The Top March Madness Coaches of All Time

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This year’s Final Four had three of college basketball’s living legends presiding over their respective sidelines. Each time the ides of March roll around, Duke’s Mike Krzyzewski, Michigan State’s Tom Izzo, and Kentucky’s John Calipari all expect to return to their campuses three weeks later with National Championship trophies and freshly cut nets in tow. There’s little that they haven’t accomplished in this game. Those three men have a combined 25 Final Four appearances and seven national titles (including the latest from Coach K and Duke in this year's iteration of the tournament). Aside from the players, these coaches are amongst the biggest stars of the sport, holding exceptional amounts of power within their universities. In addition to Coach K, Coach Izzo, and Coach Cal, names like Billy Donovan, Rick Pitino, and a handful of others comprise The Top March Madness Coaches of All Time.

12.Billy Donovan

Final Fours: 4 (2000, 2006, 2007, 2014)

Championships: 2 (2006, 2007)

Rick Pitino’s coaching tree extends upward and outward, with Billy Donovan perched atop the whole white oak. Tubby Smith, Jeff Van Gundy, Jim O’Brien, Herb Sendek, and Frank Vogel are all great, but they all have careers that fall beneath what Donovan has achieved at Florida. Pre-Donovan, the Florida men’s basketball team (Est. 1905) had reached just one Final Four.

Since taking over in 1996, Donovan’s Gators have made the NCAA Tournament 14 times, winning 35 of their games, and back-to-back titles with the same starting lineup—something that’s never been done before. In today’s one-and-done era of college basketball, repeating what Donovan did is a shade left of impossible.

Hired to run Florida’s squad as a 30-year-old, only seven years after getting into coaching, Donovan is already ranked 14th in tournament wins. Florida missed the tournament this season for only the third time under Donovan, and although the team hasn’t reeled in a player better than Bradley Beal since he was drafted in 2012, betting against Donovan to engineer a quick rebuild would be foolish.

11.Bob Knight

Final Fours: 5 (1973, 1976, 1981, 1987, 1992)

Championships: 3 (1976, 1981, 1987)

Bob Knight’s head-coaching career in college basketball spanned over four decades, allowing him to go 34 years between his first and last NCAA Tournament bid. At Indiana, he made 24 bids alone and, after taking Texas Tech into March in 2007, he broke the record for appearances.

He’s a Hoosier basketball deity for his heaps of wins, but also for maintaining strong graduation rates and running clean programs. Scandal never hit Knight’s teams, but his demonstrative on-court personality and combativeness against the media has him painted on an ogre’s facade—a nod to the grumpy, driven, demanding coach that he used to be. The guy got the best results, and if he didn’t, well, you’d have to watch out for flying furniture.

10.John Calipari

Final Fours: 6 (1996, 2008, 2011, 2012, 2014, 2015)

Championships: 1 (2012)

Coach Cal has been a head coach since 1988, and has had stops as a coach in the NBA, but his major achievements have come mostly during this past decade. Since returning to college coaching with Memphis in 2000, Calipari’s rattled off nine Sweet 16 appearances and has made the Final Four four of the last five years. Firmly entrenched at Kentucky, Calipari’s been able to make the most of the system to ensure that his team will be restocked with freshmen talent every single season. Essentially, he’s created a one-year (you’re more than welcome to stay all four though!) prep-to-pro layover for future NBA Draft picks.

For all his tournament success, however, he’s one-for-three in title games, which hurts his ranking here.

9.Jim Calhoun

Final Fours: 4 (1999, 2004, 2009, 2011)

Championships: 3 (1999, 2004, 2011)

The UConn Huskies owe a great deal to their fiery, former head coach. He took a school located in some backwoods farmland and, through basketball, made the small Storrs, Conn. school a topic of national interest.

After a 9-19 honeymoon season, John Calhoun’s 1988 UConn squad improved to 20 regular season wins and an eventual NIT championship. The school’s basketball program hasn’t looked back since. Calhoun won 50 NCAA Tournament games during his tenure, impressively winning three titles from his four Final Four appearances. His postseason efficiency won’t be matched at UConn anytime soon, but the school has won one title since his departure. Because of Calhoun, UConn will always be able to convince some of the best amateur basketball players to ship themselves up to middle-of-nowhere Connecticut, knowing that they’re going to be winners in UConn colors.

8.Denny Crum

Final Fours: 6 (1972, 1975, 1980, 1982, 1983, 1986)

Championships: 2 (1980, 1986)

The maker of Louisville Cardinals basketball, Denny Crum took his team to 23 NCAA Tournaments in 30 seasons. He came up through Coach John Wooden, styling his team around tight man-to-man defense and an offense revolving around superstar greats like Pervis Ellison and Felton Spencer.

His Louisville teams ran through the early 1980s, defeating UCLA and Duke for national titles. Despite the titles, Crum’s accomplishments haven’t aged particularly well. When the NCAA introduced the three-point line to the tournament after his 1986 victory, Crum’s interior-heavy tactics didn’t evolve enough. After 1986, he didn’t return to the Final Four again.

