by Kevin Flaherty for Inside the Red Raiders
As difficult as it is to win as a college basketball head coach, it’s that much tougher to carry that winning over a prolonged period of time. Any coach — well, OK, most coaches — can find some level of success by mining a star, or having an experienced roster come together.
But not every coach can continue winning once that star has moved on, or when they have to start all over with new players. And the kind of coaches who made this list — the winningest active coaches in Division I men’s college basketball — coached so long that they’ve often had to change systems themselves, or weather major changes to the recruiting process or to the game itself.
For the list, we looked only at active Division I coaches. The main coach this hurt, in terms of being left off, was Jim Calhoun. Calhoun ranks 10th on the all-time wins chart for men’s college basketball, but he’s currently plying his trade in Division III at Saint Joseph College in Connecticut. This may seem like an arbitrary cutoff — particularly when other coaches were given credit for their wins outside of Division I before they came up to college basketball’s top level — but we wanted to look at the coaches currently in Division I, all of whom could wind up reaching the NCAA Tournament in 2020-21.
So which current college basketball coaches have been able to stack up the most wins over their careers so far?
20. BRUCE PEARL, AUBURN — 587 WINS
What more is there to say about Bruce Pearl? He isn’t everyone’s cup of tea, he plays an up-tempo style that is fun to watch, and he wins. A lot. Pearl appears likely to join the 600-win club this season, the result of work he’s done at four different stops as a head coach. At each of those four programs, Pearl took the program further than it had ever gone before, or has gone since. That included a Division II national championship at Southern Indiana (the school’s only title) before moving into Division I and reaching a Sweet 16 with Milwaukee. An Elite Eight followed at Tennessee (the Vols’ only trip to the final eight) and when Pearl guided Auburn to the Final Four, it was the first time the Tigers ever got that far in the NCAA Tournament.
19. JAY WRIGHT, VILLANOVA — 593 WINS
Wright took over a struggling Hofstra team and guided the Flying Dutchmen first into the NIT, then twice to the NCAA Tournament before taking over at Villanova. And through three years with the Wildcats he had a sub-.500 league record. And then everything clicked, with Villanova reaching seven straight NCAA Tournaments, including an Elite Eight and a Final Four. But Wright entered the “greatest current coach” conversation later on in his tenure, winning the 2016 and 2018 national championships, with the latter team in particular drawing admirers for its ability to spread teams out and knock down outside shots. Wright hasn’t always performed in the NCAA Tournament; those two championships represent the only times he’s reached the Sweet 16 in the last 10 years. But it also means he’s one of just a few active coaches with multiple national titles.
18. MARK FEW, GONZAGA — 599 WINS
Few feels like he should be higher on this list, but he’s actually coached for fewer years than most, at 21 seasons. All of those were with the Bulldogs, whom Few transformed from one of the nation’s best mid-major programs — Gonzaga reached the Elite Eight in a Cinderella run when Few was an assistant coach — to one of the nation’s best programs regardless of conference. The Bulldogs won the West Coast Conference 19 times in his 21 seasons, have become a common contender for the No. 1 overall ranking in the polls and reached the 2017 national championship game. And Few doesn’t look like slowing down anytime soon; Gonzaga is a popular pick for the No. 1 team for 2020-21 right now.
17. STEVE ALFORD, NEVADA — 606 WINS
Alford was a terrific player, and with how things ended at UCLA, some might be surprised to see him as a member of the 600-win club. But Alford had success just about everywhere else. His first job saw him win four games in the first season at Division III Manchester before winning 20-plus in each of his next three seasons and finishing runner up. From there, he took Southwest Missouri State to the Sweet 16, then found some success at Iowa before winning a boatload of games at New Mexico. And he wasn’t an out-and-out failure at UCLA, reaching three Sweet 16s, including a 31-5 season with Lonzo Ball at the helm. He was fired 13 games into his last season with the Bruns before going 19-12 in his first year with Nevada.
16. TUBBY SMITH, HIGH POINT — 622 WINS
One of two coaches to reach the NCAA Tournament at five stops, Smith twice reached the Sweet 16 at Tulsa, then did the same thing at Georgia before taking over at Kentucky for Rick Pitino. His first year saw a national title and he reached three more Elite Eights during his time with the Wildcats. Stops at Minnesota, Texas Tech and Memphis followed with varying levels of success, with Smith then taking over at his alma mater High Point. Smith won 20 or more games at five different schools and just missed adding a sixth, winning 19 games one season at Texas Tech.
15. TOM IZZO, MICHIGAN STATE — 628 WINS
Izzo has found incredible success in March, leading the Spartans to eight Final Fours and winning the national championship with Mateen Cleaves and the Flintstones in 2000. One of the things that sets him apart from other coaches on this list is that he’s done it all at one school. Izzo was an assistant coach at Michigan State under Jud Heathcote for more than a decade, then moved into the starting job when Heathcote retired. Those two represent the only coaches to win national championships at Michigan State, and Izzo had the Spartans playing outstanding basketball heading into March once again this season before the tournament was canceled.
