Greatest ncaa basketball programs

That wound up being the latest and final case of a really good team being shut out of the NCAA tourney, opening up the at-large process we all know today. David Thompson, one of the top 10 college players ever, a three-time consensus All-American, played for State and put the program on the national map under Norm Sloan.

The best coach in school history? It's a close three-horse race, really. This program has wins over ranked opponents and has won 17 league tournaments. State fans are hoping Kevin Keatts can, in time, cement himself as the next great State coach, the person who brings the Wolfpack back to the Final Four. The swaggiest team in college basketball history defined an era, ushering in college basketball in the early s and keeping it competitive with the Jordan-bolstered NBA.

Freshmen who kept Michigan top good a few years after, oh hello, this program won the national championship in Its only NCAA title. Michigan's been playing college basketball since Jan. Yet again we have a school so much more known for its football team football: kind of a huge thing in this country but it's nearly as good in basketball. Michigan won games under Johnny Orr and made multiple deep tournament runs in the s and '70s. Bill Frieder won more games -- before Bo Schembechler canned him prior to the start of the NCAA Tournament, when it became known Frieder had a handshake deal to take the Arizona State job after the season.

Steve Fisher took over, won it all in '89, but booster rulebreaking eventually wound up costing Michigan a lot of wins in the record books. It's not the best program in the Big Ten but it's capable of being the best program as frequently as any other team. Rice's points in the '89 NCAAs remains a tournament record.

Russell is the best player in program history, the only two-time consensus All-American and someone who finished his career with The Johnnies rank seventh in all-time victories and 17th in win percentage -- but have fallen from No. Lou Carnesecca turned a Queens-based basketball outfit into a Big East power in the s, and we'll get to that in a minute, but St.

John's was consistently good in the s, '60s and '70s, recruiting in local talent on the regular to keep the school competitive in the Metro New York conference and as an independent from In the s and s, Joe Lapchick set the standard Carnesecca returned in and for the next 19 years had New York City caring about college basketball nearly as much as it did about the Knicks.

John's played in the postseason every year under Carnesecca and won at least 20 games in 18 of his seasons. As it should, St. John's holds a winning record against every New York-based team it's played at least 10 games against -- except Syracuse, which is coming up soon. Hopefully Utah at No. Out in Salt Lake City they've had a good basketball program for decades. If anything, Utah joining the Pac has oddly obscured that fact. In the Utes won the national championship with a record under coach Vadal Peterson, who went in 32 seasons.

Jack Gardner took over for Peterson in and coached until The Utes were hiding in plain sight out West, consistently winning 23, 19, 24, 22, 23, 23, 26 games in a season. When Rick Majerus took the job in , the program was ready to ascend to a new plane. Majerus had victories to his name by the time he left in , the high point coming with a trip to the national championship game in He was an X-and-O wizard; the idea of Majerus taking Utah to the title game in a team tournament in that era was sort of mind-blowing.

That team had no consensus All-Americans that season, but Keith Van Horn won it a year before and Andre Miller got one a year after. I'll always have a soft spot for Utah in part because of its home arena: the Huntsman Center has been host to a handful of tremendous NCAA Tournament games over the years. This is the highest-ranked team without a national title. With five Final Four appearances but no ring to show, Illinois sidles alongside Houston and Oklahoma for most Final Fours without winning it all.

Let this ranking be a reminder that Illinois should never fall far from the top 25 conversation. As it happens, this list is going live in the same year, and within less than two weeks time, of Illinois being a projected top 10 team in college hoops for the first time in 15 seasons.

But let us go way back first, as Illinois was a reliable Big Ten bully long before the NCAA Tournament came along, then made the Big Dance before it was big and before anyone called it a dance in , , and Since then, it's been a different story. The team that lost in the title game to North Carolina is one of the best teams to not win it all in the past 40 years.

Illinois' other flirtation with immortality was in , when it lost to Michigan which it beat twice in the regular season. College basketball is better when Illinois is relevant.

We'll see it as a truth this season. The rare program to have the benefit of only employing two coaches in the past 45 years. Jud Heathcote begat Tom Izzo. Michigan State fans have it good, and likely will so long as Izzo is running the show.

Michigan State has made the NCAA Tournament 22 consecutive times, which trails Duke and Kansas among active streaks and is fourth longest in college basketball history. In the before times, when Benjamin F. Van Alstyne sounds like a fake person Kramer made up on "Seinfeld" coached this team from , Michigan State won games and was in the throng of Big Ten powers.

Forddy Anderson got the Spartans into the NCAAs in and '59, but it wasn't until Heathcote showed up in '76 that things changed for the better. Michigan State has not gone more than three seasons without appearing in the Big Dance since It won the title with Magic Johnson and Greg Kesler in '79 in what's arguably the most important game in college basketball history -- and also the most-watched game ever in the sport The Spartans have wins over ranked opponents, the seventh-most ever.