7.Adolph Rupp

Final Fours: 6 (1942, 1948, 1949, 1951, 1958, 1966)

Championships: 4 (1948, 1949, 1951, 1958)

Before John Wooden’s time at UCLA, Adolph Rupp was college basketball’s premier coaching idol. The "Baron of the Bluegrass” coached Kentucky from 1930 to 1972, winning 80.2 percent of his games. Long before Coach Cal’s own Kentucky dynasty was built, there were Rupp’s mid-century Wildcats. Under Rupp, Kentucky became known for two things: Rupp’s brown suits (he never wore a suit in any other color due to superstition) and winning more than everyone else.

6.Roy Williams

Final Fours: 7 (1991, 1993, 2002, 2003, 2005, 2008, 2009)

Championships: 2 (2005, 2009)

The size of the NCAA Tournament field plus the single-game elimination style format makes the whole competition tenuous. The best teams rise above the fray to cut down nets, but for ages, Roy Williams’ teams never did so. His collegiate head-coaching career began in 1988, and for 17 years, Williams won just about everything but a national title.

Williams was historically regarded as the best coach in college basketball history to never win a title, that is, until his fifth run to the Final Four, where he finally managed to get over the hump and win one. A second championship soon followed in 2009 (a 2007 induction into the basketball Hall of Fame got sandwiched in between that), making him just the 12th head coach to win multiple tournaments during that time.

5.Rick Pitino

Final Fours: 7 (1987, 1993, 1996, 1997, 2005, 2012, 2013)

Championships: 2 (1996, 2013)

The top college basketball coaches often stay at one program, looking to institutionalize themselves at a school to grow their power. Pitino can do all that, but he’s chosen a more adventurous path. In addition to coaching the Celtics and Knicks for brief stints, Pitino’s gone out and built elite teams at three separate schools: Providence, Kentucky, and Louisville. He’s the only men’s basketball coach to go to the Final Four with three different schools and win titles with two different ones. Pitino has reigned over college basketball for four decades now and, given the size of his coaching tree, his influence in the game will be perpetuated long after he retires.

4.Tom Izzo

Final Fours: 7 (1999, 2000, 2001, 2005, 2009, 2010, 2015)

Championships: 1 (2000)

It’s been 15 years since Tom Izzo won a championship, and yet, every season, his Michigan State teams, no matter how wishy-washy they are during the regular season, are always Final Four threats. Izzo has made the tourney 18 years in a row. Based on expected finishes according to seeding, Izzo’s Spartans far and away exceed projections on a regular basis.

According to FiveThirtyEight, Izzo has captured just over 14 more wins than his teams should’ve had—the highest amount for all modern coaches. Every March, it seems like his teams power up to new levels, making them a quality bracket-busting play for us fans. Basically, if you think Michigan State is going to lose in round “X,” go against your gut and pencil them in to advance a round further. Don’t bet against Izzo, yo.

3.Dean Smith

Final Fours: 11 (1967, 1968, 1969, 1972, 1977, 1981, 1982, 1991, 1993, 1995, 1997)

Championships: 2 (1982, 1993)

Dean Smith coached Michael Jordan and won a championship with him. Phil Jackson is the only other person who can say that. MJ held Coach Smith with such reverence that when Smith recently passed away, he said, “Other than my parents, no one had a bigger influence on my life than Coach Smith.” Those are heavy words from the game’s GOAT.

Smith’s dominance spanned from 1961 to 1997, and until this year, he was second on the all-time list of Final Four appearances by a coach (Coach K has overtaken him now with 12 Final Fours). He is sorely missed in the world of basketball, but his cavalcade of accomplishments ensure that, in the record books/Wikipedia archives, Smith’s stature will always loom large.

2.Mike Krzyzewski

Final Fours: 12 (1986, 1988, 1989, 1990, 1991, 1992, 1994, 1999, 2001, 2004, 2010, 2015)

Championships: 5 (1991, 1992, 2001, 2010, 2015)

Coach K’s early years at Duke were rough, but by the mid-1980s, the former Army coach and West Point graduate had molded Duke into what they are today. Mike Krzyzewski is the most envied coach in college basketball history (he can thank the Christian Laettner-defined optics of his program for that), but he’ll gladly take on that burden every March if it means ANOTHER Final Four appearance for Duke. Much like he did this year, leading his young squad through the field of 68, straight into the National Championship game. Following a grind-it-out win against Wisconsin, Coach K racked up his fifth NCAA DI title and further secured his legacy in the process.

Only because no coach will ever come close to winning what the No. 1 coach on this list has won, it’s reasonable to declare Coach K as the greatest college basketball coach of the modern era—certainly the best since a certain UCLA coach retired in 1975. For the purposes of this list, however, Coach K rings in at No. 2.

1.John Wooden

Final Fours: 12 (1962, 1964, 1965, 1967, 1968, 1969, 1970, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1974, 1975)

Championships: 10 (1964, 1965, 1967, 1968, 1969, 1970, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975)

Repeating John Wooden’s stats is an exercise in self-astonishment: Wooden won the national championship in 83 percent of his Final Four appearances. Wow. Wooden won seven championships in 12 years and boasts an 88-game winning streak. Again, wow. These are resume bullet points that will never be replicated. Modern American sports are far too saturated with schools and teams, which helps make championship crowning more democratic and virtually ensures that the dynastic powers wielded by John Wooden can never be achieved again.