Ranking the 10 Best Coaches in College Basketball Without a National Title

It truly is astounding what a championship can do for someone’s basketball reputation.

A mere 12 months ago many people saw LeBron James as a choke artist who couldn’t get it done in the big moment, and now there are legitimate discussions about how he stacks up against Michael Jordan. The same logic can be applied to the collegiate level when it comes to coaches.

John Calipari got the championship monkey off of his back recently, but there are still plenty of great program leaders that have never cut down the nets. Read on to see the 10 best coaches who are still looking for that elusive national title.

Stats are courtesy of sports-reference.com.

No. 10: Jay Wright

Villanova has been an elite college basketball program for many years, but Jay Wright has turned it into a near lock for an NCAA tournament appearance every season and regular Big East title contender.

The Wildcats have been in eight of the past nine Big Dances, and reached the Final Four in 2009 and the Elite Eight in 2006.

Wright has won better than 62 percent of the games he coached, and has three regular season conference crowns and two conference tournament titles on his resume. He also has Villanova poised to succeed in the future as the conference landscape continues to change.

Villanova is not the only school where Wright has found success. Hofstra has been in the NCAA tournament exactly two times since 1977, and both of those appearances came under the direction of Wright.

From the American East to the Big East, Wright has established himself as one of the better coaches in the country regardless of the lack of a national title.

No. 9: Tom Crean

In terms of long-haul rebuilding projects, it doesn’t get much more impressive than what Tom Crean has done at Indiana.

Crean inherited what can only be generously described as an absolute mess in Bloomington after Kelvin Sampson texted his way out of a job. In Crean’s first season at Indiana in 2008 his squad finished an abysmal 6-25, but the record has seen a gradual improvement in every subsequent year.

The Hoosiers won 10 games in his second year, then 12, then 27 and finally 29 in 2012-13 in a campaign that saw them atop the AP Poll for much of the regular season. Crean recruits such as Cody Zeller and Victor Oladipo, who helped speed up the rebuilding process, were the primary pieces on that squad.

Despite the impressive turnaround, Indiana is not the only place Crean has found success. He coached Marquette to a Final Four appearance in 2003 with the assistance of some shooting guard named Dwyane Wade.

Crean isn’t always the most popular coach with opposing fans, but he is one of the best head men in the country without a national title.

No. 8: Bo Ryan

Bo Ryan is the closest thing to the antithesis of a John Calipari as there is in college basketball.

The vast majority of his recruits are unheralded players who simply do their jobs and find a way to win. His rosters aren’t littered with 5-star studs who have been on the national radar since they were 16 years old, and rarely are there Wisconsin highlights on SportsCenter’s Top 10 countdown.

But flash or not, Ryan wins, and he does so a lot.

The Badgers are regular contenders for the Big Ten title despite perceived talent differences between them and the Michigan States, Ohio States and Indianas of the world, and rarely ever lose in the Kohl Center. Ryan counts three regular season conference crowns and two Big Ten tournament titles to his Wisconsin resume and should add more if he continues to win at a better than 70 percent clip.

The Badgers are regulars in the Sweet 16 but have still never made the Final Four under Ryan, even though they climbed to the No. 1 spot in the nation during the 2006-07 campaign.

No. 7: Shaka Smart

Shaka Smart doesn’t have quite the experience that many of the names on this list do, but you would be hard pressed to find any coach in the country who is trending more so in the right direction.

In four short years as the head man at VCU, Smart has gone 27-9, 28-12, 29-7 and 27-9. He won the Colonial Athletic Association tournament in 2012 and led the Rams to a second-place finish in the new look Atlantic 10 last season.

He also happened to captain one of the most exciting and impressive Cinderella runs in NCAA tournament history in 2011 when VCU went all the way from the last four in “play-in games” to the Final Four. The fact that many national pundits didn’t believe the Rams belonged in the tournament in the first place only made it that much sweeter.

For now Smart has spurned offers from more prestigious programs to continue building a winning tradition of his own at VCU. Whether or not that will always be the case remains to be seen, but the Rams will continue to be March regulars as long as Smart is still in charge.

No. 6: Mike Montgomery

When compiling lists of the best college basketball coaches in the game today, the name Mike Montgomery doesn’t come to mind right away a la a Coach K or Tom Izzo.

However, the head man at California ranks among the top 25 in the history of the game for career wins, has a Final Four under his belt and has won better than 68 percent of the contests he coached at Montana, Stanford and Cal. Montgomery also counts six regular season conference crowns and one conference tournament title on his resume.

During his lengthy tenure at Stanford, Montgomery led the Cardinal to 12 NCAA tournaments, including a stretch of 10 straight appearances. He reached the Final Four in 1998 with a team that featured Jason and Jarron Collins and Mark Madsen.

Montgomery also has the Golden Bears trending in the right direction after a third-round appearance in the NCAA tournament, which was their fourth Big Dance in the past five years.

