re: Is basketball hard to coach?

While it's possible to field decent teams with mediocre or subpar coaches, it doesn't mean it's easy to be a good coach. Even if there are a decent amount of teams you can beat with talent alone, when it comes time to start facing other talented teams, if your coaching staff can't make adjustments and substitute wisely, you're gonna have a bad time. Maybe you can make the tourney with meh coaching, but you're very unlikely to make it farther than the first weekend.