At this Sweet 16, the coaches supply the star power. We rank them 1-16

If the performance matches the coaching talent, then this Sweet 16 will be elite.

This NCAA Tournament didn’t give us much in the way of Cinderella. Instead, we’ll see a who’s who list of coaches from Power conferences this week. As good as players like Darius Acuff Jr. and Cameron Boozer are, the coaches supply the top star power in this March Madness.

Advertisement

RE-SEEDING THE SWEET 16: Separating the contenders from pretenders

Here’s my ranking of the Sweet 16 coaches, with the caveat there’s no true weak link on this list:

1 / 16

Men’s Sweet 16 players to watch during March Madness

How sweet it is. Sixteen teams remain in the March Madness 2026 tournament. Here are some top players and matchups to watch.
No. 11 Texas vs. No. 2 Purdue Texas: Matas Vokietaitis

1 / 16

Men’s Sweet 16 players to watch during March Madness

How sweet it is. Sixteen teams remain in the March Madness 2026 tournament. Here are some top players and matchups to watch.
No. 11 Texas vs. No. 2 Purdue Texas: Matas Vokietaitis

2 / 16

Men’s Sweet 16 players to watch during March Madness

No. 11 Texas vs. No. 2
Purdue Purdue: Braden Smith

3 / 16

Men’s Sweet 16 players to watch during March Madness

No. 9 Iowa vs. No. 4 Nebraska
Iowa: Bennett Stirtz

4 / 16

Men’s Sweet 16 players to watch during March Madness

No. 9 Iowa vs. No. 4 Nebraska
Nebraska: Pryce Sandfort

5 / 16

Men’s Sweet 16 players to watch during March Madness

No. 4 Arkansas vs. No. 1 Arizona
Arkansas: Darius Acuff Jr.

6 / 16

Men’s Sweet 16 players to watch during March Madness

No. 4 Arkansas vs. No. 1 Arizona
Arizona: Brayden Burries

7 / 16

Men’s Sweet 16 players to watch during March Madness

No. 3 Illinois vs. No. 2 Houston
Illinois: Keaton Wagler

8 / 16

Men’s Sweet 16 players to watch during March Madness

No. 3 Illinois vs. No. 2 Houston
Houston: Emanuel Sharp

9 / 16

Men’s Sweet 16 players to watch during March Madness

No. 5 St. John’s vs. No. 1 Duke
St. John’s: Zuby Ejiofor

10 / 16

Men’s Sweet 16 players to watch during March Madness

No. 5 St. John’s vs. No. 1 Duke
Duke: Cameron…

Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/articles/sweet-16-coaches-supply-star-091049093.html

Author :

Publish date : 2026-03-25 09:10:00

Copyright for syndicated content belongs to the linked Source.