100 Best Coaches in College Basketball History

Streeter Lecka/Getty Images

College coaches are the face of their program. They have more control than their professional counterparts because they get to pick their players through recruiting.

Over the years there have been a number of great coaches from Coach K to Dean Smith to John Wooden. I have put together the top 100 coaches in college basketball history.

100. James Naismith

You can't have a list of the top coaches in college basketball and not include the guy who started it all, James Naismith. He created the game of basketball back in 1891 and was the first coach for the University of Kansas.

Ironically, he had a losing record at his time at Kansas, compiling a record of 55-60 over nine seasons. 

99. Dick Vitale

Doug Pensinger/Getty Images

Dickie V is known more for his commentary calling college basketball games but he also was a coach at one time. He coached the University of Detroit from 1973 to 1977 and finished his career with a record of 78-30. The highlight of Vitale's career was a 21-game win streak in the 1977 season.

98. Dick Sauers

Dick Sauers coached the University of Albany Great Danes from 1955 to 1997. Sauers is currently 27th on the coaches wins list with 702 wins. He finished his career with a winning percentage of .680.

97. Jack Hartman

Jack Hartman coached at Kansas State University from 1970 to 1986 and made it to the NCAA tournament seven of his 16 seasons. He reached the Elite Eight in four of those seasons. He finished his career with a record of 589 wins and 279 losses. 

96. Harry Litwack

Harry Litwack coached the Temple Owls from 1947 to 1973, reaching the Final Four twice but never winning a championship. He finished his career with a record of 373-193.

95. Slats Gill

Slats Gill started coaching the Oregon State Beavers at the age of 27 and coached them from 1928 to 1964. He led the Beavers to two Final Four appearances in 1949 and 1963. He was elected into the Basketball Hall of Fame in 1968 and finished with a career record of 599-392.

94. Tom Crean

Andy Lyons/Getty Images

Tom Crean is currently the head coach of the Indiana Hoosiers and was the head coach at Marquette before accepting his current position in 2008. He hasn't had nearly the success at Indiana that he had at Marquette when he went to the Final Four and five NCAA tournament appearances in nine seasons.

If he can turn things around at Indiana, he will move up this list in the next few seasons.

93. Chris Lowery

Travis Lindquist/Getty Images

Chris Lowery has been the head coach of Southern Illinois since 2004 and has made the NCAA tournament three times in his first seven seasons. He is still a fairly young coach and has a career record of 133-92.

92. Randy Bennett

Ethan Miller/Getty Images

Randy Bennett is the head coach at St. Mary's and while he has not had much success against Gonzaga, he has built a very successful program. Since 2001, he has led his team to three NCAA tournament appearances but what is impressive is that two of them were at-large bids. This is pretty unheard of from a team in the smaller conferences.

91. Ben Jacobson

Dilip Vishwanat/Getty Images

Ben Jacobson is a young coach who took over at Northern Iowa in 2006. In his five seasons, he has gotten to the NCAA tournament twice, including the Sweet Sixteen in 2010. He also has had three consecutive 20-plus-win seasons the past three years. He will most likely move up the list as he continues to build a career.

90. Chris Mack

Gregory Shamus/Getty Images

Chris Mack is the head coach at Xavier University, a position he has held since 2009. He is a young coach but has had a lot of success in his first two seasons winning 50 of his first 67 games. He has led Xavier to the NCAA tournament each season and got to the Sweet Sixteen in 2010.

89. Billy Gillipse

Andy Lyons/Getty Images

Most remember Billy Gillispie's unceremonious exit from the University of Kentucky in 2009, but he still had a lot of success at Texas A&M and UTEP before Kentucky. In his second season with UTEP, he turned the team around from a 6-24 record to 24-8 and got them into the NCAA tournament.

He got Texas A&M to the Big Dance in his last two seasons there and recently took the head coaching job at Texas Tech, where he will look to change the public's perception of himself. He will most likely be moving up this list.

88. Shaka Smart

Andy Lyons/Getty Images

Shaka Smart has only been a head coach for two seasons but has won 27 and 28 games the past two seasons. He also led VCU on a Cinderella run to the Final Four this past season. 

87. Digger Phelps

Stephen Dunn/Getty Images

The guy who led the team that ended UCLA's 88 consecutive win streak has to make it on here. Digger Phelps is probably known more now for his highlighter matching his tie on ESPN but before he was doing that he was a successful coach with Notre Dame.

He led the Fighting Irish to their only Final Four appearance in school history in 1978 and finished with a career record of 419 wins and 200 losses.

