The madness of March is upon us. The NCAA tournament field of 68 teams (don't forget the "First Four"play-in games) has been revealed. If you're like me, you've entered into an office pool and have begun making predictions about who will advance to the Final Four and ultimately win the championship.
Everyone has their own way of filling out their brackets. Some choose to play it safe and stick with the higher seeds throughout most of the tournament. Others throw in a couple of upsets, particularly the ever popular 5 vs. 12 match-ups in round one... while some follow the odds makers predictions.
This year we thought we would have a little fun and score each head coach using the PROskore algorithm for measuring professional reputation. To determine each coaches PROskore we tweaked our algorithm a little to weigh Twitter* more heavily in how we measure social influence. Additionally, we awarded more professional reputation points to coaches who have had prior success in the tournament. Which leads us to this question:
"Does having strong social influence and professional reputation
predict tournament success?
predict tournament success?
We'll see. After scoring all 68 coaches (see below) and determining winners based on tournament seedings, the PROskore Final Four includes: John Calipari (University of Kentucky), Tom Izzo (Michigan State University), Bob Huggins (West Virginia University) and Bill Self (University of Kansas). Two of which are #1 seeds heading into the tourney (UK & MSU), while the others are seeded #2 (KU) and #10 (WVU) respectively.
Before revealing our winner, consider this: John Calipari has over 1 Million followers on Twitter. His next closest competitor has 67,000 (Billy Donovan - University of Florida). Calipari is just as dominant on Facebook with nearly 340,000 Fans. His closest competitor has 26,000 (Izzo). His blog (http://www.coachcal.com) is also one of the most read of any college coach regardless of sport. He (or his PR team at UK) are leveraging social media like no other.
On the professional front, Calipari did well enough to maintain the highest score, but was out scored professionally by the likes of Billy Donovan, Tom Izzo, Roy Williams, Jim Boeheim... all of whom generated the maximum number of points possible for having won championships in years past (Note: Calipari has not won a title). Some (like Donovan) received additional points for having won multiple titles.
Also worth mentioning are the low scores by perennial powerhouse coaches such as Roy Williams (UNC), Rick Barnes (TEX), Thad Matta (OSU). Although they earned points for professional reputation, they earned close to zero points for social media influence.
All that being said, PROskore predicts the Division I Men's Basketball champion will be:
Final Score:
Cats (Calipari) 90 - Jayhawks (Self) 64
Cats (Calipari) 90 - Jayhawks (Self) 64
- To see how each coach scored on Facebook and Twitter view our spreadsheet
- To view the PROskore of all of the coaches scroll down.
Let the Madness Begin...
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PROskore of all 64 Tournament Head Coaches
- John Calipari (UK) - 90
- Tom Izzo (MSU) - 80
- Mike Krzyzewski (DUKE) - 65
- Billy Donovan (UF) - 65
- Bill Self (KU) - 64
- Bob Huggins (WVU) - 60
- Tom Crean (IU) - 58
- Jim Boeheim (SYR) - 55
- Frank Martin (KSU) - 52
- Jim Beilein (MICH) - 52
- Jim Calhoun (UCONN) - 52
- Fred Hoiberg (ISU) - 50
- Rick Pitino (LOU) - 50
- Shaka Smart (VCU) - 50
- Ray McCallum (DET) - 49
- Mark Gottfried (NCST) 49
- Mike Brey (ND) - 44
- Chris Mack (XAV) - 43
- Mick Cronin (CIN) - 42
- Greg McDermott (CREI) - 41
- John Groce (OHIO) - 41
- Leonard Hamilton (FSU) - 40
- Roy Williams (UNC) - 40
- Dave Rice (UNLV) - 39
- Thad Matta (OSU) - 38
- Steve Prohm (MURR) - 37
- Mark Few (GONZ) - 35
- Rick Majerus (SLU) - 35
- Steve Alford (UNM) - 35
- Frank Haith (MIZZ) - 34
- Bo Ryan (WIS) - 33
- Scott Drew (BAY) - 32
- Matt Painter (PUR) - 32
- Wayne Tinkle (MONT) - 31
- Stan Heath (USF) - 31
- Tim Miles (CSU) - 30
- Dan Monson (LBSU) - 30
- Steve Fisher (SDSU) - 30
- Rick Barnes (TEX) - 30
- Dave Rose (BYU) - 29
- Bob McKillip (DAV) - 29
- Tommy Amaker (HARV) - 29
- Buzz WIlliams (MARQ) - 29
- Kevin Stallings (VAN) - 28
- Josh Pastner (MEM) - 27
- Tony Cardoza (TEM) - 27
- John Becker (UVM) - 27
- Anthony Grant (ALA) - 26
- John Thompson III (GTWN) - 26
- Rick Byrd (BEL) - 25
- Tad Boyle (COL) - 25
- Jimmy Patsos (LMD) - 25
- Murray Goodman (LEH) - 25
- Jim Ferry (LIU) - 25
- Marvin Menzies (NMSU) - 25
- Anthony Evans ((NORF) - 25
- Mark Schmidt (SBON) - 25
- Randy Bennett (SMC) - 25
- Eddie Biedenbach (UNCA) - 25
- Larry Eustachy (USM) - 25
- Tony Bennett (UVA) - 25
- Greg Marshall (WICH) - 25
- Ray Harper (WKU) - 25
- Tim Cluess (IONA) - 25
*Twitter is far and away the most popular social media platform used by NCAA coaches. Very few use Facebook while virtually none use LinkedIn.
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