LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- No Louisville. No Kentucky. No Indiana. No Bellarmine. No Western Kentucky. No Murray State.
No question this will be a men’s Sweet Sixteen NCAA Tournament weekend that will force you to make challenging decisions.
Are you for or against Mike Krzyzewski walking into retirement with the title at Duke? (I had to ask. The last two guys to retire after winning the title were Al McGuire at Marquette in 1977 and John Wooden at UCLA in 1975.)
Are you for or against Jay Wright of Villanova pulling even with Bob Knight (Indiana), Jim Calhoun (UConn) and Roy Williams (North Carolina) in the Three Championship Club?
Are you for or against coaches with local ties (Mick Cronin of UCLA, the former U of L assistant and Murray head man) or Kelvin Sampson (fired by IU in 2008) getting a first title?
While you make the call on those pressing questions, let’s look at the men’s Sweet Sixteen by the numbers:
1: Associated Press first-team all-Americans still chasing the title. It’s up to Kansas wing Ochai Agbaji to make the voters proud.
1: Regions where the top four seeds advanced. That would be the West, where top seed Gonzaga must face 4-seed Arkansas with 2-seed Duke playing 3-seed Texas Tech in the other semifinal.
2: Number of Sweet Sixteens teams Kentucky and Indiana defeated this season.
The Wildcats handled North Carolina by 29 and Kansas by 18. The Hoosiers defeated Purdue by three and Michigan by five.
Louisville did not defeat any Sweet Sixteen teams, although the Cards took North Carolina into overtime and were beaten by seven by Miami and nine by Duke.
2: First-year coaches. A round of applause for Hubert Davis of North Carolina and Tommy Lloyd of Arizona. They’re the only two true rookies still dribbling.
T.J. Otzelberger of Iowa State is in his first season in Ames, but this is his third head coaching stop. Mark Adams of Texas Tech is also a rookie at Texas Tech but he was the head coach at Texas Pan American for one season (1997).
Steve Fisher of Michigan, who scored in 1989, is the only coach to win the championship in his first season.
3: Coaches who have a championship. That would be Coach K; Bill Self of Kansas as well as Wright.
3: Schools that put their men’s and women’s programs in the Sweet Sixteen — Michigan, Iowa State and North Carolina.
4: Black head coaches. Juwan Howard (Michigan) returns for his second Sweet Sixteen and will be joined by Shaheen Holloway (Saint Peter’s); Ed Cooley (Providence) and Tar Heels’ alum Davis.
4: Teams that have rankings in the top 20 nationally in offensive and defensive efficiency, according to the numbers at Ken Pomeroy’s basketball analytics site.
According to Pomeroy’s numbers, 17 of the last 19 champions ranked in the top 20 in offensive and defensive efficiency.
The two exceptions were UConn in 2014, which ranked No. 39 on offense, and Baylor last season, when the Bears finished No. 22 on defense.
The Fab Four are Gonzaga, Arizona, Houston and UCLA.
7: Coaches with Final Four appearances. In addition to Coach K, Self and Wright, that list includes Sampson (Houston); Mark Few (Gonzaga); Cronin (UCLA) and Jim Larranaga of Miami, who scored with George Mason in 2006.
7: Top-20 teams in Pomeroy’s defensive efficiency to make the Sweet Sixteen. The biggest outliers are Purdue (No. 89), Michigan (No. 78) and Providence (No. 58).
11: Top-20 teams in Pomeroy’s offensive efficiency to make the Sweet Sixteen, a list that includes seven of the top-10 offenses.
The five offenses outside the top 20 are Providence (No. 32); Texas Tech (No. 46); Arkansas (No. 53); Iowa State (No. 158) and Saint Peter’s (No. 226)
15, 8/4: The seeds of the teams Purdue must defeat in Philadelphia to win the East Regional, a sweet path ahead for Matt Painter and the Boilermakers.
21: NCAA Tournament appearances by Few at Gonzaga without a national title.
22: Years since a Big Ten program has won the men’s NCAA title.
42: Lowest Ken Pomeroy’s power ranking on any Sweet Sixteen power conference program. That would be the Miami Hurricanes, who lost twice to Florida State and once to Central Florida State.
Saint Peter’s, which started the season ranked No. 171, improved its KenPom ranking from 117 to 102 by defeating Kentucky and Murray State.
44: Age of Otzelberger, the youngest coach in the field, by a year over Holloway.
56.4: Average age of the 16 remaining coaches.
75: Age of Krzyzewski, oldest coach in the field by three years over Larranaga. Either guy would supplant Calhoun as the oldest coach to win the title with four more victories.
Calhoun was 68 years, 10 months and 22 days old when he won his third and final title at UConn in 2011.
130: Duke’s national semifinal game with Texas Tech on Thursday in San Francisco will be Coach K’s 130th NCAA Tournament game.
That’s 24 more than second-place Roy Williams and 58 more than Self.
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