86. Bruce Weber

Tom Pennington/Getty Images

Bruce Weber has been the head coach at the University of Illinois since 2003 and saw immediate success after taking over the program. He reached the NCAA national title game in 2005, losing to Roy Williams and the University of North Carolina.

He has made the NCAA tournament in six of his eight seasons as head coach and only failed to win more than 20 games in a season once.

85. Stew Morrill

Christian Petersen/Getty Images

Stew Morrill has been the head coach at Utah State since 2005 but has had previous stints at Montana University and Colorado State. He has won a total of 542 games over his career and has an impressive winning percentage of .692.

He has led his teams to nine NCAA tournament appearances over his career, including the last three years with Utah State. 

84. Al Skinner

Jonathan Daniel/Getty Images

Al Skinner coached at Rhode Island from 1988 to 1997 before he took over the head coaching job at Boston College which he coached until 2010. He was named National Coach of the Year in 2001, which is the same year BC was the Big East regular-season champions as well as the Big East tournament champions.

He has a career record of 385-291.

83. Homer Drew

Homer Drew has been the head coach of Valparaiso University since 1988, minus one season when his oldest son took over. He has led them to nine Summit League tournament championships as well as seven NCAA tournament appearances and got as far as the Sweet Sixteen in 1998.

He retired this past season and ended his career with 640 wins.

82. Clarence Gaines

Clarence Gaines coached at Winston-Salem State University for 47 years and amassed 828 wins between 1947 and 1993. He captured one Division II championship in 1967. The most impressive part was that Winston-Salem State was the only school he ever coached at.

81. Doc Meanwell

Doc Meanwell coached at the University of Wisconsin from 1911-1917 and then again in 1920-1934 with a stop at the University of Missouri from 1918-1920. He won eight Big Ten championships with Wisconsin and two Missouri Valley Conference championships with Missouri.

He finished with a career record of 280-101.

80. Matt Painter

Jamie Squire/Getty Images

Matt Painter is the current coach of the Purdue Boilermakers and his first year was a little rough as he led them to a record of 9-21. Since then, they have had five consecutive seasons of 20 or more wins and reached the NCAA tournament each season. He has even won at least one game in the tournament each one of those years.

I would not be surprised to see Painter move up the list over the next few seasons.

79. Bob Chipman

Bob Chipman is the current head coach at Washburn University, a Division II program. The reason he is on this list is he owns the second-highest winning percentage of any coach in college basketball history. He has a career record of 678-278 for a winning percentage of .709. 

Coach Chipman has been with Washburn for 31 seasons, which includes 22 20-win seasons and a NAIA national title in 1987. 

78. Bruce Pearl

Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images

Bruce Pearl is known for his time at Tennessee but he spent the majority of his career at Division II Southern Indiana, where he won a national championship in 1995. After Southern Indiana, he took the head coaching job at Milwaukee and got them to the Big Dance in 2005, his last season with the team.

He went on to Tennessee where his teams made the NCAA tournament each of his six seasons, getting as far as the Elite Eight in 2010. He was being investigated by the NCAA for recruitment violations and was fired this past March.

77. Larry Hunter

Andy Lyons/Getty Images

Larry Hunter started his career with Division III Wittenberg, winning a national title in 1977. Eventually took the head coaching job at Ohio University in 1989 until 2001, when he was let go.

Currently he is the head coach with Western Carolina and has one of the best winning percentages among active coaches at .649. He is also one win away from joining the elusive 600-win club. 

76. Pete Carril

Jamie Squire/Getty Images

Pete Carril has 525 career victories and won the 1975 NIT championship during his time as head coach at Princeton. He will probably be most remembered though for being one of the first coaches to use "the Princeton offense."

He was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame in 1997 and is still coaching today but at the NBA level as an assistant coach with the Sacramento Kings. 

75. John Thompson III

Jamie Squire/Getty Images

John Thompson III is the current head coach at Georgetown and son of famous Hoyas coach John Thompson Jr. He coached at Princeton from 2000 to 2004 before accepting his current position.

He has led the Hoyas to Big East regular-season championships in 2007 and 2008 and the Final Four in 2007. He is a young coach who is sure to rise on this list over the next few years.

74. Dana Altman

Stephen Dunn/Getty Images

Dana Altman has coached at four schools since 1989. He started his career at Marshall but stayed only one year before taking over at Kansas State. He stayed there until 1994 before moving on to Creighton where he coached until 2010. He is currently the head coach of the Oregon Ducks.