If Lute Olson never leaves Iowa to coach Arizona, it's possible to think U of A doesn't crack the top 30 on this list. But Olson changed the trajectory of a program. He was one of many Hall of Fame coaches we lost this year, and his influence was undeniable in the desert. The Wildcats own 10 wins over No. Arizona is 13th on this list and it's 13th in most victories ever 1, Like I said above, Olson changed it all. He's the best coach in the history of the Pac and won games for Arizona, even holding a game home winning streak at one point.

The '97 title-winning team is still the only one to beat three No. That group finished Sean Miller has run the show in Tucson since , and there's been off-the-court drama, but Arizona kept its relevancy for much of Miller's tenure by making three Elite Eights, two other Sweet 16s and having a few recruiting classes land in the top five.

Miller continued what Olson built, and it's a testament to this program's longevity given that its reputation prior to winning it all in was that of a March paper tiger, due to how many times the highly seeded Wildcats didn't make the second weekend.

It's amazing to consider how good Ohio State's basketball program has been for the better part of seven decades, and yet it will forever pale in the shadows against Buckeye football.

OSU hoops isn't considered a top job in the sport, but all things considered, maybe it should be? All of the resources with a fraction of the pressure. A great city that's not too small, not too big, and placed within driving distance of so much talent. It won the title in with Jerry Lucas and John Havlicek in going-away fashion, with each win by a margin of at least 17 points.

Lucas is, in full, the best player in school history, a three-time consensus All-America. Matta made Ohio State a top program during his tenure, and getting the Buckeyes to the title game and Final Four.

Taylor had the longest tenure of any Ohio State coach, and the title still looms large there, but Matta easily exceeded expectations. OSU has 20 regular-season titles and owns wins over ranked opponents in the past 70 years. Jim Boeheim would never take sole credit for this, but let's come correct: He's more responsible for his team's placement on this list than any coach at any school. That's because Boeheim has set a men's Division I record for longest affiliation with any school in history.

He played at Syracuse, and when you include his playing days and time as an SU assistant, Boeheim has spent all but nearly three years of his adult life at SU. Fifty-four of his 76 years on this soil involve him with the program.

He is Orange through thick and thin -- and yes there have been controversies, highs and lows and chapters upon chapters of SU hoops history. He is that program, through thick and thin -- and yes there have been controversies, highs and lows and chapters upon chapters of Orange hoops history. He's won 1, games in 44 seasons though more than have been taken off the books. Syracuse's home venue, the Carrier Dome, is also part of the viewing tapestry of college hoops, as the stadium has been the reason the school has led in attendance in most years over the past three decades and is unique to the sport.

The basketball team plays there, as opposed to a traditional facility, in part because the football team for decades wasn't popular enough to sustain it being a football-only venue. Cuse has a close race for best player in school history: Bing, Anthony, Washington and Coleman are all right there. A mild stunner in the top Cincinnati may not be a top 25 team heading into this season, but since the s Cincy has routinely provided Final Four-worthy teams, produced pros, been a staple in the AP Top 25 and more often than not worked its way to the top of its conference.

The Bearcats have been in 23 of the past 28 Big Dances and managed to keep up with the joneses despite playing conference hopscotch, going from the Missouri Valley to independence to the Metro to the Great Midwest to Conference USA to the Big East and now in the past eight seasons, the American.

No team in this ranking's top 25 has moved around more than Cincinnati, but the school wasn't pinned down by it. That's impressive. UC won the and '62 national championships -- but it also made the Final Four in '59, '60 and ' Through the first 15 years of the NCAA Tournament this was one of the five or six best programs in college hoops.

Truth is, Cincinnati hasn't fallen off much since then. Gary Clark and Jarron Cumberland have been big-time guys in recent seasons, but I can't close out this capsule without bringing up Nick Van Exel and Yancy Gates, a couple of guys who define Bearcat basketball as well as anyone. No team did more for its standings on this list in the past half-decade than good ol' Nova. A modern blue blood? Perhaps more than that. The Wildcats have three national championships , , and have become an annual preseason top 10 team.

Jay Wright has built a Big East dynasty and there is no slowing on the horizon. Villanova's prideful past begins with the tournament it was in the Final Four , and it's been super steady since. And unless they can find enough offense to steal at least one win against Duke, there might not be a path to this year's NCAA tournament. Here's an interesting factoid about Maryland's frustrating season: In each of their losses to Iowa, Illinois and Louisville, the Terrapins led by the exact score of at some point in the second half.

They also led Virginia Tech with eight minutes remaining in the second half and held a lead with less than 10 minutes to go in regulation against Wisconsin before letting both of those games slip away. If they had been able to hold onto even one of those five leads, they would have a legitimate at-large pulse. Additionally, if they had been able to hold onto all five of those leads, they would be a borderline AP Top 10 team right now.

Instead, they blew all of those games, sinking like a lead balloon since opening the year at No. Maryland's shooting has been a colossal disappointment compared to recent years, especially from the perimeter.

In , the Terps averaged 8. This year, those numbers have dropped to 6. And it's certainly not because they've been dominating in the paint instead. Rather, their team two-point percentage has also dropped from That is particularly maddening because after not having a point guard last year, they went to the transfer portal to get a veteran in Fatts Russell to run the show, but it just hasn't worked out as planned.

