The way I look at it, coaches are way more important than the players from a betting perspective. Many coaches have been with the same team for many years and even decades. With players coming and going, it’s obvious that a coach’s system or the way they prepare for certain games does not change.

Now this is true over the course of a long college basketball season as coaches will prepare their teams differently in certain situations. Most games are played to win, but some are used as a tool by coaches experimenting with different rotations, using different defenses, playing up-tempo, slowing it down to a half-court game, and other stuff used within the game of games. But at this juncture, the Final Four, coaches have less of an effect on the outcome. The players decide who wins and who loses.

Let’s look at the coaches in this year’s Final Four.

Ben Howland may be the best college basketball coach in the country. This is the 3rd consecutive year he’s lead UCLA to the Final Four. Now some may argue that he’s not the best because he’s yet to win a championship, but don’t let that be your deciding factor. Howland can flat out coach, and the fact that he’s taken the Bruins to three straight Final Fours is amazing in and of itself, but considering he’s done it with 3 totally different teams makes it all the more impressive. The players have been different, but Howland’s system hasn’t changed, and it’s the reason why the Bruins are here again. It’s all about defense in LA, and that’s the bottom line. "I feel this is our best team and best chance to win the Final Four in the last three years," Howland said. “We were very good the past two years but got beat by a very special team in Florida." Under Howland, UCLA is 30-17-1 against the spread as an underdog since his arrival in 2003, and currently on a 22-8 underdog spread run over the last 4 years. That speaks volumes as to Howland’s ability to coach.

John Calipari also has Final Four experience, but not with Memphis. Calipari took Marcus Camby-led UMass to the Final Four way back in 1996. Many knock Calipari for various reasons, both deserved and undeserved. Basketball purists do not like his coaching style at all because of the style his teams play, but what choice does he have really? When you recruit long and athletic guys, you’re not going to get their best playing half-court basketball. Calipari allows them to play fast and furious, and considering they are 37-1 straight-up, it’s hard to challenge his approach. The one issue I have with Calipari is his ignorance when he’s asked about his team’s free throw shooting deficiencies. Calipari blows it off as if it is an irrelevant part of the game, but here in the Final Four, these games are often decided by free throw shooting. Memphis shoots just 60.7% from the line, and the fact that Calipari dismisses the relevance is pure ignorance on his part. He’s the ultimate player’s coach, and his kids pour their heart out for him. "I'm talking about, 'It's our time. It's our time,” Calipari said. "They gave us a tough road. We had to play Texas in Houston. But, still, this is our time. It's our time."

Roy Williams is another coach often criticized for his preferred style of play. Not in the mainstream media though as the Vitale’s and Packer’s of the world drool over him. You cannot take away his accomplishments in college basketball, but with the talent he gets at North Carolina and the talent he got at Kansas, he should be winning a ton of games every year. Tournament basketball is usually about solid, defensive, half-court teams. And that is something the Tar Heels are definitely not. Of the four remaining teams, North Carolina has the worst defense by a wide margin. Williams’ philosophy is to play helter-skelter basketball for 40 minutes, preferring to out-score the opposition instead of trying to make stops on the defensive end. It worked back in 2005 when Williams won the national title with NC, but that team actually had a very good defense to go along with their potent offense. That same mix is not there this year, and I’ll be very surprised if the Tar Heels cut down the nets on Monday. Williams will face his old team on Saturday: "I have the greatest love for a place that I gave my heart, my body and my soul for 15 years," he said. "I have no idea what my emotions are going to be.”

Bill Self may be the most underachieving coach in all of college basketball. Now don’t get me wrong, Self did amazing jobs turning around Oral Roberts and Tulsa, but his loaded teams at Illinois and now at Kansas continually came up short. Self’s teams habitually go out in the early rounds of the NCAA tournament because they always caught the smart, half-court team that forced Kansas to play in an unfamiliar way. But they’ve avoided those teams this year, so it’s of no surprise they are in San Antonio. And they only have one potential bad match-up remaining if they were to face UCLA in the championship game. When matched-up against other like-minded coaches, Self takes a back seat to no-one. “We’re not going to change who we are and play differently because Carolina plays fast. I think we play our best when we play fast. I think it will be a great game and obviously competitive with great athletes on the floor. We just need to be who we are.” Kansas has the best NBA prospects of the Final Four teams, and if they fail to get the big monkey off Self’s back this year, a championship may never be in his future.