In his 21 years of coaching he has accumulated a record of 431 wins and 261 losses. He led his teams to eight NCAA tournament appearances as well as 13 20-win seasons.

73. Jay Wright

Gregory Shamus/Getty Images

Jay Wright has been the head coach at Villanova since 2001 and only coached at Hofstra before his current position. He has led Villanova to the NCAA tournament each year over the past seven years and got as far as the Final Four in 2009.

He has only been coaching 17 years now but has 346 career wins and 10 seasons of 20 or more wins.

72. Lon Kruger

Tom Pennington/Getty Images

Lon Kruger was hired this year to take over the University of Oklahoma program but has had a number of head coaching jobs before that. He has coached at Texas-Pan American (1982-1986), Kansas State (1986-1990), Florida (1990-1996), Illinois (1996-2000) and UNLV (2004-2011). 

He has led his teams to 13 NCAA tournament appearances and reached the Final Four once, in 1994 with Florida. He has a career record of 479-304.

71. Terry Holland

Terry Holland started his career in 1969 with Davidson College but after five years left for University of Virginia where he coached for over 15 years. He reached the Final Four twice with Virginia in 1981 and 1984 and won an NIT championship in 1980.

He finished with a career record of 418 wins and 216 losses.

70. Cliff Ellis

Doug Pensinger/Getty Images

Cliff Ellis has been coaching in college basketball since 1971 and has had stops at Cumberland University, South Alabama, Clemson, Auburn and currently at Coastal Carolina. He has a career record of 630-399 and has had eight NCAA tournament appearances. He also won the 1999 National Coach of Year while with Auburn.

69. Skip Prosser

Doug Benc/Getty Images

Skip Prosser coached at Loyola Marymount for one season before taking over at Xavier in 1994 where he coached until 2001. He went on to coach at Wake Forest from 2001 until he tragically passed away in 2007. He had a great deal of success in his short career, winning 291 games and leading his teams to the NCAA tournament in nine of his 13 seasons as head coach.

68. Ralph Miller

Ralph Miller coached for 38 seasons with stops at the University of Wichita, the University of Iowa and Oregon State University. He had nine NCAA tournament appearances, reaching the Elite Eight twice. He was named National Coach of the Year in 1981 and 1982 and finished with a career record of 657-382.

67. Rick Majerus

Elsa/Getty Images

Rick Majerus is currently the head coach at Saint Louis University but he is known more for his time as head coach at Utah. He led the Utes to six consecutive NCAA tournament appearances and they won at least one tournament game each year. He led them as far as the NCAA championship game in 1998 but lost to Kentucky that year.

He has 479 career wins over his 22 seasons as head coach.

66. Jamie Dixon

Rob Carr/Getty Images

Jamie Dixon has been the head coach at the University of Pittsburgh since 2003, his only head coaching job to date. He has already put together an impressive record of 216-60 and two Big East regular-season championships in 2004 and 2011.

He has led Pittsburgh to the NCAA tournament each season and won at least one game every time except in 2005, when they were eliminated in the first round.

65. Tom Penders

Otto Greule Jr/Getty Images

Tom Penders coached at seven different universities, including 10 years at Texas from 1988 to 1998 and most recently the University of Houston from 2004 to 2010. He ended his career with a record of 648-438 but was never able to capture a national championship. The closest he got was in 1990 with Texas when he led them to the Elite Eight.

64. Gene Keady

Jonathan Daniel/Getty Images

Gene Keady was the head coach at Western Kentucky from 1978 to 1980 before taking over the program at Purdue, where he coached for 25 years before retiring. Keady has a career record of 550 wins and 289 losses.

He never got a NCAA championship but did win the Big Ten regular-season championship six times and appeared in the NCAA tournament 17 times.

63. Brad Stevens

Streeter Lecka/Getty Images

Brad Stevens is a rising star among the college coaching ranks. He has been the head coach at Butler since 2007 and has won the Horizon League regular-season title each season as well as NCAA tournament appearances each of his four seasons.

He has led his Butler Bulldogs to the national championship game the past two seasons, coming up a little short each time, the first time to Duke and this past season to UConn. He has a career record of 117-25 and will surely continue to improve on this mark.

62. John Kresse

Craig Jones/Getty Images

John Kresse has the fifth-highest winning percentage of any college coach at .797. He coached at the College of Charleston from 1980 to 2002 and finished with 560 wins. 

He also helped Charleston transition from the NAIA to Division I back in 1990. He led the Cougars to five NCAA tournament appearances and got to the second round twice.

