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:
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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