The Final Four and the Four Questions
Commentary by Sanford D. Horn
April 2, 2025
Exactly one week from this Saturday night, on April 12, after sundown, Jewish communities around the globe will gather to usher in Pesach (Passover). During the Seder (literally means “Order,” dictating the order of the Pesach meal) we direct our attention to the Four Questions, the Four Sons, and the Four Cups of wine (among many other rituals). In asking those Four Questions, the youngest child will ask early in the Seder: "Why is this night different from all other nights?”
A similar question ought to be uttered this Saturday night (a little bit before sundown), in San Antonio, TX: Why is this NCAA Final Four different from all other Final Fours?
In a virtual statistical improbability, the Final Four, the crown jewel of the college basketball season, will feature three teams with Jewish head coaches - Auburn’s Bruce Pearl, Duke’s Jon Scheyer, and Florida’s Todd Golden. It’s an anomaly that for the first time since 2008 all four number one seeds reached the Final Four, also played in San Antonio’s Alamodome. Kansas, Memphis, North Carolina, and UCLA participated in the 2008 Final Four, with Kansas defeating Memphis for the title. This year’s title remains to be decided, until Monday, April 7.
Since the advent of the Final Four in 1939 (Oregon defeated THE Ohio State University), and no tournament held in 2020 due to Covid-19, prior to this year, in 85 Final Fours, four Jewish head coaches suited up for a Final Four. That’s four coaches coaching 10 Final Fours, out of 340 Final Four coaching opportunities, or 2.94 percent, a far cry from the 75 percent in this year’s Final Four. Pearl, currently 65, took his Auburn team to the Final Four in 2019 as the most recent Jewish head coach, to reach the “promised land.”
The other three Jewish head coaches to reach the Final Four are Larry Brown and Nat Holman, who each took home the top prize, as well as Harry Litwack whose season fell just shy of the title.
In 2019, and it still applies in 2025, Pearl said becoming the third Jewish head coach to win a national championship is notable. “It tells you what a great country we live in. I’m grateful for the religious freedom I have, to be a practicing Jew in the Christian community - in Auburn, AL. I can tell you down South it is so comfortable there because we share the same G-d. That doesn’t exist everywhere. We need to make sure that we do the best job we can as a Jewish man to represent and break down stereotypes while we maintain our identity,” continued Pearl. (USA Today 4/7/19)
In 2022, the same year Pearl took his team to Israel, The Algemeiner named Pearl one of 100 people positively influencing Jewish life. The trip included a visit to Yad Vashem World Holocaust Museum. Pearl noted, as almost all of his players are Christian, that some may wish to get Baptized in the Jordan, and they would also have the opportunity to pray at the Western Wall - a truly emotionally uplifting experience. Pearl comes by his link to Israel honestly. His grandparents escaped Ukraine and Russia, managing to make their way to what is, since 1948, called Israel in fleeing the Holocaust.
On campus Pearl involves himself with events at the Hillel during holidays, and even hosts a Chanukah party at his home - there’s only about 100 Jewish students attending Auburn out of an undergraduate population surpassing 24,000. Pearl is also the first president of the Jewish Coaches Association, which he co-founded in 2005.
Pearl’s Hebrew name is Mordechai, after Queen Esther’s uncle from the holiday of Purim. Like Mordechai, Pearl is proud of his Judaism and is outspoken regarding his support of Israel. Pearl bridges the list of Jewish head coaches as both past and present.
Not only did Nat Holman (1896-1995), a head coach from Final Fours past lead his City College of New York (CCNY) team to an NCAA championship in 1950, they also won the NIT (National Invitational Tournament) in the same year - the only time that has occurred. At present, and for many years now, the NIT and NCAA tournaments are played simultaneously. Holman’s CCNY teams only earned placement in the NCAA tournament twice, the other year being 1947 when that team also reached the Final Four, but did not win the title.
Although Holman played professionally until 1930, his tenure as head coach of CCNY began in 1919, and ran through 1951. He coached them again from 1954 through 1956, and again 1958 and 1959. Holman served as president of the US Committee of Sports for Israel for eight years. He earned induction into both the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame and the International Jewish Sports Hall of Fame in 1964 and 1979 respectively.
Larry Brown (1940- ) also took teams to two Final Fours - Kansas, in 1986 and 1988, winning it all in the latter of the two years. The 1988 team had a record of 27-11, with the 11 losses the most by a national champion. Brown also won an NBA title in 2004 as head coach of the Detroit Pistons - the only head coach to win both an NCAA and NBA title. (Brown’s 1980 Final Four appearance with UCLA in a championship game loss to Louisville had to be vacated due to ineligible players on the UCLA team.)
Brown earned induction into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2002, the National Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame in 2006, and the National Jewish Sports Hall of Fame and Museum in 1994. In addition to Kansas and UCLA, Brown coached at SMU on the collegiate level as well as 10 NBA teams.
Yet another head coach, Harry Litwack (1907-99) also took a team to two Final Fours. Litwack, who coached Temple University, his alma mater, from 1952-73, took the Owls to the Final Four in 1956 and 1958, but came up short. Litwack did, however, lead Temple to victory in the 1969 NIT. Litwack coached Team USA in the Maccabi Games in Israel, winning gold in 1957 and silver in 1973. Litwack earned induction into the Naismith Hall of Fame in 1976.
This year, Duke, like Temple under Litwack, is also coached by an alumnus - Jon Scheyer. Scheyer is the hand-picked successor of the legendary Coach K - Mike Krzyzewski, having served seven years as his assistant. Scheyer won national championships with Duke as a player in 2010 and as an assistant coach in 2015. As a player in 2010 Scheyer was a consensus All American. Scheyer, to date, is the only player in Duke history to record at least 2,000 points, 500 rebounds, 400 assists, 250 three-pointers, and 200 steals.
Now, at 37, Scheyer has taken Duke to their 18th Final Four in only his third season as head coach. To follow a Hall of Famer like Coach K does not always end well, yet thus far the transition appears to be seamless. Scheyer, a native of Northbrook, IL, earned induction into the National Jewish Sports Hall of Fame in 2006. His pro career, 2011-13 included the 2011-12 season with Maccabi Tel Aviv as a dual United States and Israeli citizen.
Florida’s head coach Todd Golden, 39, also played ball in Israel as part of the Maccabi Haifa team from 2008 through 2010 as a dual citizen of the United States and Israel. The Phoenix native played his college ball at Saint Mary’s College. Golden’s first head coaching post ran from 2019 through 2022 at the University of San Francisco and is completing his third year at the helm of the Gators. Prior to his head coaching stints, one of Golden’s assistant coaching jobs found him at Auburn from 2014 through 2016 under Pearl.
“I’m very proud of my Jewish identity, and not afraid to put that pride on full display even though there are many times where – because of antisemitism – it wouldn’t benefit me personally or professionally. I’m active politically, speaking out publicly on antisemitism, racism and other issues of intolerance. I take the words ‘never again’ very seriously,” said Pearl in an August 4, 2022 interview with The Jerusalem Post.
Whether Pearl’s Auburn Tigers, Scheyer’s Duke Blue Devils, or Golden’s Florida Gators win the 2025 NCAA basketball championship (or not, if Kelvin Sampson’s Houston Cougars wins) this year’s Final Four is a source of ethnic and religious pride, even to one whose alma mater, Maryland, lost to Florida in the Sweet 16. Enjoy the Final Four, and have a happy, healthy, meaningful Pesach.
Sanford D. Horn is a writer and educator living in Westfield, IN.
