Busting Brackets
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NCAA Tournament 2019: Ranking the Sweet 16 head coaches

By Joey Loose

DURHAM, NC - DECEMBER 01: Head coach Mike Krzyzewski of the Duke Blue Devils directs his team against the Stetson Hatters in the first half at Cameron Indoor Stadium on December 1, 2018 in Durham, North Carolina. (Photo by Lance King/Getty Images)
DURHAM, NC - DECEMBER 01: Head coach Mike Krzyzewski of the Duke Blue Devils directs his team against the Stetson Hatters in the first half at Cameron Indoor Stadium on December 1, 2018 in Durham, North Carolina. (Photo by Lance King/Getty Images) /
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COLUMBIA, SOUTH CAROLINA – MARCH 24: Tacko Fall #24 of the UCF Knights defends against Zion Williamson #1 of the Duke Blue Devils in the second round game of the 2019 NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament at Colonial Life Arena on March 24, 2019 in Columbia, South Carolina. (Photo by Streeter Lecka/Getty Images)
COLUMBIA, SOUTH CAROLINA – MARCH 24: Tacko Fall #24 of the UCF Knights defends against Zion Williamson #1 of the Duke Blue Devils in the second round game of the 2019 NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament at Colonial Life Arena on March 24, 2019 in Columbia, South Carolina. (Photo by Streeter Lecka/Getty Images) /

With an entire weekend of play completed, we’re down to 16 teams left in the NCAA Tournament. Let’s rank all of the remaining head coaches.

The first two rounds of the NCAA Tournament have been completed and we are down to just 16 teams remaining. After a full season of battle, these 16 are the teams that won a pair of Tournament games and are still alive in the second weekend of March Madness. They are almost certainly the greatest teams in college basketball this season, as we just completed an opening weekend with very few upsets. Fortunately, this sets us up for an amazing second weekend of action.

Duke survived UCF’s upset bid while teams like Auburn, Gonzaga, and Texas Tech made easy work of their early opponents. All of the Sweet 16 teams have been led here by incredible players coming together on the biggest stage. These teams are also all lead by some of the most talented basketball coaches in the nation.

Among the Sweet 16 teams left, only one of them is led by a coach making his first appearance in the second weekend of the Tournament. More than half of them have made Final Fours and most of them have decades of coaching experience already under their belt. The best and brightest coaching minds of the game are still here and it’s no surprise that they led their teams through the opening weekend.

We’re going to take a closer look at all 16 of these coaches while also attempting to rank them. These are not identical to the rankings of all 68 coaches from last week, as there have been slight fluctuations based on recent results. Veteran coaches dominate the remaining teams, but this isn’t an attempt to rank the programs that are left. The worst team left in the Dance could certainly have the best coach and vice versa. These coaches will once again be ranked off their entire body of work and not just this season, though, of course, there will be plenty of attention paid to their recent success.

As a reminder, these rankings are not absolute. Nothing says that a coach ranking near the bottom can’t quickly rise up a list of coach rankings in the coming seasons. These 16 coaches have all done fantastic work to put their programs just two wins away from the Final Four. Let’s get right into it and rank the head coaches of the Sweet Sixteen teams.

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