Best NCAA Tourney Coaches

An intrepid reader sent me a link to an interesting list of the top NCAA Tournament coaches of all time, ranked by winning percentage. To make the list, you have to have coached at least 20 games.
It’s no surprise that John Wooden is #1 and Coach K is #2. After that, it gets mildly surprising with Larry Brown, Rick Pitino and Tom Izzo followed by Roy Williams and Steve Fisher. Yes, Steve Fisher is the seventh best NCAA Tournament coach of all time, ahead of Jim Calhoun, Dean Smith and Adolph Rupp. I guess that proves that this measure isn’t perfect. Of course, I guess that also means that they didn’t take into account Michigan’s vacating those Fab Five Final Fours.


If it’s not too rude, I’m going to steal the table (again, I got it from here) and post it here:

Rank Coach, Schools (*=not active) Yrs. W-L Pct. Final
4 2 1
1 John Wooden*, UCLA 25 47-10 .825 12 10 10
2 Mike Krzyzewski, Duke 31 68-19 .782 10 7 3
3 Larry Brown*, (UCLA, Kansas) 7 19-6 .760 3 2 1
4 Rick Pitino, Louisville 20 31-10 .756 5 2 1
5 Tom Izzo, Michigan State 11 23-8 .742 4 1 1
6 Roy Williams, North Carolina 18 42-16 .724 5 3 1
7 Steve Fisher, San Diego State 16 20-8 .714 3 3 1
8 Jim Calhoun, Connecticut 34 41-17 .7069 2 2 2
9 Dean Smith*, North Carolina 36 65-27 .7065 11 5 2
10 Tubby Smith, Kentucky 15 28-12 .700 1 1 1
11 Billy Donovan, Florida 12 16-7 .696 2 2 1
T12 Joe B. Hall*, Kentucky 19 20-9 .690 3 2 1
T12 Al McGuire*, Marquette 20 20-9 .690 2 2 1
14 Hank Iba*, Oklahoma State 19 15-7 .682 4 3 2
15 Jerry Tarkanian*, (Long Beach St., UNLV, Fresno State) 31 38-18 .679 4 1 1
T16 Gary Williams, Maryland 28 26-13 .667 2 1 1
T16 Rollie Massimino*, (Villanova, UNLV, Cleveland State) 30 20-10 .667 1 1 1
T18 Bob Knight, Texas Tech 40 45-24 .652 5 3 3
T18 John Calipari, Memphis 14 15-8 .652 1 0 0
T18 Jim Valvano*, (Iona, North Carolina State) 19 15-8 .652 1 1 1
21 Denny Crum*, Louisville 30 42-23 .646 6 2 2
22 John Thompson*, Georgetown 27 34-19 .642 3 3 1
23 Frank McGuire*, (St. John’s, North Carolina, South Carolina) 30 14-8 .636 2 2 1
24 Nolan Richardson*, (Tulsa, Arkansas) 22 26-15 .634 3 2 1
25 Lute Olson, Arizona 33 46-27 .630 5 2 1
T26 Jim Boeheim, Syracuse 30 40-24 .625 3 3 1
T26 Adolph Rupp*, Kentucky 41 30-18 .625 6 5 4
T28 Tom Davis, Drake 31 18-11 .621 0 0 0
T28 Rick Majerus*, (Ball State, Utah) 19 18-11 .621 1 1 0
30 Bill
Self, Kansas
13 13-8 .619 0 0 0
T31 Eddie Sutton, Oklahoma State 36 39-26 .600 3 0 0
T31 Billy Tubbs, Lamar 30 18-12 .600 1 1 0
T31 Terry Holland*, (Davidson, Virginia) 19 15-10 .600 2 0 0
T31 Jud Heathcote*, Michigan State 24 15-10 .600 1 1 1
35 Guy Lewis*, Houston 30 26-18 .591 5 2 0
36 Bobby Cremins*, Georgia Tech 24 15-11 .577 1 0 0
37 John Chaney, Temple 34 23-17 .575 0 0 0
T38 Bob Huggins*, (Akron, Cincinnati) 24 20-15 .571 1 0 0
T38 Mike Montgomery*, Stanford 26 16-12 .571 1 0 0
40 Lon Kruger, UNLV 20 11-9 .550 1 0 0
T41 Jim Harrick*, (UCLA, Rhode Island, Georgia) 23 18-15 .545 1 1 1
T41 Tom Penders, Houston 31 12-10 .545 0 0 0
T41 Wimp Sanderson*, (Alabama, Arkansas-Little Rock) 17 12-10 .545 0 0 0
44 Gene Bartow*, (Memphis State, UCLA, Ala.-Birmingham) 34 14-12 .538 2 1 0
45 Lefty Driesell*, (Davidson, Maryland, Georgia State) 41 16-14 .533 0 0 0
46 Don Donoher*, Dayton 25 11-10 .524 1 1 0
47 Don Haskins*, UTEP 38 14-13 .519 1 1 1
48 Dale Brown*, LSU 25 15-14 .517 2 0 0
49 Gene Keady*, (Western Kentucky, Purdue) 27 19-18 .514 0 0 0
T50 Digger Phelps*, (Fordham, Notre Dame) 21 17-17 .500 1 0 0
T50 Rick Barnes, (Clemson, Texas) 18 14-14 .500 1 0 0
T50 Jack Gardner*, (Kansas State, Utah) 17 12-12 .500 4 1 0
T50 Johnny Orr*, (Michigan, Iowa State) 29 10-10 .500 1 0 0
54 Lou Henson*, (New Mexico State, Illinois) 42 19-20 .487 2 0 0
55 Kelvin Sampson, Oklahoma 21 11-12 .478 1 0 0
56 Ray Meyer*, DePaul 40 14-16 .467 2 0 0
57 Lou Carnesecca*, St. John’s 24 17-20 .459 1 0 0
58 Norm Stewart*, Missouri 38 12-16 .429 0 0 0

A few thoughts:

  • Keep in mind that many of the old school coaches, like Dean Smith, spent much of their career playing in smaller tournaments where wins were probably tougher to come by. There was no first round gimmee against McNeese St before the tournament expanded to 64 teams.
  • On the flip side, the tournament also used to be set up by regions, so John Wooden’s UCLA squads almost never played anyone of not until the Final Four. Of course, he won 10 titles our of 12 Final Four appearances, so maybe that didn’t matter.
  • Cheaters do prosper! The following coaches (or their programs, wink, wink) got busted for improprieties at some point: Larry Brown, Steve Fisher, Joe B. Hall, Jerry Tarkanian, Rollie Massimino, John Calipari, Jim Valvano, Denny Crum, Frank McGuire, Nolan Richardson, Adolph Rupp, Eddie Sutton, Jim Harrick, Wimp Sanderson, Lefty Driesell, Kelvin Sampson and Norm Stewart. And that’s just off the top of my head. I’m probably missing some (no, I don’t think the Roy Williams one counts).
  • Given how close he came to being NC State’s basketball coach, it’s interesting that John Calipari has the exact same record as Jim Valvano.
  • Best coach to never reach the Final Four? Tom Davis.
  • Best coach to never win a title? John Calipari.
  • Worst record to make a Final Four? Lou Carnesecca.
  • Worst record to win a title? Don Haskins.

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