14. GREG KAMPE, OAKLAND — 632 WINS
The third-longest tenured coach in college basketball behind two other coaches on this list, Kampe has held onto his job at Oakland by winning games by the bunches. Even more than that, he oversaw the program through a rise to Division I from Division II and even a conference move once the Golden Grizzlies got to the top division. Since arriving in Division I in 1999, Oakland has won close to 400 games and reached the NCAA Tournament three times. Kampe is a member of the Michigan Sports Hall of Fame, but it may just be a matter of time before he winds up in the Naismith Hall of Fame.
13. KELVIN SAMPSON, HOUSTON — 637 WINS
Sampson has fallen just short of the “five teams to the NCAA Tournament” mark, coaching at five schools and taking four of them to the Big Dance. And while he turned Oklahoma into a force, going to a Final Four and an Elite Eight in back-to-back years, he’s more recently set himself up for long-term success at Houston. The Cougars were a buzzer-beater away from back-to-back Sweet 16s in 2018 and 2019, and were positioned to reach the second weekend of the NCAA Tournament this year as well. And that doesn’t count 2020-21, with CBS Sports writer Gary Parrish ranking Houston fifth overall in his most recent Top 25 and 1.
12. LON KRUGER, OKLAHOMA — 645 WINS
Kruger has been a journeyman coach, working at six different college stops as a head coach and winning at least 81 games at five of those stops. He took Kansas State to an Elite Eight in 1988, Florida to a Final Four in 1994 and Oklahoma to a Final Four in 2016, and he’s one of just two coaches in college basketball history to lead five separate schools to the NCAA Tournament. And he’s found a level of consistency at Oklahoma, leading the Sooners to NCAA Tournaments in six of the last seven seasons heading into this past year, when Oklahoma put itself into position to make it seven of eight.
11. RICK PITINO, IONA — 647 WINS
Pitino just reached this list after climbing back into the college game at Iona after a couple-year stop at Panathinaikos following his ouster from Louisville. Pitino took Providence to a Final Four, then turned Kentucky back into a powerhouse. When Pitino took over, Kentucky hadn’t been to a Final Four since 1984 and hadn’t won a national championship since 1978. Pitino had Kentucky in the ’93 Final Four (and a Laettner buzzer-beater from being there a year earlier), and broke the title-less string in 1996. The Wildcats lost the ’97 title game in overtime, then Kentucky won it all with a team constructed by Pitino the year after he left in 1998. After a stint with the Boston Celtics, Pitino returned to college at Louisville, where he led the Cardinals to three Final Fours — two since vacated — and won a vacated national championship.
10. JIM LARRAÑAGA, MIAMI — 660 WINS
This spot might surprise some people, but after a 27-26 start in Division II, Larrañaga made the jump to Bowling Green, won 170 more games, then took over at George Mason. In year two with the Patriots, Larrañaga reached his first-ever NCAA Tournament; his second came two years later and in 2005-06, a bit of magic struck. Larrañaga’s George Mason team reached the Final Four, an incredible run for a program that has only reached the second round of the NCAA Tournament twice (the second time came in 2011, also under Larrañaga). That led to the Miami job, an ACC regular season and tournament title and two more Sweet 16 berths.
9. DANA ALTMAN, OREGON — 669 WINS
Altman is underrated from a coaching perspective, both schematically and generally. Ask any fan to name the top coaches in college hoops and Altman isn’t likely to surface. But the Ducks have reached the Sweet 16 in four of the last seven seasons, and were trending in the right direction to make it five of eight this year. And Oregon has won either the regular season or tournament crown in the Pac-12 in four of the last five seasons. Those strings overlapped in 2015-16 and 2016-17, when Oregon won 64 games, reached the Elite Eight and then the Final Four, falling by one point to a North Carolina team that won it all one game later. Altman once again has a team that could be the Pac-12’s best and another team that could go to at least the Sweet 16.
T-7. RICK BARNES, TENNESSEE — 707 WINS
Sometimes coaches just need fresh starts. And while Barnes was highly successful at Texas, where he won 402 games and reached 16 NCAA Tournaments in 17 years, things had gone a bit stale in Austin, where he hadn’t reached a Sweet 16 since making the 2008 Elite Eight. So Barnes moved onto Tennessee, where he had the Volunteers at 26-9 in year three and 31-6 in year four, reaching the Sweet 16 in one of Tennessee’s best-ever seasons. And while year five saw a slide back after some bad injury luck, Barnes has what could be a loaded roster and another top 20 team in 2020-21. Barnes has only reached one Final Four in his career, with TJ Ford helping the Longhorns to the semifinals in 2003. But if he keeps landing this kind of talent in Knoxville, Tennessee could reach its first ever final weekend.
