How Sweet It Is! Personal Items on NCAA Tournament Sweet 16 Coaches

There is a tendency to overindulge at an all-you-can-eat buffet. Anyone digesting the following assortment of incisive facts on the remaining 16 NCAA Tournament coaches should find that variety is the spice of CollegeHoopedia's smorgasbord. Remember: If a morsel isn't appetizing, don't be a glutton for punishment in trying to comprehend what makes the Sweet 16 coaching community tick. Just proceed directly to the next tidbit. Sooner or later, there's bound to be a factoid you can savor en route to the Final Four in New Orleans.

BAYLOR: Scott Drew served as coach of an Athletes In Action (AIA) squad that toured Croatia and Bosnia in the summer of 1997.

CINCINNATI: Mick Cronin's father, Harold "Hep" Cronin, compiled more than 400 victories as a high school coach in the greater Cincinnati area.

FLORIDA: Billy Donovan, a third-round pick from Providence in the 1987 NBA draft by the Utah Jazz, was selected ahead of Yale center Chris Dudley. Donovan averaged 2.8 points per game his first two seasons with the Friars before averaging 18 ppg his last two campaigns. Donovan's teammates with the New York Knicks in 1987-88 included eventual Division I head coaches Sidney Green and Louis Orr. His high school coach (St. Agnes, N.Y.), Frank Morris, coached former Gators starting guard Teddy Dupay in high school (Ft. Myers, Fla.). Donovan was an assistant with Herb Sendek, Tubby Smith and Ralph Willard on Rick Pitino's coaching staff at Kentucky in 1989-90 after working with an investment banking firm on Wall Street. Donovan, who led the Big East Conference in steals in 1986-87 with 1.9 per game, is the son of William Donovan, Boston College's captain as a senior in 1961-62.

INDIANA: Tom Crean, a brother-in-law of San Francisco 49ers coach Jim Harbaugh, coached at Alma College and Mount Pleasant High School while he was an undergraduate student at Central Michigan.

KANSAS: Bill Self served as an assistant on the Big Eight Conference coaching staffs of Larry Brown (Kansas) and Eddie Sutton (Oklahoma State). Self, an Oklahoma State alumnus, played in the Big Eight against Maryland coach Mark Turgeon (Kansas) and top two NBA draft picks Steve Stipanovich (2nd selection overall in 1983/attended Missouri), Wayman Tisdale (2nd in 1985/Oklahoma) and Danny Manning (1st in 1988/Kansas). Self, Oklahoma's High School Player of the Year over Tisdale in 1980-81, directed Oral Roberts to the nation's best winning percentage among independent schools in 1996 (18-9) and 1997 (21-7).

KENTUCKY: John Calipari lettered two years for UNC Wilmington before transferring to Clarion (PA) State.

LOUISVILLE: Rick Pitino averaged more assists per game (5.6) than points (4.7) in his two-year playing career with Massachusetts. Al Skinner, Boston College's all-time winningest coach, was captain of the 1973-74 UMass squad that was led in assists by Pitino for the second straight season.

MARQUETTE: Brent "Buzz" Williams received his nickname while attending Navarro College, where he "buzzed" around the junior college basketball team so often the coach issued him the moniker.

MICHIGAN STATE: Tom Izzo was a teammate in high school (Iron Mountain, Mich.) and college (Northern Michigan) of former Detroit Lions coach Steve Mariucci. Izzo, a running back, and Mariucci, a quarterback, were the best men in each others' weddings.

NORTH CAROLINA: Roy Williams' son, Scott, was a backup guard with the Tar Heels. The all-time winningest coach through 23 seasons could go winless the next two years and still boast more victories than any mentor through his first 25 campaigns.

NORTH CAROLINA STATE: Mark Gottfried led Alabama in most three-point field goals with 81 in 1986-87, the first year the rule was introduced nationwide. That squad is one of only three teams in NCAA history with five active players scoring over 1,000 points in their college careers (teammates included Derrick McKey, Terry Coner, Jim Farmer and James Jackson). Mark's father, Joe, coached Southern Illinois for three seasons from 1978-79 through 1980-81 before becoming athletic director at South Alabama. Mark's uncle, Mike, a national game-day announcer for ESPN, was head football coach with Murray State, Cincinnati, Kansas and Pittsburgh.

OHIO UNIVERSITY: John Groce played in high school at Danville, Ind., under Todd Lickliter, who went on to coach Butler and Iowa.

OHIO STATE: Thad Matta, a transfer from Southern Illinois, led Butler in assists and three-point field-goal percentage in 1987-88 and free-throw percentage in 1988-89. He was involved in postseason play in each of his six seasons as a full-time assistant coach from 1994-95 through 1999-2000 with Miami (Ohio), Western Carolina and Butler. At first glance, Matta is a native of the ultimate smaller Illinois basketball community named Hoopeston. However, the town rhymes with "up" not "hoop."

SYRACUSE: Jim Boeheim, an avid golfer, served as varsity golf coach for the Orange from 1967 until the program was disbanded in 1973. He was an assistant basketball coach under Roy Danforth during that period. Boeheim, a three-year teammate of Syracuse All-American Dave Bing in the mid-1960s, played in the CBA for the Scranton Miners. On five occasions (1977-84-96-01-03), Boeheim guided the Orangemen to the Top 20 in a final AP poll after they were not ranked that high in the preseason.

WISCONSIN: Bo Ryan, who led Wisconsin-Platteville to four NCAA Division III championships in the 1990s, is one of seven coaches in history to capture four or more NCAA Tournament titles - joining UCLA's John Wooden, Kentucky's Adolph Rupp, Indiana's Bob Knight, Evansville's Arad McCutchan, North Park's Dan McCarrell and Cal State Bakersfield's Pat Douglass. Ryan was the winningest coach by percentage in the 1990s at any NCAA level (266-26, .928). He still holds a Wilkes College record with 18 field goals in a single game and was named conference baseball coach of the year at Racine in 1973-74. Ryan married coach Bill Cofield's secretary, Kelly, when he was an assistant with the Badgers. Ryan was a Badgers aide in 1979-80 when Dick Vitale, less than a month after being fired by the Detroit Pistons, made his ESPN debut as an analyst in a game at DePaul.

XAVIER: Chris Mack played for Athletes in Action in 1993 and in Europe in 1994. His wife, Christi, was Director of Basketball Operations for the Musketeers' women's basketball team from 2001 through 2003.

Naturally, there are varying degrees of success. NCAA Tournament coaches will need to draw upon all of their resources to motivate their clubs in postseason play. Following is a quick glance at the educational backgrounds of the "Sweet 16" mentors in this year's NCAA playoffs:

It's not a surprise to seasoned observers that a striking number of the remaining playoff coaches graduated from smaller colleges. From 1995 through 2000, five of the six NCAA Tournament championship coaches (Jim Calhoun, Jim Harrick, Tom Izzo, Lute Olson and Tubby Smith) graduated from obscure colleges with smaller enrollments. In fact, it is a rarity for a Final Four not to feature at least one coach who graduated from a non-Division I school.

John Calipari, aspiring to secure his first NCAA title with top-ranked Kentucky, graduated from Clarion (PA) State. He was one of four small-school graduates at last year's Final Four. Following is an alphabetical list of Calipari, Izzo and other "Sweet 16" mentors who worked their way up the ladder after graduating from a small school: