Coaches with most NCAA basketball championships are John Wooden, Mike Krzyzewski, Adolph Rupp, Roy Williams, Jim Calhoun and Bob Knight.
Late John Wooden leads the chart with 10, in a twelve-year period as a head coach for UCLA Bruins, including seven in a row from 1967 to 1973.
NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament is the ultimate contest to determine the college basketball national champion of NCAA Division I.
Best known as March Madness, basketball fan gets their hopes high to support their collegiate team to become the champion for the year. UCLA stands atop the list of highest tournaments at 11, followed by Kentucky at 8, and North Carolina at 6.
Various factors determine a team's potential to lift the national cup. A coach's way of leading the team and its players come forth in each team, and there have been some legendary NCAA coaches to do so.
The following list includes the coaches with most national championships.
John Wooden - 10 Wins
The "Wizard of Westwood," John Wooden, has the most NCAA basketball championships (10) with UCLA Bruins, with the 1st title coming in 1964.
Wooden was the head coach of the UCLA Bruins from 1948 to 1975, during which he and the team made a record of seven national wins in a row from 1967 to 1973.
The other wins were in 1964, 1965, and 1975. Such a legendary figure passed away on June 4, 2010, though his legacy remains. His record of the highest number of NCAA wins and consecutive wins still remained unbroken.
Meanwhile, Wooden was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame for his phenomenal coaching accomplishments in 1973.
Mike Krzyzewski - 5 Wins
Mike Krzyzewski comes second on the list of most NCAA championships by coach. Krzyzewski led the Duke Blue Devils to five NCAA titles.
Coach K served as the head coach of the Blue Devils from 1980 to 2022. He is now retired and remains completely focused on his family life.
Regarding his extraordinary coaching career, Mike and the Duke team won the national championships in 1991, 1992, 2001, 2010, and 2015.
His other achievements include leading Team USA to three gold medals at the 2008, 2012, and 2016 Olympics. Similarly, Team USA also won gold medals at the 2010 and 2014 FIBA World Cup. Thus, proving Mike's epithet as one of the greatest college basketball coaches of all time.
Adolph Rupp - 4 Wins
Adolph Rupp coached the Kentucky Wildcats from 1930 to 1972. Rupp led the Wildcats to four NCAA titles in 1948, 1949, 1951, and 1958.
Adolph had won 876 games in 41 years of coaching Kentucky, making him stand at the seventh rank in total victories by a men's NCAA Division I college coach. He retired in March 1972 at the age of 70 from his coaching career.
Additionally, Rupp himself played college basketball with the Kansas Jayhawks from 1920-23 and twice won the Helms National Championship.
Roy Williams - 3 Wins
Roy Williams started his coaching career in 1973. He led Charles D. Owen HS from 1973-78 and later joined the Tar Heels as their assistant coach.
Roy was the head coach of the Kansas Jayhawks from 1988 to 2003 and later led the Tar Heels again as their head coach from 2003 to 2021.
Williams won the NCAA tournament in 2005, 2009, and 2017, all with the Tar Heels. Hence, he remains currently one of the six NCAA Men's Division I college basketball coaches to have won at least three national championships.
Roy announced his retirement on April 1, 2021, after 48 years of coaching. He retired with an overall record of 903 wins and 264 losses; 418-101 at Kansas and 485-163 at North Carolina.
Jim Calhoun - 3 Wins
Jim Calhoun from Braintree also joins the list of coaches with the most national championships at three wins. Calhoun achieved all these feats with the UConn Huskies in 1999, 2004, and 2011.
He coached the Huskies from 1986 to 2012. The 2011 triumph had made him the oldest coach to win a Division I men's basketball title at 68.
While he spent his glorious days at UConn, he joined Division II's University of Saint Joseph varsity basketball team as their head coach from 2018 to 2021.
Jim has completely retired as of November 2021, per Bleacher Report, and has been focusing on his personal life in Pomfret, Connecticut.
Bob Knight - 3 Wins
Bob Knight, aka "the General," lifted three NCAA national championships with the Indiana Hoosiers in 1976, 1981, and 1987.
A former player of the Ohio State Buckeyes team, Knight took on a coaching role in 1962 at Cuyahoga Falls High School as an assistant coach.
He then took over the Armys as their head coach from 1965 to 1971 after serving as their assistant coach for two seasons. After that, he was a part of the Hoosiers team, with whom he achieved three iconic title wins
From 2001 to 2008, Bob coached Texas Tech and announced his retirement on February 4, 2008. His overall record reads 902 wins to 371 losses, with a winning percentage of .709.
Knight had a brief stint as a basketball analyst for ESPN from 2008 to 2015. He has been currently facing health issues given his age, in his 80s.
Denny Crum - 2 Wins
The legendary college basketball coach Denny Crum recently passed away on May 9, 2023. However, his legacy shines bright as the winner of two NCAA national titles.
The two wins were with the Louisville Cardinals in 1980 and 1986. Interestingly, Crum played college ball for the UCLA Bruins under head coach John Wooden as a guard from 1957 to 1959.
He then served as Wooden's assistant when the Bruins won a national championship in each of his three seasons. Later, Denny embarked on a head coach role and became a four-time Metro Coach of the Year.
Billy Donovan - 2 Wins
Chicago Bulls head coach Billy Donovan won two NCAA national titles with the Florida Gators in back-to-back triumphs in 2006 and 2007.
Donovan is a 1987 graduate of Providence College, where he was a varsity team member in the point guard position. He was the 68th overall pick of the Utah Jazz in the third round of the 1987 NBA Draft. As his NBA career did not last long, he started his coaching career in 1989.
After his college coaching days from 1989 to 2015 in Kentucky, Marshall, and Florida, Billy became the head coach of the Oklahoma City Thunders in 2015.
Since 2020, he has been looking over the Chicago Bulls. Moreover, Donovan is also the recipient of the 2020 NBCA Co-Coach of the Year award.
Henry Iba - 2 Wins
Henry "Hank" Iba ties with Donovan in the NCAA wins at 2, including the back-to-back win stipulation. The late Iba lifted the Division I titles in 1945 and 1946 with the Oklahoma State Cowboys.
He coached the team from 1934 to 1970, the year of his retirement. During the same working hours, Iba also looked after the college's baseball team as a part of the administration.
Regarding his impressive coaching career, he began his career with The Classen High School team in 1927 and subsequently moved toward Northwest Missouri State and Colorado.
Henry passed away on January 15, 1993, but has left behind his coaching tree. The tree represents a group of prominent coaches who either coached or played for him.
Bob Knight is the sixth man on the tree since he was an assistant coach on the 1972 U.S. Olympic Team that Iba had head coached.
Ed Jucker - 2 Wins
The late Edwin Louis Jucker won the 1961 and 1962 NCAA basketball tournaments. He then became the MVC Coach of the Year in 1961 and 1963.
Ed's highlighting wins were with the Cincinnati Bearcats, the team he coached from 1960 to 1965. He moved to NBA as a coach for the Cincinnati Royals, now known as Sacramento Kings, right after.
His last coaching stint was with the Division II team, Rollins Tars, from 1972 to 1977. While Jucker passed away due to prostate cancer in 2002, the Ohio Basketball Hall of Fame inducted him to their list in 2014.
