RIP - Least possible Hop Count

If the network was directly connected, rip would never be used to reach it, because it is directly connected. Therefore, you could say that RIP has a minimum hop count of one.

Maybe....

yes , Gordon Freeman is right . when two networks are connected direclty ,routers will not use any routing protocols (eigrp,igrp,ospf etc.,) even though you configured it correctly .

The reason is here ,

For direlty connected networks Administrative distance is '0'
For 'RIP' protocol Administartive distance is '120'

Routers will use the least administrative distance to route the packets . so RIP will not be used here.

--Jaffer