Ranking the Best College Basketball Teams That Did Not Win the NCAA Title

Throughout the history of the NCAA tournament, there have been dozens of teams that seemed sure bets to win it all only to fall short of capturing the national championship.

Paring this list of the best college basketball teams that did not win the NCAA title to 10 was not easy. There are many great squads that failed to win a championship that deserved serious consideration.

But based on how dominant they were at the time, collective star power (coaches and players), the difficulty of their path to a title and how close they actually came to fulfilling their apparent destiny, these 10 teams top our very subjective list.

There are lots of teams and lots of opinions. SI.com asked its readers recently to come up with such a squad via bracket-style elimination method and came up with the 2004-05 Illinois group. Can that be right? Others call the Houston squad of 1982-83 the best to fail to win a title. Is that so?

We'll play spoiler a bit and reveal ahead of time our honorable mention (or is it dishonorable mention, in this case?) list of teams who nearly made our top 10 but fell just short. Those include, in alphabetical order, 1994-95 Arkansas, the Duke teams of 1985-86, 2001-02 and 2005-06, 2013-14 Florida, 2009-10 Kentucky, 2007-08 Memphis, the 1993-94 and 1997-98 North Carolina squads and the Ohio State teams from 2006-07 and 2010-11.

Let the arguing begin.

10. Michigan, 1992-93

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Chris Webber and the Fab Five fell short at Michigan.

Record: 31-5 (15-3, 2nd in Big Ten behind Indiana)

NCAA tournament: Lost in national final to North Carolina

There were 11 seconds left in the 1993 title game when Michigan's Chris Webber called the timeout that time cannot forget—and the Wolverines didn't have.

So instead of having a chance to tie or go ahead in a game in which Michigan trailed North Carolina 73-71, the Wolverines were assessed a technical foul. North Carolina's Donald Williams sank the ensuing, game-clinching free throws, and everyone would wonder forever more what might have been.

It also capped a season in which Webber and the other four members of Michigan's Fab Five (the others were Jalen Rose, Juwan Howard, Jimmy King and Ray Jackson) had won 31 of 35 games leading up to that critical moment.

It appeared no other team in the country could match their overall talent level for two years running, yet they lost in consecutive national title games (having lost the previous season to Duke in a 20-point blowout).

9. Kansas, 1996-97

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Paul Pierce was the star of the 1996-97 Kansas team that fell short.

Record: 34-2 (15-1, 1st in Big 12)

NCAA tournament: Lost in Sweet 16 to Arizona

The 1996-97 Kansas team opened the season with 21 consecutive victories, vaulting to the top of the national polls.

Kansas remained there for months carried by a roster loaded with future NBA talent such as Paul Pierce, Jacque Vaughn, Raef LaFrentz and Scot Pollard. The Jayhawks rightly earned a No. 1 seed and seemed in great position to sail right through to the Final Four and beyond when they tipped it off against Arizona, which had finished fifth in the Pac-10 regular season that year.

"After they got past Arizona, they would face either 10th-seeded Providence or 14th-seeded Tennessee-Chattanooga. It was a foregone conclusion they were headed to Indianapolis for the Final Four," wrote J. Brady McCollough for The Kansas City Star a full decade later.

Then the game against Arizona began, and Kansas committed five turnovers while Arizona jumped out to a 10-2 lead. Kansas would battle back to lead briefly in the second half but was down 13 with three minutes left before staging a furious rally that fell just short. The Jayhawks had three three-point attempts miss the mark in the final seconds—shots that would have tied it and sent the game into overtime.

Suddenly, a seemingly magical season was over. Kansas didn't even sniff the Final Four.

8. Duke, 1998-99

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Duke's Elton Brand was a force and so was his team in 1998-99.

Record: 37-2 (16-0, 1st in ACC)

NCAA tournament: Lost in national final to Connecticut

As with North Carolina and some other schools, there are other editions of talented Duke teams that fell just short of the ultimate prize.

But none seemed as certain to finish the job as the 1998-99 Blue Devils, who lost a late-November regular-season game to Cincinnati by two points and then reeled off 32 wins in a row to enter the national championship game heavily favored to beat Connecticut.

Led by the likes of National Player of the Year Elton Brand, Trajan Langdon, William Avery, Corey Maggette and Shane Battier (all of whom would go on to become first-round NBA picks), Duke averaged 91.8 points per game and gave up only 67.2.

But the Blue Devils lost to UConn in the title game, 77-74, arguably preventing them from claiming the unofficial title of greatest Duke team of all time.

7. Georgetown, 1984-85

Associated Press

Shortly after earning these smiles in the 1985 NCAA tournament, Patrick Ewing (left) and coach John Thompson were not so happy.

Record: 35-3 (14-2, 2nd in Big East behind St. John's)

NCAA tournament: Lost to Villanova in the national final

Despite finishing second in the Big East to Chris Mullin-led St. John's, Georgetown avenged that twice—first by beating St. John's 92-80 in the Big East tournament final and then again in the Final Four semifinal, 77-59, setting up what was supposed to be a cakewalk vs. No. 8 seed Villanova in the NCAA final.

Coached by John Thompson, the Hoyas were defending national champions led by center Patrick Ewing and a fine supporting cast that included Bill Martin, David Wingate and Reggie Williams. They already had beaten Villanova twice during the regular season, although only by two points the first time and seven the second, and came into the championship game on a 16-game winning streak.

Villanova pulled off a 66-64 upset, preventing Georgetown from becoming the sixth team in NCAA history to win back-to-back national titles.

6. Kansas, 1956-57

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Wilt Chamberlain and Kansas seemed a sure bet until they ran into North Carolina in the 1957 title game.

Record: 24-3 (11-1, 1st in Big 7)

NCAA tournament: Lost in the national final to North Carolina

Kansas had Wilt Chamberlain playing center in 1956-57. Think about that.

Yet the Jayhawks fell just short of winning the national title because they ran into a North Carolina team that refused to be intimidated by the towering Chamberlain (7'1") in the national final. The Tar Heels were talented too but were huge underdogs in the game despite entering it unbeaten.

"We weren't in awe of Chamberlain," North Carolina star Lennie Rosenbluth said in the book Four Corners. "He would dunk it every which way—but we weren't in awe of the dunk shot. To us, it was the same as a little jump shot from the foul line. It counted the same."

Kansas lost 54-53 as the Tar Heels hounded Chamberlain all night long. Wilt still scored 23 points, but that was nearly seven points below his season's average.

5. Illinois, 2004-05

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Bruce Weber was incredulous that his Illinois team didn't win the championship in 2004-05.

Record: 37-2 (15-1, 1st in Big Ten)

NCAA tournament: Lost in national final to North Carolina

The Illini, coached by Bruce Weber, went 29-0 to start the 2004-05 season and featured five talented players who averaged double-figure scoring, including Luther Head, Dee Brown, Deron Williams, Roger Powell and James Augustine. 

SI.com recently asked its readers to vote the best college team to fail to win a title, and this Illinois team came out on top in the bracket-style, elimination format, beating the 1982-83 Houston Cougars in the mythical finals.

Well, they were good—but maybe not quite that good.

In losing to North Carolina in the title game, 75-70, Big Ten tournament MVP Augustine fouled out after only nine minutes of trying to guard the Heels' Sean May. But collectively the Illini missed a total of 28 attempts from three-point range, which led some to question why Weber let his guys keep shooting them even after they had rallied from 15 points down in the second half to make a game of it.

4. North Carolina, 1983-84

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Michael Jordan never could repeat the magical way he finished his freshman season at North Carolina.

Record: 28-3 (14-0, 1st in ACC)

NCAA tournament: Lost in the Sweet 16 to Indiana

There were other North Carolina teams that deserved a close look for this list—including the 1997-98 squad that featured Vince Carter and National Player of the Year Antawn Jamison and went 34-4 but lost to Utah in the Final Four.

But that UNC team had Shammond Williams at shooting guard.

The 1983-84 Heels had Michael Jordan manning that position and also featured the likes of fellow future NBA first-round picks Brad Daugherty, Sam Perkins, Kenny Smith and Joe Wolf in the starting lineup. This group arguably had more talent than the 1981-82 North Carolina team that won the national championship.

But in Jordan's final collegiate season, the Tar Heels didn't even make it out of the Sweet 16, losing 72-68 to Indiana.

It was only the third loss of the season for UNC, with the other two coming against Arkansas and Duke in the ACC tournament. All three losses came by the combined total of seven points.

