Cinderella criteria

There has been a multiple-part article on the Mid Major Madness website about what it takes to constitute a "David" among the Goliaths in the NCAA tournament. Author Matt Craig gives some interesting benchmarks for success:

"In this paper we’ve assembled a set of criteria the prospective school needs to follow: a coach who’s an outsider, players who are catalysts, an administration that supports the basketball program and a fearless attitude.

Though not black and white rules, we’ve found benchmarks for each aspect: the coach shouldn’t have played high level Division I basketball or be an assistant coach for a long time under a hall of famer, none of the players should average more than 16 points per game, the school shouldn’t have a football program, and the team should win close games to prove their clutch ability. The final question is whether these criteria can predict future mid-major runs to the Final Four." 

In other words, neither the coach nor the team should have an ego, and should be hungry. The team should not have a star who completely overshadows the rest of the team. And the team should have that playground sort of tough-mindedness.