61. Billy Tubbs

Stephen Dunn/Getty Images

Billy Tubbs is currently 40th among college coaches for career wins with 641. He coached at Southwestern University, Oklahoma, TCU and at Lamar University on two separate occasions.

He has led his teams to 12 NCAA tournament appearances and got to the national championship game in 1988 with Oklahoma but ended up losing to Kansas that year.

60. Ben Howland

Chris Chambers/Getty Images

Ben Howland has been the head coach of UCLA since 2003 but coached at Pittsburgh and Northern Arizona before his current position. He went to the Final Four three consecutive years in 2006, 2007 and 2008 but was never able to capture the title.

He has had three 30-win seasons in his career and currently has a career record of 357 wins and 182 losses.

59. Fran Dunphy

Christian Petersen/Getty Images

Fran Dunphy has held two head coaching jobs, one at Penn University and his current position at Temple University. He took over the Temple program from a fellow coach who made this list, John Chaney, in 2006.

At Penn, he won 10 Ivy League championships and 10 NCAA tournament appearances. In his five years at Temple, he has made the NCAA tournament in four of them and advanced as far as the third round this past season.

58. Thad Matta

Andy Lyons/Getty Images

Thad Matta has been the head coach at Ohio State University since 2004 and has led them to the NCAA tournament in five of his first seven seasons. He got as far as the championship game in 2007 but couldn't get past Billy Donovan and the Florida Gators, who captured their second consecutive championship.

He has won the Big Ten tournament three times in 2007, 2010 and 2011, has a coaching record of 292-88 and will most likely move up this list over the next few years.

57. Rick Byrd

Christian Petersen/Getty Images

Rick Byrd is one of only 11 active coaches who have over 600 wins, 500 of which came at Belmont University. He has coached at Belmont since 1986 and has led the Bruins to four NCAA tournament appearances in 2006, 2007, 2008 and 2011. 

56. Rick Barnes

Ronald Martinez/Getty Images

Rick Barnes has been coaching at the Division I level since 1987 with stops at George Mason, Providence, Clemson and his current job at Texas, which he has held since 1999. He has led Texas to the NCAA tournament in each of 13 seasons with the program, including a Final Four in 2003.

He has won 20 or more games in the last 12 seasons. He has 524 career wins and will most likely collect his 600th win soon.

55. Mark Few

Doug Pensinger/Getty Images

Mark Few is the current head coach at Gonzaga University, a position he has held since 1999. He has won nine WCC tournament championships and has won the WCC regular season every year he has coached.

He has led Gonzaga to the NCAA tournament every season, reaching the Sweet Sixteen four times. His career coaching record stands at 315-83 and he was the third-fastest coach to get to 200 wins, only behind Clair Bee and Jerry Tarkanian.

54. Lou Carnesecca

Lou Carnesecca coached at St. John's University for 24 seasons from 1966 to 1992 with a four-year break from 1970 to 1974. He made the NCAA tournament in 18 of those 24 seasons and got to the Final Four once in 1985. He finished with a career record of 526-200 and has one of the better winning percentages in college history at .725.

53. Norm Stewart

Jonathan Daniel/Getty Images

Norm Stewart coached Northern Iowa from 1962 to 1967 but got on this list for his time with Missouri, where he coached from 1968 to 1999. He never got to a Final Four but does have 16 NCAA tournament appearances. 

He finished with a career record of 728-374.

52. Steve Fisher

Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images

Steve Fisher is currently the head coach at San Diego State, where he has coached since 1999 and led them to two NCAA tournament appearances the past two seasons. However, he is probably more well known for being the head coach at the University of Michigan and coaching the Fab Five.

He won one national championship in 1989 after current head coach Bill Frieder took a position with Arizona State before the tournament and Fisher was named interim coach. He never won another championship but did get back to the championship game in 1992 and 1993.  

51. Glenn Robinson

Glenn Robinson coaches at Division III school Franklin and Mashall College, and has the most Division III victories of any coach. His 805 victories is 12th-most among all college basketball coaches.

He has been coaching the Diplomats since 1971 and has made 21 D-III NCAA tournaments, appearing in one national title game.

50. Mike Montgomery

Jeff Gross/Getty Images

Mike Montgomery has been coaching in the college ranks since 1979, minus two years where he took his talents to the NBA and the Golden State Warriors. He started his career with the University of Montana before taking over the Stanford Cardinals in 1987.

He currently coaches the University of California Golden Bears and has 611 career wins at the college level. He has led his teams to 14 NCAA tournament appearances, including 10 straight with Stanford.

49. Gene Bartow

Gene Bartow coached at six different colleges and universities from 1962 to 1995 including Central Missouri State (1962-1964), Valparaiso (1965-1970), Memphis (1971-1975), Illinois (1975), UCLA (1976-1977) and UAB (1979-1996). In those 34 years, he has a career record of 647-353 and got to the championship game once with Memphis and the Final Four with UCLA.  

48. Herb Magee

Herb Magee has the second-most wins of any college basketball coach across all the divisions. What is even more impressive is that he has earned all of his 922 victories at the same school, Philadelphia University. He has been coaching them since 1967 and has led his team to one Division II championship in 1970.

47. Harry Combes

Harry Combes was the head coach at the University of Illinois from 1947 to 1967 and is one of the fastest coaches to 100 wins, only needing 127 games to get to that mark. He led his team to three Final Four appearances in 1949, 1951 and 1952 but never got any further than that.

He finished his career with 316 wins and only 150 losses.

46. John Chaney

Al Bello/Getty Images

John Chaney coached at Temple University from 1982 to 2006 and led the Owls to 17 NCAA tournament appearances, including five Elite Eights. Before Temple, he coached at Division II school Cheyney State and won a national championship in 1978 as well as National Coach of the Year.

He has compiled a career record of 741 wins and 312 losses and became the first African-American coach to win over 700 games.

45. Bill Self

Ronald Martinez/Getty Images

Bill Self has coached at Oral Roberts, Tulsa, Illinois and is currently the head coach at Kansas. He has put together an impressive coaching record of 444-151 and captured his first national title in 2008.

He also has won five Big 12 tournament championships and seven Big 12 regular-season titles. He has continued the tradition of Kansas having a strong program and will be moving up this list over the next few seasons.

44. Don Meyer

Don Meyer is the winningest coach in men's college basketball with 923 wins, which includes his wins in the NAIA, where he coached Lipscomb from 1975 to 1999. He won a NAIA championship in 1986.

After Lipscomb he went on to coach at Northern University until he retired in 2010. 

43. Bob Huggins

J. Meric/Getty Images

Bob Huggins is the current head coach at West Virginia but made a name for himself at the University of Cincinnati, where he coached from 1989 to 2005. He led them to 14 consecutive NCAA tournament appearances, getting as far as the Final Four in 1992.

He accepted the head coaching job at West Virginia in 2007 and has led them to the NCAA tournament each year, again getting as far as the Final Four in 2010. He has a career record of 691-253 and will almost certainly break the 700-win plateau this coming season.

42. Bo Ryan

Christian Petersen/Getty Images

Bo Ryan started his coaching career at the University of Wisconsin-Platteville, a Division III school. He won four national championships there in 1991, 1995, 1998 and 1999.

After the 1999 season, he took the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee job, where he stayed for two seasons before accepting his current position with University of Wisconsin-Madison.

He has led the Badgers to 10 straight NCAA tournament appearances and gotten as far as the Elite Eight in 2005. Including his time at the Division III level, he has accumulated 625 wins. 

41. Tubby Smith

Andy Lyons/Getty Images

Tubby Smith is currently the head coach at the University of Minnesota but was head coach at Tulsa (1992-1995), University of Georgia (1996-1997) and Kentucky (1997-2007). He won a national championship with Kentucky in his first season as head coach in 1998 and had made 14 consecutive NCAA tournaments between his time with Tulsa, Georgia and Kentucky.

He has 467 career wins and saw his record of 17 straight 20-win seasons end this past season.

40. Don Haskins

Getty Images/Getty Images

Don Haskins coached at Texas Western, now known as UTEP, from 1961 to 1999 and compiled a career record of 719-353. He won seven WAC regular-season championships and 12 NCAA tournament appearances. He led his team to a national title in 1966, beating Kentucky that year.

Before he retired, he was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame in 1997.

39. John Calipari

Andy Lyons/Getty Images

John Calipari is one of the more controversial coaches in college basketball today, as people either like him or can't stand him. He has had coaching stops at UMass, Memphis and currently at the University of Kentucky. 

He has yet to win a national championship but has appeared in three Final Fours. If you are the NCAA, though, Calipari has appeared in one, as his UMass and Memphis teams had to vacate their appearances in 1996 and 2008.

There are also questions about Calipari's official win total because of all these violations. The University of Kentucky honored him after his 500th win but the NCAA said not so fast, as he has had to vacate wins.

