On the Monday teleconference with the men's basketball Final Four coaches, the three who have never been closer to a Final Four than a seat in the stands said experience is overrated.
What else could they say? "We're scared to death but happy to be going."
On Thursday, Oregon Coach Dana Altman, Gonzaga Coach Mark Few and South Carolina Coach Frank Martin started to get more of an understanding of what it is like to be one of the focal points of this basketball extravaganza.
After a long news conference with the coach, there's the breakout -- where the coaches remain at the main podium and the five starters are taken to separate areas to meet with the media. The dressing rooms are open if anyone is interested in interviewing someone else.
That's just the start of it.
North Carolina Coach Roy Williams will win the news conference. He won't be as congenial as Martin, who has led the Gamecocks to their first Final Four appearance, but he'll be the one who's so relaxed he'll remind you of your favorite relative.
This is Uncle Roy's ninth Final Four appearance in 27 NCAA Tournaments. He's won it twice, been runner-up four times. He's made the Elite Eight another four times.
Williams, 66, has coached in 98 NCAA Tournament games and won 74, which is a .755 winning percentage. He is second on the all-time NCAA Tournament winning record list to archrival Mike Krzyzewski, who is 91-28.
This is the experience of the others:
Few, 54, has coached the second most NCAA Tournament games of the bunch -- 42 with a 25-17 record. The first year Williams coached in the NCAA Tournament, 1988-1989, Few was a year away from being named a graduate assistant at Gonzaga, the only place he's ever coached.
Altman, 58, needed the four wins this year to get to a 13-12 record during March Madness. He was in his first year as the head coach at Marshall when Williams made his first trip to the Big Dance. Altman was undefeated as Arkansas' head coach in the 18 hours he spent in Fayetteville. Good guy put in a bad situation, and he escaped.
Martin, 51, is making his fifth NCAA Tournament appearance, where he's 10-4 and made the Elite Eight in 2010. He was an assistant high school coach in Miami when Williams went to his first NCAA Tournament, and Martin was 11 years away from his first assistant college job.
Martin does win the best personal story for persistence. He asked his wife, Anya, out seven times before she said yes, and she was going to break the date but decided it was too late. It took a dozen roses to get a second date. They have been married 11 years and have three children.
Martin is the only coach who didn't have at least 30 victories this season.
The Gamecocks, a seven-point underdog, are 26-10 and beat teams seeded 2, 3, 4 and 10 to get here. That should make them ready for No. 1 seed Gonzaga. Plus, the SEC was underrated this season and is 11-4 in NCAA Tournament play.
The Zags, which they don't like to be called, are 36-1. They didn't have a tough regular-season schedule and beat seeds 4, 8, 11 and 16.
Oregon, a No. 3 seed, is 33-5 and tied for the regular-season championship in the Pac-12, which is 11-3 during March Madness. The Ducks beat seeds Nos. 1, 7, 11 and 14.
No. 1 seed North Carolina was lucky to beat Arkansas, but all teams need luck. The Tar Heels won the ACC, which went 9-8 during the Big Dance. North Carolina beat seeds 2, 4, 8 and 16.
Experience counts, and here are the picks: North Carolina 81-75 and South Carolina 75-68, with the Tar Heels taking it all on Monday night 79-70.
Sports on 03/31/2017