	7	3	5
41	Grand Canyon	Bryce Drew	1	9	5
42	Yale	James Jones	2	8	5
43	Oakland	Greg Kampe	2	8	5
44	Grambling	Donte Jackson	1	9	5
45	Arizona	Tommy Lloyd	5	4	4.5
46	South Carolina	Lamont Paris	1	8	4.5
47	Texas Tech	Grant McCasland	2	7	4.5
48	Florida	Todd Golden	1	8	4.5
49	Morehead State	Preston Spradlin	1	8	4.5
50	South Dakota State	Eric Henderson	1	8	4.5
51	Saint Peter's	Bashir Mason	0	9	4.5
52	Western Kentucky	Steve Lutz	1	8	4.5
53	Stetson	Donnie Jones	0	9	4.5
54	Duke	Jon Scheyer	2	6	4
55	Mississippi State	Chris Jans	2	6	4
56	Nebraska	Fred Hoiberg	4	4	4
57	Utah State	Danny Sprinkle	1	7	4
58	New Mexico	Richard Pitino	2	6	4
59	UAB	Andy Kennedy	2	6	4
60	Charleston	Pat Kelsey	1	7	4
61	Wagner	Donald Copeland	2	6	4
62	BYU	Mark Pope	1	5	3
63	Drake	Darian DeVries	1	5	3
64	James Madison	Mark Byington	0	6	3
65	Boise State	Leon Rice	1	4	2.5
66	Samford	Bucky McMillan	0	4	2
67	Colgate	Matt Langel	1	3	2
68	Washington State	Kyle Smith	0	0	0