38. Lou Henson

Jonathan Daniel/Getty Images

Lou Henson coached for 41 years and finished his career with a record of 779-412. He coached for Hardin Simmons, the Illinois Fighting Illini and two different terms with New Mexico State.

Coach Henson reached the NCAA tournament 21 times with each team and reached the Final Four with each team in 1970 and then again in 1989.

37. Vic Bubas

Vic Bubas coached Duke for 10 seasons from 1959 to 1969 and got to the Final Four in three of those seasons. He only had 213 victories but did have a winning percentage of .761, good for 21st among college coaches.

He also was named ACC Coach of the Year three times in 1963, 1964 and 1966.

36. Dave Robbins

Dave Robbins made his name coaching at Division II Virginia Union University and is currently 26th among all college coaches with 713 wins and is ninth among college coaches with a winning percentage of .786.

He also has three Division II national championships to his name, winning them in 1980, 1992 and 2005.

35. Gary Williams

Streeter Lecka/Getty Images

Gary Williams retired this past season after 22 years at Maryland but had coaching stops in Ohio State, Boston College and American University.

He won one national championship in 2002 and finished with two Final Four appearances, three ACC regular-season championships and 668 career wins.

34. Lefty Driesell

Brian Bahr/Getty Images

Lefty had a 41-year coaching career with stops at Davidson College, University of Maryland, James Madison University and Georgia State University. He finished his career with a record 786-394 and had 22 seasons with at least 20 victories.

33. Rick Pitino

Chris Trotman/Getty Images

Rick Pitino has spent time in both the collegiate ranks as well as coaching stints with the New York Knicks and Boston Celtics.

He has spent time as coach for Boston University, Providence, Kentucky and currently as head coach of Louisville. He won one national title in 1996 with Kentucky and his team has appeared in five Final Fours. His record currently is at 572-210 and with a good year in 2011 will be joining the 600-win club.

32. Guy Lewis

Guy Lewis coached only one program and that was the University of Houston from 1956-1986. He got to three consecutive Final Fours in 1981, 1982 and 1983 but was never able to capture a national title.

He put together the group that would be known as the Phi Slama Jama. They were on the losing end of the famous 1983 national championship game against Jim Valvano and NC State.

He was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame in 2007 and finished with a record of 592-279. 

31. Jimmy Valvano

Getty Images/Getty Images

Many people will know Jimmy V's name because of his amazing speech at the 1983 ESPY's and for the work the V Foundation has done over the years. He is also one of the top coaches in college basketball history.

He won a national championship in 1983 as well as ACC tournament champions in 1983 and 1987. He coached for 19 years and finished with a record of 346-210.

30. Jerry Tarkanian

Tim DeFrisco/Getty Images

During his career, Jerry Tarkanian coached Long Beach State and Fresno State but is known for his time chewing on his towel as head coach of the Runnin' Rebels of UNLV. He made four Final Four appearances with UNLV and one national championship in 1990.

He was one coach who did things his way and didn't back down from a fight. He spent most of his coaching career battling with the NCAA.

29. John Thompson Jr.

Jim McIsaac/Getty Images

John Thompson Jr. coached the Georgetown Hoyas from 1972-1999 and is the father of current Hoyas coach John Thompson III. He became the first African-American coach to win a major collegiate championship, winning the title back in 1984.

He also led the Hoyas to three Final Four appearances and five Big East regular-season championships. He finished with 596 victories and 239 losses for a winning percentage of .715.

28. Everett Case

Everett Case coached North Carolina State from 1947 to 1965 and led the Wolfpack to four ACC championships in 1954, 1955, 1956 and 1959. He finished with a record of 377 wins and 174 losses. He was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame in 1982.

27. Al McGuire

Al McGuire started his career with Belmont Abbey College in 1958 and stayed there until 1965 when he took over at Marquette University. He coached Marquette for 13 seasons and won a national championship in his final season in 1977.

After he retired, McGuire became a popular commentator for NBC and CBS. He finished his coaching career with a record of 405 wins and 143 losses for a winning percentage of .739, which is 45th in college basketball history.

26. Ray Meyer

Ray Meyer coached DePaul from 1943 to 1984 and currently ranks 24th with 724 victories. He was also the 17th-fastest coach in college basketball history to 700 wins.

He also is second with 42 seasons coached at one school, only behind Jim Phelan of Mount Saint Mary's. In those 42 seasons, he coached DePaul in 1,078 games.

25. Branch McCracken

Branch McCracken coached at Ball State from 1930 to 1938 and at Indiana University from 1938 to 1965, minus three years where he served in World War II.