One parting thought: Maryland has a nice, neutral-site victory over Florida and just the one bad loss to George Mason. As disappointing as the first two months have been, the Terrapins could storm right back into the tournament conversation with one big week in the Big Ten. The predictive metrics refuse to throw in the towel on Michigan, even though its six losses have come by a combined margin of 73 points.

In those six games, Michigan shot a combined of That's 72 of the 73 points right there. But the Wolverines' woes run deeper than just bad luck from downtown. The two-point defense that carried them to a No. Even though Hunter Dickinson's individual numbers are for the most part better than last year, the team as a whole is for the most part significantly worse.

I do still believe Michigan has a chance to right the ship if Caleb Houstan figures things out. The highly touted freshman has a commendable average O-rating of But until that potential lottery pick starts to deliver with the consistency of a Paolo Banchero or Jabari Smith, Michigan will continue to flounder. Note: The metrics above and the analysis that follows do not include Thursday night's massive overtime road win over UCLA. Beating the AP No. Oregon had won at least 21 games in each of the previous 11 seasons under Dana Altman, but this year's team might need a minor miracle to keep that streak going.

At least the Ducks have been competitive as of late. Their pre-Thanksgiving losses to BYU, Saint Mary's and Houston came by a combined margin of 73 points, and they were held to 50 points or fewer in each of those duds. Compared to that, an overtime loss to Arizona State, a last-second loss to Stanford and an eight-point loss to Baylor don't look so bad.

Still, we're talking about a team that is in Quadrant 1 games, and that home loss to the Sun Devils is teetering on the border between Quadrant 3 and Quadrant 4. Normally, Altman is one of the best at combining returning players, new transfers and top freshmen into a cohesive, Pac crushing machine.

But it just hasn't worked out this year. Transfers Jacob Young, Quincy Guerrier and De'Vion Harmon have been fine, but nowhere near the best collection of transfers outside of Texas that we were expecting.

Returning starter Eric Williams Jr. And 5-star freshman Nate Bittle has been a complete non-factor. In 24 years, he led Temple to 14 regular-season or tournament championships in the Atlantic and 17 NCAA Tournament appearances, including five trips to the Elite Eight. The Owls have dropped off recently, but they have over half a century worth of top-notch basketball on their resume.

However, the Irish have thrived in the underdog role, been terrific at home and have rarely experienced extended cold spells despite spending most of their history as an independent. The Lou Carnesecca era alone is enough to make St. The Red Storm rarely missed the NCAA Tournament during that time while also helping to form one of the greatest conferences in college basketball history.

The years before and after Carnesecca coached St. The Red Storm aren't what they used to be, but historically, St. If nothing else, the Razorbacks can hang their hat on the National Championship, but Arkansas has done so much more than that. The Hogs started playing basketball in and won their first conference title in , which turned out to be the first of five in a row.

Under Eddie Sutton and Nolan Richardson, the Razorbacks also became a dominant program during the latter part of the 20th century, becoming a force in the Southwest Conference and the SEC, as well as a national brand. That being said, Georgetown deserves plenty of credit for being a national powerhouse for much of the 80s, including their national title in Winning the National Championship did a lot to lift Maryland over some comparable programs.

Maryland ranks this high because of their consistency over the years. The Terps have had just six head coaches since and ever since Lefty Driesell made them a national power in the 70s, Maryland has been present in the national spotlight. With three Final Four appearances and two national championships, there should be little doubt that NC State is one of the better college basketball programs.

Unfortunately for the Wolfpack, a couple of their in-state rivals hog the spotlight. From Everett Case to Norm Sloan to Jim Valvano, NC State has had a long line of great coaches dating back to the 40s, helping make the Wolfpack a quality program for well over half a century.

Outside of black hole in the late 60s and 70s, Illinois has been one of the most consistent college basketball programs over the last century. The Fighting Illini had a great run during the first half of the 20th century, especially in the 40s and early 50s. Hall of Famer Lou Henson got Illinois back on track in the 80s and the program has been in good shape ever since, save for the last decade or so.

Remember, Illinois began the 21st century by winning four Big Ten regular-season titles in a five-year span, culminating in reaching the national title game in With eight Final With four title game appearances and one National Championship, Michigan basketball is a lot closer to the top 10 programs of all time than most people realize.

There have been two great eras of Cincinnati basketball. First, there was the late 50s and 60s when the Bearcats were arguably the best program in the country while reaching five consecutive Final Fours and winning back-to-back championships in and Of course, Cincy fell off the map for a little while. But the Bearcats came back in a big way under Bobby Huggins in the 90s and have been a fixture on the national stage for the last three decades.

Ohio State is another school whose football success has overshadowed success on the basketball court. Dating back to the s and 40s, the Buckeyes have appeared in 11 Final Fours and still have the National Championship on their mantle. After falling off the radar in the 70s, 80s, and early 90s, Ohio State eventually worked their way back to the top of the Big Ten and the national spotlight.

Thanks to their longevity and 21st-century renaissance, the Buckeyes are on the cusp of being a top program. The Wildcats have undoubtedly made a huge leap up the all-time rankings after winning championships in and