The NCAA Tournament is where legends are made, especially when it comes to coaches. The men roaming the sideline are either praised for their teams seemingly always playing strong in March and winning championships or criticized for a lack of success in the tournament. Here we celebrate the most accomplished and successful coaches in NCAA Tournament history.
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Wooden's streak at UCLA from 1964-1975 is arguably the best in major sports history. He made 11 Final Four appearances in 12 years and won 10 national championships during that span. Wooden made 12 Final Four appearances overall in his coaching career.
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Coach K has five national championships under his belt at Duke, 35 tournament appearances and easily leads all coaches with 97 wins. He has a 76 percent win rate in the tournament. He's also tied with John Wooden for most Final Four appearances, with 12.
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Pitino has made Final Four appearances with three different schools: Providence, Kentucky and Louisville. He's made seven Final Four appearances in all and won a national championship with both Kentucky and Louisville, becoming the first head coach to win it all at two schools. His career winning percentage in the tournament is 74 percent.
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UNC's greatest coach ever went to 11 Final Fours during his career spanning 36 years. Smith won two national championships with the Tar Heels.
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Rupp went to "only" six Final Fours at Kentucky, but he won four of them. His career at the school began in 1930-31, and he retired after the 1971-72 season.
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Williams has taken two schools to Final Fours, in Kansas and North Carolina, tallying a total of nine Final Fours for his coaching career. He's won three national championships with the Tar Heels and has a tournament winning percentage of 75 percent.
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Knight won three national championships in five Final Four appearances with Indiana. He made 28 tournament appearances during his coaching career.
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Calhoun made four Final Four appearances during his coaching career, and he won three of them. His final championship was an improbable 2011 run as a No. 3 seed.
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While Izzo has won only one national championship, he's still considered one of the best tournament coaches ever with eight Final Four appearances in 25-plus seasons at Michigan State and a 70 percent win percentage of his tournament games.
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Calipari has made Final Four appearances with UMass, Memphis and Kentucky, but his 2012 title is his one and only. He's made six Final Four appearances for his career, including three at Kentucky.
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Donovan made four Final Four appearances during his coaching career at Florida and won back-to-back titles in 2006-07. He also reached four consecutive Elite Eights from 2011-14.
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Crum won two national championships and made six Final Four appearances at Louisville. His last national championship came in 1986.
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Olson made Final Four appearances with both Iowa and Arizona, making five trips in all. He won his only national championship in 1997 with the Wildcats.
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Boeheim is second behind Duke head coach Mike Krzyzewski with 34 NCAA Tournament appearances. He's made five Final Fours and won one national championship, helping him to a tournament win percentage of 65 percent.
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Lewis never won the national championship at Houston, but he made quite a run with three consecutive Final Four appearances from 1982-84. His teams led by Hakeem Olajuwon and Clyde Drexler are still considered among the best to not win it all.
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Iba won back-to-back national championships in 1945-46 at Oklahoma A&M (now known as Oklahoma State), and his team reached two more Final Fours over the next five years.
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Fisher took over Michigan late in the 1989 season, leading the Wolverines to a national championship. He coached the Fab Five a few years later and made consecutive title games in 1992-93. Fisher's San Diego State teams made the NCAA Tournament every season from 2010-15, and he won 65 percent of his tournament games.
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Self has reached the Elite Eight with three different schools (Tulsa, Illinois and Kansas) and has reached the NCAA title game twice. He won his only national championship with Kansas in 2008, and he's won 71 percent of his tournament games for his career.
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Most of Smith's tournament success came while coaching Kentucky. He won the national championship in his first season in 1998 and made three more Elite Eights before departing after the 2006-07 season. Smith has made the tournament with five different schools and has a career tournament winning percentage of nearly 64 percent.
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Matta's track record between Butler, Xavier and Ohio State is even better than some realize. He's won tournament games at all three schools and has reached two Final Fours with the Buckeyes. He has a strong 65 percent winning percentage and 24 tournament wins for his head coaching career.
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Huggins made the Final Four in 1992 while coaching Cincinnati and returned in 2010 at West Virginia. He has 24 tournament appearances, and he's won nearly 60 percent of his tournament games.
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With the help of Bill Russell and K.C. Jones, Woolpert won back-to-back titles at San Francisco in 1955-56. His squad also finished third in 1957.
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Larry Brown spent only 11 years as a college coach during his impressive career and made three Final Fours. He won the 1988 national championship at Kansas and has a tournament winning percentage of better than 73 percent.
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Jucker won back-to-back national championships at Cincinnati in 1961-62 and fell just short of winning a third straight title in 1963, losing the title game in overtime. He coached only five seasons and holds the record for the best NCAA Tournament winning percentage at nearly 92 percent.
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Branch McCracken
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Before Bobby Knight at Indiana, there was McCracken. He won the national championship in 1940 and 1953 and also made it to two Sweet 16s.
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Wright is on quite a run at Villanova, winning national championships in 2016 and 2018. The head coach of the Wildcats since 2001, he has a career 27-13 record in the tournament and has appeared in three Final Fours.