10 Best College Coaches

With the large number of college basketball teams, compiling a list of the 10 best college coaches is certainly a tough task. But with a handful of coaches remaining with one program for many years and enjoying success built from years of hard work, there are many coaches that have earned their spots on this list of the 10 best college coaches of all time.

1. John Wooden  Perhaps the best college coach any sport has ever seen, John Wooden led UCLA to 10 NCAA Division I National Championships in a 12-year period. His overall career record was 664-162. In the two years UCLA did not win the championship, the Bruins reached the Final Four.
2. Dean Smith  Dean Smith's 879 career wins are second most all time. Smith led the University of North Caroline to two National Championships and eleven Final Fours and is considered one of the best college coaches of all time. He also won an Olympic gold medal at the 1976 Summer Olympics.
3. Bobby Knight Bobby Knight holds the record for wins by a coach with 902. He led Indiana to three National Championships and five Final Fours.
4. Mike Krysewski  Duke head coach Mike Krysewski is the top-ranked member of this list still an active coach and added to his legend recently with Duke's fourth National Championship. He has 868 career wins and has led Duke to 11 Final Four appearances and just may end up becoming the best college coach of all time. 
5. Adolph Rupp  Adolph Rupp's 876 career wins are third all time. He led the University of Kentucky to four National Championships and six Final Fours. He was named the National Coach of the Year four times and was elected to the Hall of Fame in 1969.
6. Pete Newell  Pete Newell only has 234 career wins but his impact on the basketball world was felt when he led Cal Berkeley to the 1959 NCAA Championship and led the United States to the gold medal the following summer. Newell coached at San Francisco, Michigan State and Cal.
7. Hank Iba  Hank Iba coached at Oklahoma State, leading the Cowboys to two National Championships and four Final Fours. Iba's career coaching record was 751-340.
8. Jim Phelan  Coaching at Mount St. Mary's, Jim Phelan recorded 830 wins over a 49-year career prior to his 2003 retirement. The bulk of Phelan's wins came while Mount St. Mary's was competing at the NCAA Division 2 level.
9. Jim Calhoun  The face of basketball at the University of Connecticut, Jim Calhoun entered the 2009-2010 season with 805 career victories and will likely move up on the list of best college coaches..
10. Jim Boeheim  Jim Boeheim has been a member of the Syracuse basketball family as a player, assistant and a head coach. As the program's leader, he has recorded more than 800 career wins and will likely move up along with Calhoun and Krysewski on the list of best college coaches.