T-7. BILL SELF, KANSAS — 707 WINS
Self went to the Elite Eight with Tulsa, Illinois and then Kansas in 2004 and 2007 before breaking through and winning it all in 2008, emerging from the lone Final Four in college basketball history that included all four No. 1 seeds. That team ranks as statistics website KenPom’s second best since the site began tracking in 2001-02. Self reached the title game in 2012 and the Final Four in 2018, though he picks up some unfair criticism for NCAA Tournament performances given that Self has headed arguably the most dominant regular season team in college hoops history. No team can match Kansas’ run of 14-straight Big 12 titles, and after a one-year hiatus after injuries, the Jayhawks bounced back to make it 15-of-16. To put that into perspective: since taking over the Kansas job, Self has won more consecutive Big 12 championships than he’s lost home games. And perhaps no team suffered more from the early close of this season than Kansas, which would have entered the tournament as the no-doubt No. 1 seed and wide favorite to cut down the nets.
6. JOHN CALIPARI, KENTUCKY — 733 WINS
Calipari has taken three schools to the Final Four (two were since vacated), and might have had titles at each of the three schools had he not run into the buzzsaw 1996 Kentucky team with UMass and suffered Mario’s Miracle at Memphis. Then he took over Kentucky and became the most consistent winner of NCAA Tournament games over the last decade. He reached Final Fours in 2011, 2012 (national champions), 2014 and 2015, and while the Wildcats haven’t been back since, Kentucky lost in 2017 to the eventual national champ on a buzzer beater in the Elite Eight, then fell in overtime in the 2019 Elite Eight. Calipari probably doesn’t get enough credit for his coaching ability, as he’s become known as the father of building teams around one-and-done talents (which yielded Calipari’s lone title in 2012). KenPom ranks Kentucky’s 38-1 2015 team as the best college basketball team since 2001-02.
5. CLIFF ELLIS, COASTAL CAROLINA — 858 WINS
Some coaches can win about anywhere. When Ellis won his 150th game at Coastal Carolina in 2015, he became the first coach in Division I history to win 150 or more games at four separate schools. Put another way, Ellis ranks first at Clemson (1984-1994) and South Alabama (1975-1984) in wins, and he’s second on the coaching win charts at Auburn (1994-2004) and Coastal Carolina (2007-present). Ellis has been coach of the year in three different conferences (including twice apiece in the ACC and SEC) and won the Associated Press Coach of the Year in 1999, when he piloted Auburn to a 29-4 season and a Sweet 16 berth. That’s as far as he’s gotten; he’s reached the Sweet 16 in three separate seasons.
4. BOB HUGGINS, WEST VIRGINIA — 879 WINS
Huggins doesn’t get his due, probably because he doesn’t have the national title, and boasts just two Final Fours to his credit. But Bob Knight won 902 games in 42 seasons with a 70.9 winning percentage; Huggins is at 879 through 38 and has a 70.4 winning percentage. Huggins has 71 wins at Walsh in the NAIA before moving on to Akron, then Cincinnati. He reached the Final Four and Elite Eight in back-to-back years in 1991-92 and 1992-93, both with Nick Van Exel playing a major role. His best chance for a national title was derailed by injury when a 28-2 Cincinnati squad lost National Player of the Year Kenyon Martin in the Conference USA Tournament. Huggins later took the West Virginia job, helping the Mountaineers to the 2010 Final Four after upsetting a terrific Kentucky team in the Elite Eight.
3. ROY WILLIAMS, NORTH CAROLINA — 885 WINS
Dean Smith’s protégé was fast-tracked to Kansas for his first head coaching job, where he took over a program that 1) was coming off a national championship under Larry Brown but 2) was also entering a one-season postseason ban. Williams had Kansas in the national title game in year three, and reached four Final Fours and two national championship games with the Jayhawks. Coming off the second of those title games (and back-to-back Final Fours), Williams went home to North Carolina, where he’s won three national championships and helped to reboot a North Carolina program that had fallen on hard times. Williams’ 77.8 percent winning percentage is the sixth-best of all-time, and the best of any active coach, or any coach who’s coached past 2009.
2. JIM BOEHEIM, SYRACUSE — 964 WINS
Boeheim ranks seventh on the all-time wins chart and sits just 36 wins away from becoming the fifth men’s basketball coach to win 1,000 games (though he’ll likely be beaten there by one coach and could get there sixth). All of Boeheim’s wins have come at Syracuse, where he’s reached 34 NCAA Tournaments, five Final Fours and three national championship games, winning it all when Carmelo Anthony and Co. took the 2003 national title. Syracuse was always a program teams didn’t want to face in the NCAA Tournament, thanks to Boeheim’s unorthodox 2-3 zone that led the Orange to some major upsets when opponents were held to off shooting nights.
1. MIKE KRZYZEWSKI, DUKE — 1,157 WINS
Of course Coach K comes in at No. 1; no men’s basketball coach at any level can match his 1,157 career wins, which put him 34 wins up on Thomas Jefferson’s Herb McGee (Division II) for the most of any coach. McGee also has the second-most wins for an active coach, behind Krzyzewski. He won 73 of those games at Army before taking over at Duke in 1980, a program that had been to four Final Fours and two national title games — most recently in 1978 — but hadn’t won the big one. That changed under Krzyzewski, who reached the Final Four seven times in nine years between 1986 and 1994, winning back-to-back titles in 1991 and 1992. He went on to add three more in 2001, 2010 and 2015, making him arguably the greatest coach since John Wooden, and giving him an argument as the greatest coach of all time.
