look back at the the best coach in college basketball, a mount rushmore level coach (bill self)-
2005- 11th in final kenpom, 3 seed, one-and-done
2006- 8th, 4 seed, one and done
2010- 2nd, 1 seed, 33-2 record, lost to northern iowa in R2
2013- 8th, 1 seed, lost in S16
2014- 7th, 2 seed, lost in R2
2015- 12th, 2 seed, got their asses kicked by wichita state in R2
2019- 17th, 4 seed, got killed in R2
2023- 9th, 1 seed, lost in R2
bill self would make that short list of good tourney coaches, and even he underperforms on a regular basis, often wildly underperforming expectations. the rest of his tourney resume is pretty much outstanding, but even one of the all time great coaches/“good” tourney coaches finds himself clearly underperforming on a pretty regular basis. in this light i think that coaches like rick barnes, mark few, kelvin sampson, etc have been harshly judged for their “lack” of tourney success.