3. Houston, 1982-83

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Clyde Drexler (with ball) was one of Houston's stars on a can't-miss 1982-83 team that did.

Record: 31-3 (16-0, 1st in Southwest Conference)

NCAA tournament: Lost in national final to North Carolina State

Who can forget when the self-professed fraternity brothers of Phi Slama Jama got dunked in the NCAA title game by an upstart N.C. State coached by Jim Valvano?

Well, no one really. And that makes it difficult for the members of a Houston team that was so good that neither Clyde Drexler nor Akeem Olajuwon (he didn't add the "H" until later) was its leading scorer.

That honor belonged to Michael Young, who averaged 17.3 points per game. Future NBA superstars Drexler and Olajuwon teamed with Young and Larry Micheaux to give the Cougars four stud players who all averaged 13.8 or more, many of those points coming off spectacular, high-flying dunks.

"We attracted more nicknames and fanfare than any team in America," Drexler told Chris Baldwin of CultureMap Houston once. "Those teams had a real aura about them. Everyone always noticed when we walked in a gym."

True enough. But after averaging 82.5 points while winning 31 of their first 33 games, the Cougars could muster only 52 in a two-point loss to N.C. State that left people shaking their heads in amazement—even years later.

Many blamed Houston coach Guy Lewis for playing it too conservatively and letting himself get outwitted by Valvano, who knew he had to slow the game down dramatically for his Wolfpack to have a chance.

2. UNLV, 1990-91

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Larry Johnson was part of a star-studded UNLV team that fell short of the title in 1991.

Record: 34-1 (18-0, 1st in Big West)

NCAA tournament: Lost in Final Four to Duke

One year after embarrassing Duke in the NCAA final, 103-73—a result that set an NCAA record for largest margin of victory in a title game—the Runnin' Rebels of UNLV returned to the Final Four for a rematch with the Blue Devils, seemingly with a team even better than they had the previous spring.

The 1990-91 UNLV squad that featured Larry Johnson, Greg Anthony and Stacey Augmon won its first 34 games while averaging nearly 98 points per contest.

Despite UNLV being the odds-on favorite to make it two titles in a row, Duke held on for a 79-77 victory when a three-pointer by UNLV's Anderson Hunt was off the mark at the final buzzer.

Coach Jerry Tarkanian's Rebels thus finished the season 34-1. Had they won, they probably would be remembered as one of the greatest teams of all time. These Rebels still rank just ahead of the famous Phi Slamma Jamma gang from '82-93 Houston on this list because their roster was deeper and they likely could have run those Cougars out of the gym in a NBA-style shootout.

1. Indiana, 1974-75

Associated Press

Bobby Knight's Indiana fell short in 1974-75 but won it all the following year.

Record: 31-1 (18-0, 1st in Big Ten)

NCAA tournament: Lost in regional finals to Kentucky

Yes, coach Bob Knight's Indiana Hoosiers went a perfect 32-0 and won the national title in 1975-76.

But some think his 1974-75 Indiana team that lost to Kentucky, 92-90, in the Mideast regional finals was even better. It won all 31 of its games leading up to that narrow loss, sweeping through the Big Ten conference schedule unblemished and with an average margin of victory of 23 points.

But star forward Scott May suffered a fractured arm in February that year, requiring a pin to be surgically implanted so he could continue playing after sitting out only two games. He gamely soldiered on but was not the same player the rest of the season.

Had May stayed healthy, the Hoosiers would have been difficult to derail. The team also had Steve Green, Kent Benson, Quinn Buckner, John Laskowski, Bobby Wilkerson and Tom Abernethy as viable scoring options, but the chemistry wasn't quite the same after May's injury.

These Hoosiers still rank ahead of all the rest on this list because they were, without a doubt, the very best team, a unit that played together with sweet chemistry and never spun off into selfish individual play that occasionally harmed the effectiveness of '82-83 Houston or '90-91 UNLV. Knight simply wouldn't allow it.

Unless otherwise noted, all information was obtained firsthand.

Joe Menzer has written six books, including one about college basketball entitled Four Corners, and also is so old he watched the 1974-75 Indiana Hoosiers play several games in person. He now writes about college basketball and other sports for Bleacher Report and can be followed on Twitter @OneMenz.