The Most Respected Coaches in College Basketball
Find out our picks for the most acclaimed coaches in college basketball.
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College basketball provides possibly the most exciting month in sports. March Madness produces legendary flashes, extreme upsets, and monumental runs. Those moments might make for the best headlines, but in order to earn respect in college ball, it’s all about consistency and longevity. That’s why, in an environment polluted by one-and-done NBA hopefuls, the coaches are the rocks. Probably more than any other corner of sports, college basketball harbors loyal coaches. That is, if you’re good at what you do. So in what’s likely a golden age of coaching, let’s take a look at who has shaped the basketball youth with 10 of The Most Respected Coaches in College Basketball.
John Calipari
Only 21 wins remain before John Calipari passes the legendary John Wooden (who sits at 664) on the college basketball coaches career wins list. Wooden achieved that in 29 years, Calipari is only in his 24th season. Unlike some of the other greats, Caliper hasn’t spent his entire career at one school. Though many of his players have been one-and-dones (one of the biggest reasons why some people dislike him), he spent eight seasons at Massachusetts, nine seasons at Memphis, and is in his seventh season at Kentucky. He’s been successful everywhere he’s coached: at each stop his schools has been ranked No. 1 in the country under.
He’s only won one championship (2012), but he’s been in national title games, along with six Final Fours, eight Elite Eights, and 10 Sweet Sixteens. He was inducted into the Naimsith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame earlier this year. Never forget: a huge percentage of sports hatred stems from jealousy and teams being dominant.
Tom Izzo
He might have half as many wins as Mike Krzyzewski, but eight-time National Coach of the Year Mr. Tom Izzo has set his players up to go deep into the NCAA tournament—the part that really matters—close to every single year he’s been a head coach. After learning the craft as an assistant for Michigan State for 12 years, he’s been the head coach of the Spartans for the past two decades. He’s been in the NCAA tourney 18 straight years, and that includes 13 Sweet Sixteens, 9 Elites, 7 Final Fours, and a 2000 National Championship. If you’re a betting person, Izzo in the tournament is about as safe as it gets. The 60-year-old’s overall record is 507-199, and he doesn’t seem to be slowing down anytime soon. Not coincidentally, as of this writing, Michigan State is No. 1 in the AP poll and sitting at 12-0. And after all that, he’s still not in the Hall of Fame yet.
Mike Krzyzewski
Coach K is the all-time winningest coach in college basketball history and the only person who’s ever broken the 1,000-win barrier. He’s been coaching for 41 years (5 with Army, 36 with Duke), long enough to surpass his legendary mentor Bobby Knight. Under his watch, Duke has been a regular-season conference champion 12 times, a tournament champion 13 times, and K has 12 Final Fours under his belt. Five of those resulted in national championships (’91, ’92, ’01, ’10, and ’15). That’s why Duke has a sign designating where the students camp out before games that reads, “Krzyzewskiville.”
But the respect for Krzyzewski goes outside the bounds of university campuses. He’s also been leading an NBA roster for Team USA basketball from the time he was hired in 2005. Since then, he’s 75-1 and took Gold in ’08 and ’12, and won the ’10 World Championship and the ’14 World Cup. K is for King.
Rick Pitino
Pitino has been in his fair share of less-than-ideal headlines, but there’s no denying what he does as a coach is close to unmatched. During a run at Kentucky from ’90–’91 through ’96–’97, he never finished a season ranked lower than ninth on the AP poll. His teams have been in the Top 5 in 15 different seasons. He’s been in the Final Four for four straight decades, and he brought both Louisville and Kentucky (rivals, mind you) to the Final Four, at least, three times each. From that, he won two national championships, one for each squad. Had he not taken time to test the waters in the NBA with the Knicks and Celtics, he’d be a lock for 1,000 wins by now. He’s a living legend.
Roy Williams
Roy Williams has never had a losing season. In fact, the only time he dipped below 0.600 was the 2009–2010 season at North Carolina when the Tar Heels finished the season 20-17. How awful.
Before Bill Self took over Kansas, Williams was the one leading the way (the conference was still the Big 8 when he started). From the 1992–1993 season through 1996–1997, Kansas was ranked No. 1 in the country at some point during the year. Out of his 28 years coaching, his team has been No. 1 at some point for 12 different seasons.
At age 65, he’s been a regular-season conference champion 15 times, he’s seen seven Final Fours, and he’s won two national championships.
Bill Self
Self is one of the highest-paid college basketball coaches in the country at around $5 million and for good reason. His teams have played at consistently high levels for the past two decades. Self has coached at Oral Roberts, Tulsa, and Illinois, but his legacy will be firmly rooted in Kansas, where he’s been the captain since 2003. In that time, his record is an insane 359-79. His Jayhawks have been Big 12 regular season champions 12 years in a row, though they won the conference tournament only half of those years. He’s been Big 12 Coach of the Year six times, he went to the Final Four in 2008 and 2012 and took the cake in 2008. The most insane part might be that he’s accomplished all of this at only 52 years old. He already has 568 wins.
John Beilein
Just a little pup, 22-year-old John Beilein’s first basketball job was also his first head coaching job. He began at Newfane High School in New York. Since then, he’s held head coaching positions at every school he’s been a part of. His major school experience has been spread throughout Canisius, Richmond, West Virginia, and now Michigan. His record, 468-288, isn’t as impressive as some of the others on this list, but what he’s achieved most recently at WVU (remember Kevin Pittsnogle?!) and Michigan (a No. 1 ranking and a Final Four appearance in the 2012–2013 season) prove that this man is truly getting better and better each year he coaches. He got to major programs later in his career, and he’s making the most of it.
Sean Miller
Sean Miller is the youngest on this list, but his credentials don’t paint that picture. In the 11 years he’s been coaching (starting at Xavier and switching to Arizona in 2009), he’s been to six Sweet Sixteens and four Elite Eights. He’s been an A-10 or Pac-12 regular-season champion six times, and his team has been ranked in the Top 10 of the country on five separate occasions.
Mark Few
Mark Few has made it quite clear that you don’t have to be a major headline-making school to be respected. He’s more than earned his position as one of the best coaches in the league with one team: Gonzaga in the West Coast Conference. Few started in Spokane as a graduate assistant. He then moved into a real assistant position for nine years before becoming head coach for the 1999–2000 season. Since then, he’s won less than 25 games only twice, he’s won 90 percent of his conference games.
He’s made the NCAA tournament every single year he’s been a head coach, has made it to the Sweet Sixteen round five times, and had his best season ever last year by making it to the Elite Eight and finishing with a 35-3 record. Under his guidance, Gonzaga has produced NBA players like Kelly Olynyk, Austin Daye, Robert Sacre, Ronny Turiaf, Jeremy Pargo, and Adam Morrison.