With all this coach talk I took a glance at Big Rick’s wikipedia this morning. It was an eye opener. Utah went to the sweet 16 four times in eight seasons, from 1990-91 to 1997-98. Coach K has gone to the tournament twice in 9 years.
Rick went to the NCAA tournament 10 out of 15 seasons, which is impressive yes. But 3 of those years he left the season early due to health reason, bypass surgery and/or personal leave. In 89-90 he coached 6 games. In 2000-2001 he coached 1 game. In 03-04 he coached 20 games. So for the years he coached the entire season we went to the tournament 10 of 12. Yeah he had many strange issues, but we were regulars in the NCAA tournament and we were only in the lowly WAC and Mountain West conferences.
So Big Rick (RIP) went to the sweet 16 twice the amount of times K has tournament appearances. Interesting perspective, and that’s why I have such high standards for our basketball team. I was there for every home game Rick coached, and watched nearly every road game on TV.