No. 5: John Beilein

Had the second half of April’s national championship game gone a bit differently for the Michigan Wolverines against Louisville, John Beilein would not be on this list.

Alas, that national title still eludes him, but he has had a very productive career nonetheless. He built West Virginia into a national contender after years of struggles and landed the Michigan job because of it.

When Beilein took over for the Wolverines, it had been 10 seasons since the once proud program had even qualified for the NCAA tournament. The days of the Fab Five were long behind the football school, but now the Maize and Blue are coming off a Final Four season and locking in some of the best recruiting classes in the nation.

Between his years at West Virginia, Michigan, Richmond and Canisius, Beilein has won better than 61 percent of the games he coached. In fact, while his accomplishments at Michigan and West Virginia stand out, Beilein’s 1995-96 Canisius squad is the only one to make the NCAA tournament since the 1956-57 season.

No. 4: Brad Stevens

Brad Stevens was a mere inches away on Gordon Hayward’s buzzer-beating bank shot from permanently keeping his name off lists like this. Instead he will have to settle for making Butler, a small school in Indianapolis, a national contender that regularly competes with the big boys of the sport every March.

In six seasons at the helm for the Bulldogs, Stevens has won 30, 26, 33, 28, 22 and 27 games, and made the NCAA tournament five times. He went to two consecutive national title games, which is frankly amazing considering the mid-major status Butler still has when it comes to resources compared to others.

The Bulldogs won four Horizon League titles during Stevens’ tenure and are now headed to the Big East to face stiffer competition. Expect Stevens to have his teams ready to play from day one in the new league.

Much like Shaka Smart at VCU, Stevens has turned down interest from more traditional and bigger programs to continue to build something at Butler. As long as he keeps winning at a nearly 80-percent clip Bulldog fans will be more than all right with that.

No. 3: Mark Few

Mark Few just finished his 14th season at Gonzaga. He has won at least 23 games and played in the NCAA tournament in every single one of them.

Few has 12 West Coast Conference regular season titles under his belt as well as 10 WCC tournament championships during that same stretch. The Bulldogs may not have a Final Four appearance under Few, but they are as close to a dynasty as there is in any "mid-major" conference.

Gonzaga may have been upset earlier than expected in the 2013 NCAA tournament, but Few had the Bulldogs ranked No. 1 in the country at times during the regular season. Regardless of whether you still consider Gonzaga a mid-major program or not, that is impressive in a world full of Kentuckys, Dukes, North Carolinas and UCLAs.

Few’s winning percentage of better than 80 percent puts him in the top 10 all-time in the history of college basketball. He sits a mere fraction of a percentage point behind the legendary John Wooden.   

Few may never win the national title at Gonzaga, but what he has done there is nothing short of incredible.

No. 2: Bob Huggins

Outside of winning that first elusive national title, there really isn’t anything Bob Huggins hasn’t accomplished on the collegiate level.

He has been to multiple Final Fours, coached a handful of All-Americans, sent a litany of players to the NBA and established multiple schools as national contenders. He is a member of the exclusive 650-win club and has won an impressive 71 percent of his games.

While Huggins has found success at Akron, Kansas State and West Virginia, his most impressive accomplishments came at the helm of Cincinnati. When he took over in the 1989-90 season, the Bearcats hadn’t been to an NCAA tournament since 1977. Huggins proceeded to lead the school to the Big Dance in his final 14 seasons and even reached the Final Four.

Had Kenyon Martin not broken his leg during his senior year, Huggins very well could have made another Final Four (or even taken home that title).

While West Virginia fell on rough times last year, Huggins and the Mountaineers are not that far removed from a Final Four themselves.

No. 1: Thad Matta

Thad Matta flies a bit under the radar in terms of national discussions as opposed to names like Tom Izzo or Roy Williams, but the only thing missing from Matta’s sterling resume is a national title.

He has won at least a share of five Big Ten titles in nine seasons at Ohio State, and he also counts three of the past four Big Ten tournament championships as part of his resume. The Buckeyes have been to two Final Fours during Matta’s tenure, and he is one of the better recruiters across the country. Matta's squad is the only team in the nation that has been to the past four Sweet 16s.

Matta has more Big Ten wins during his nine seasons in Columbus than any other coach in the conference, including Tom Izzo and Bo Ryan.

Perhaps the most amazing part of Matta’s accomplishments is the fact that he has accomplished all that after losing at least one player early to the NBA in six of those nine seasons. The upcoming 2013-14 campaign will mark the seventh time since Deshaun Thomas declared for the draft after his junior year.

Matta has won at least 20 games in every single one of his coaching seasons dating all the way back to Xavier and Butler. He took Xavier to the Elite Eight (which is still the furthest the school has ever advanced) and helped establish the winning tradition that is still there today.