You Shouldn’t Want Brad Underwood Because of His NCAA Tournament Success

March is overrated. Fun as hell. But overrated.

Stephen F. Austin is favored over No. 6 seed Notre Dame on Sunday. Stephen F. Austin, need I remind you, is a No. 14 seed. A No. 14 seed favored over a Power 5 team and top 24 team in the tournament (presumably). What a world.

And Stephen F. Austin’s coach Brad Underwood is the subject of many rumors and chatter for the newly-opened Oklahoma State head coaching position. His team was admittedly great against West Virginia. Underwood dismantled his old boss Bob Huggins and the Lumberjack tore apart one of the best teams in the Big 12 all year. Compelling stuff, right?

I’m not convinced.

Brad Underwood is a great candidate for the Oklahoma State position — maybe the leading candidate — but I don’t really care what he does in March. So much of what happens in March is what matchup you get, what breaks you catch and whether somebody gets hot in a 40-minute game. So much of that is so random. There are so many variables that affect games in March.

The reason you should want Brad Underwood is because he’s lost 13 games in three seasons. Travis Ford lost more than that in the Big 12 this year. You should want Brad Underwood because his three KenPom finishes in his three years as a head coach have been 57-40-24 in that order.

You should want Brad Underwood for this reason:

How’s this for context: With SFA’s win tonight, Brad Underwood tied Brad Stevens’ record for most Ws in 3 seasons to start a career (89).

— Matt Norlander (@MattNorlander) March 19, 2016

College basketball seasons are long, arduous things. March is so, so short. In the blink of an eye, that moment’s gone (I’ll be here all month). It’s more impressive to go to three straight Dances than it is to win three games when you get there. It just is.

So don’t get carried away if SFA beats Notre Dame on Saturday. Get carried away because 90 wins in three seasons is outrageously good. Get carried away because Underwood took over a successful program and made it even better than it already was. That’s tough to do, but he’s been pretty incredible at it so far.

Get carried away not if SFA beats Notre Dame but because SFA is good enough to be favored over them to begin with.