Coach McCracken is one of only 13 coaches in Division I history to win multiple national championships. He won his with Indiana in 1940 and 1953.

24. Clair Bee

Clair Bee holds the current record for highest winning percentage among college coaches, winning 82.4 percent of his games. He coached at Rider for two seasons from 1929-1931 and then at Long Island University from 1932-1943 and 1946-1951.

He won two NIT championships in 1939 and 1941 and was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame in 1968.

23. Frank McGuire

Frank McGuire started coaching in 1947 with St. John's and went on to coach at University of North Carolina and finished his career with South Carolina in 1980. He won one national championship with UNC in 1957 as well as two additional Final Four appearances in 1951 and 1952.

He is only one of 10 coaches in college basketball with at least 100 wins at three different schools. He was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame in 1977 and finished with a career record of 549 wins and 237 losses.

22. Ed Jucker

Ed Jucker is one of only 13 coaches to win multiple national championships. What is even more impressive is he did it in back-to-back years in 196 and 1962, something only seven Division I coaches can say they have done.

He coached at the University of Cincinnati from 1961 to 1965. He ended up coaching 18 seasons and had a career record of 270-122. 

21. Edgar Dibble

Edgar Diddle coached at Western Kentucky from 1922 to 1964 and was the first coach in college basketball to coach 1,000 games at one school. 

He never won a national championship but has had a lasting effect on WKU. Coach Diddle was known for having a red towel on the sidelines with him that he would wave, chew and throw depending on how the game was going. This red towel is now the official logo at Western Kentucky.

20. Jim Phelan

Jim Phelan coached his entire career with Mount St. Mary University and holds the record for most games coached in any division at 1,354. He won over 800 of those games coached and won the Division II championship in 1962.

19. Denny Crum

Craig Jones/Getty Images

Denny Crum coached at the University of Louisville from 1971 to 2001 and finished with a career record of 675-295. He reached the NCAA tournament 23 times in 30-year career and won two national championships in 1980 and 1986. He also reached six Final Fours over his career.

He was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame in 1994

18. Phil Woolpert

Phil Woolpert's claim to fame is winning back-to-back national championships in 1956 and 1957 with the University of San Francisco. He also had the longest win streak at the time at 60, a mark that was later broken by John Wooden and the UCLA Bruins.  

17. Pete Newell

Pete Newell went to back-to-back national championship games in 1959 and 1960, winning on his first try in 1959 with the California Golden Bears. 

He only coached for 14 years, six of which were with California, and had a career record of 233-123.

16. Billy Donovan

Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images

Billy Donovan coached at Providence for two years before accepting the head coach position with the Florida Gators in 1996. Since then, his teams have appeared in three national championship games and won back-to-back championships in 2006 and 2007.

He is still pretty young in his coaching career but has had some great success and should continue to work his way up this list in the coming years.

15. Lute Olson

Jeff Gross/Getty Images

Lute Olson is mostly known for his time with the University of Arizona and his national championship in 1997. He did, however, spend almost 10 years at Iowa University and leading them to a Final Four appearance in 1980.

He ended up going to five total Final Fours before retired in 2008. He finished his career with over 1,000 games coached, 782 wins and 20 consecutive seasons with 20 or more wins.

14. Geno Auriemma

Jamie Sabau/Getty Images

He has 771 career wins, four undefeated seasons, seven women's national championships and owns the record for most consecutive wins at 90 in college basketball. He has led UConn Women's Basketball since 1985 and along with the seven national titles, he has led his team to five consecutive Final Fours.

He was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame in 2006 and even with all his accomplishments, he isn't the best women's college basketball coach ever or even today. 

13. Jim Boeheim

Andy Lyons/Getty Images

Jim Boeheim has been the head coach for the Syracuse Orange since 1976 and has the second-most wins for any active coach at 856, only behind Mike Krzyzewski. He currently ranks fifth all-time for most victories by a head coach. 

He has appeared in three national title games, finally winning it all in 2003 against Roy Williams and Kansas. He does own the all-time record for most 20-win seasons at 33.

12. Tom Izzo

J. Meric/Getty Images

Tom Izzo has been the head coach at Michigan State since 1995 and won a national title in 2000. He has led his Spartans to six Final Fours over his career and has 383 career wins. He has had 11 seasons with 20 or more wins.

He also has a streak of 14 consecutive NCAA tournament appearances and has gotten every one of his players that used their full college eligibility to at least one Final Four. 

