NEW YORK — As the most exciting time in college basketball begins, Jewish coaches are in the spotlight.
For much of the season, four coaches — Auburn’s Bruce Pearl, Duke’s Jon Scheyer, Florida’s Todd Golden and USC’s Lindsay Gottlieb — have been at or near the top of the game.
On March 16, all of them were rewarded with No. 1 seeds in the NCAA Division I men’s and women’s college basketball tournaments.
Each tournament has four regions, with 16 teams each. In this year’s men’s tournament, the top team in three of those four are led by a Jewish coach. The fourth No. 1 seed is Houston, whose coach is not Jewish.
Duke, which was also the top team in the AP’s final college basketball poll, is the No. 1 seed in the eastern region and is coached by Scheyer, who played professionally in Israel and has garnered support from Jews on campus.
Auburn, coached by Pearl, is the No. 1 seed in the southern region. Pearl is the founder of the Jewish Coaches Assn. and is an outspoken supporter of Israel. Auburn’s first round was slated for March 20.
Florida, coached by Golden, is No. 1 in the western region (regions often do not correspond with geography). Golden also played professionally in Israel as well as in the Maccabiah Games, coached by Pearl.
Earlier this year, he faced a Title IX investigation after multiple women accused him of sexual misconduct. The charges were dismissed when the office found Golden had not committed misconduct “within a university program or activity.”
In the women’s tournament, USC, coached by Gottlieb, is No. 1 in the Spokane 4 region. A New York, native, Gottlieb has already been inducted into the Jewish Sports Hall of Fame of Northern California.
March Madness will also see some Jewish players on the court. Among them is Danny Wolf, who plays for Michigan’s men’s team, the No. 5 seed in the South, and may enter the NBA draft after this season.
Another is Yarden Garzon, an Israeli who plays for Indiana, the No. 9 seed in the Birmingham 2 region in the women’s tournament.
Will a Jewish coach win it all? Quite possibly: Six out of the past seven men’s tournaments have been won by No. 1 seeds.
Of course, the most Jewish team in the college basketball postseason saw an early exit: The Yeshiva University Maccabees lost in the first round of the DIII tournament.