11. Eddie Sutton

Otto Greule Jr/Getty Images

Eddie Sutton has over 800 victories coaching Creighton, Arkansas, Kentucky, Oklahoma State and the University of San Francisco. He spent the majority of his career with his alma mater, Oklahoma State.

He never won a championship but got to the Final Four three times, once with Creighton and twice with Oklahoma State. He was named AP National Coach of the Year twice, in 1978 and 1986, and finished his career with a record of 804-328. 

10. Henry Iba

Henry Iba had two coaching jobs before accepting the head coaching job at Oklahoma State in 1934 and coached there until he retired in 1970. He became the first coach in college basketball history to win consecutive national titles in 1945 and 1946.

He finished his career with a record of 751-330, which is the 17th-most in college basketball history.  

9. Phog Allen

Phog Allen is one of the pioneers in college basketball. The majority of his career was spent at his alma mater of the University of Kansas, where he coached from 1920 to 1956.

He won one NCAA championship back in 1952 and finished with a career record of 746-264. He has also been inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame in 1959 and the College Basketball Hall of Fame in 2006. 

8. Pat Summitt

Al Messerschmidt/Getty Images

The title of this list is the 100 Greatest Coaches in College Basketball and since there is no distinction between men's and women's, Pat Summitt needs to be on this list. She has the most wins by a coach at any level in men's or women's college basketball with 1,071 wins.

She has eight national titles and has an unbelievable winning percentage of 84.33 percent. What is even more impressive is she has done all this at one school, the University of Tennessee. She was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame in 2000. 

7. Jim Calhoun

Streeter Lecka/Getty Images

Jim Calhoun is a three-time national champion, winning the title most recently this past season, and is currently third among active coaches for most wins at 855. He also has seven Big East tournament championships, most recently in 2011.

He is sixth all-time for most victories, one behind Jim Boeheim. Before coming to UConn in 1986, he spent 14 seasons at Northeastern. His team appeared in the NCAA tournament in five of his final six seasons with Northeastern.

6. Roy Williams

Streeter Lecka/Getty Images

Roy Williams has held two of the top coaching jobs in college basketball starting his career in 1988 at Kansas. He coached there until 2003 when he took over the job at his alma mater at UNC.

He has had some great success at UNC, winning two national titles in 2005 and 2009 and has a record of 225-63 over the past eight years. For his career, he has a total record of 643-134.

5. Adolph Rupp

Adolph Rupp spent 42 years as the head coach at Kentucky coaching from 1930 all the way until 1972 when he retired. He won four national titles in 1948, 1949, 1951 and 1958.

He currently owns the second-highest career winning percentage at 82.2 percent and has the fourth-most victories of a coach at 876, three behind Dean Smith.

4. Dean Smith

Dean Smith spent his entire 36-year coaching career at UNC and had the record for most victories when he retired at 879. He has since been passed by Coach K and Bobby Knight but he is still considered one of the greats.

He won two national championships in 1982 and 1993 and made 11 Final Four appearances. He has been associated with some pretty impressive names, including coaching Michael Jordan and retired NBA coach Larry Brown.

3. Bobby Knight

Ronald Martinez/Getty Images

He holds the record for most wins as a Division I basketball coach with 902. He was the head coach for Army, Indiana and Texas Tech from 1965 to 2008.

He won three national championships while with Indiana in 1976, 198  and 1987. Knight has been a controversial figure over his years for his antics on the court as well as how he treated players.

In 2000, Neil Reed brought to light an incident where Coach Knight chocked him during a practice. Indiana gave him one more chance but in September of 2000, another incident arose with a student that led to his firing.

Whether people agree or disagree with his coaching methods, Coach Knight had a very successful career as a college basketball coach. 

2. Mike Krzyzewski

Streeter Lecka/Getty Images

Coach K has built a pretty impressive resume of four national titles, 11 Final Fours and 900 wins and over 30 years as the head coach of Duke. He started his coaching career in 1975 as the head coach of Army before taking over the Blue Devil program in 1980.

He and Coach Knight, who he played point guard for at Army, are the only coaches in Division I basketball who have at least 900 wins.

1. John Wooden

It should come as no surprise to anyone that the Wizard of Westwood gets the title as best college basketball coach ever. He started his coaching career at Indiana State for two years before moving on to UCLA where he coached from 1948 to 1975.

He won seven straight national titles, and 10 over a 12-year period. He also won 88 consecutive games during this stretch. He won over 80 percent of his games and finished his career with a record of 664-162.