Forget About Football: A Coaching Power Shift Is Taking Place In College Basketball

Ask any serious college basketball fan what current conference has the most coaches who have taken teams to the Final Four and I bet many would be stumped. The logical answer would be the ACC, with three Hall of Famers — Duke’s Mike Krzyzewski (Coach K), North Carolina’s Roy Williams, and Syracuse’s Jim Boeheim ranking 1, 2, and 3, in wins among active Division I coaches.

You might even go with the Big 10 and Big East, well known for their basketball prowess for many decades now. But the correct answer is actually the SEC and Big 12, which are definitely known more for football than basketball. Give credit to the athletic directors in both conferences for sidestepping their football-crazed alums just long enough to make some great basketball hires in recent years (more on that later).

After trudging through an exhausting research project (all those power conference re-alignments had my head spinning like a Whirling Dervish), I discovered six coaches in both the SEC and Big 12 who have taken teams to the Final Four, which ties for the most in NCAA history. For one shining moment in 1980, the Big 10 was decades ahead of any conference in Final Four coaching legacy, with six coaches having arrived there by the end of that season. Nearly 30 years later, the Big East reached the magic number of six as well, with an impressive four-season run from 2009 to 2012.

The SEC’s forget about football Final Four coaching list includes Kentucky’s John Calipari (2011, 2012, 2014, 2015; also UMass 1996 and Memphis 2008), Mississippi State’s Ben Howland (UCLA 2007, 2008), Auburn’s Bruce Pearl (2019), South Carolina’s Frank Martin (2017), Tennessee’s Rick Barnes (Texas 2003) and Georgia’s Tom Crean (Marquette 2003). Of course, leading the way in the Big 12 is Kansas’ Bill Self (2008, 2012, 2018), while the others are West Virginia’s Bob Huggins (2010; also Cincinnatti 1992), Oklahoma’s Lon Kruger (2016; also Florida in 1994, Texas Tech’s Chris Beard (2019), Texas’ Shaka Smart (VCU 2011), and Kansas State’s Bruce Weber (Illinois 2005).

In case you’re wondering who the six were in the 1980 Big 10, it was Indiana’s Bobby Knight (1973, 1976), Michigan State’s Jud Heathcote (1979), Michigan’s Johnny Orr (1976), Illinois’ Lou Henson (New Mexico State 1970), along with Purdue’s Lee Rose and Iowa’s Lute Olson, who took their teams to the Final Four that season despite finishing third and fourth, respectively, in the Big 10 standings. When Orr left for Iowa State and Rose went to South Florida, the Big 10 was back to four Final Four coaches the following season.

The Big East’s impressive four-season run of six Final Four coaches included West Virginia’s Huggins (conference re-alignment be damned) as well as Syracuse’s Boeheim (1987, 1996, 2003), Louisville’s Rick Pitino (2005; also Providence 1987, and Kentucky 1993, 1996, 1997), Connecticut’s Jim Calhoun (1999, 2004, 2009, 2011), Villanova’s Jay Wright (2009) and Georgetown’s John Thompson III (2007), whose father had gone to the Final Four with the same school in the 1980s.

Die-hard ACC hoop fans are probably wondering where their league fits into all this. Well, believe it or not, the ACC never even had five coaches who had reached the Final Four until the 2015 season. Of course, it’s no big surprise that conference re-alignment made it all possible. Syracuse’s Boeheim and Louisville’s Pitino cut and pasted their impressive coaching resumes from the Big East into the ACC, combining with the other off-the-chart resumes of Duke’s Krzyzewski (1986, 1988, 1989, 1990, 1991, 1992, 1994, 1999, 2001, 2004, 2010, 2015) and North Carolina’s Williams (2005, 2008, 2009; also Kansas 1991, 1993, 2002, 2003). Throw Miami’s Jim Larranaga and his Cinderella Final Four ride with his 2006 George Mason squad into the mix and you reach five.

When Pitino ran into trouble with the NCAA at Louisville, the ACC was back to four coaches by the 2018 season, but Virginia’s Tony Bennett led his Wahoos to the national title in 2019 bringing the conference back up to five. In fairness to the ACC, it should be noted that the league now has four coaches (Coach K, Williams, Bennett, and Boeheim) who have won national championships, a number untouched by any other conference in NCAA history and equaled only by the ACC from 2015 to 2017 (Pitino instead of Bennett). And Coach K has five national titles to his credit while Williams boasts three.

For some perspective on just how impressive the coaching numbers are in the SEC and Big 12 (and even the current ACC), consider that the other three Power Six basketball conferences — the Big 10, Big East, and Pac 12 — have only one coach apiece who have taken teams to the Final Four. Nevertheless, the list is impressive, as Michigan State’s Tom Izzo (1999, 2000, 2001, 2005, 2009, 2010, 2015, 2019) is in the Hall of Fame and Villanova’s Wright (2009, 2016, 2018), and Oregon’s Dana Altman (2017) will be there someday. Izzo won the national title in 2000 and Wright won national championships in 2016 and 2018.

It should be noted that conference re-alignment has definitely inflated some of these numbers in recent years. If you break it down into percentages, coaching dominance was actually more pronounced in the Big 10 and Big East conferences in the 1980s and 1990s. However, this year’s Big 12 is right there with any conference in NCAA history, with six of 10 coaches having reached the Final Four. The current SEC has 14 teams, so less than half of conference’s coaches have been to the Final Four. Although it was just for the 1980 season, six of the Big 10’s coaches had been to the Final Four. By the end of the 1987 season, the Big East wasn’t far behind, with five coaches having reached the Final Four. Pitino took his unheralded Providence team to the national semifinals and Syracuse’s Boeheim made his first Final Four appearance, losing a one-point nail-biter to Indiana in the title game. Georgetown’s John Thompson (1982, 1984, 1985), Villanova’s Rollie Massimino (1985), and St. John’s Lou Carnesecca (1985) had already been to the Final Four, with Thompson winning his first national championship with Patrick Ewing in 1984 only to lose a shocker to Massimino’s Villanova squad the next season.

At this time, the Big East had only nine schools, meaning more than half of the coaches had reached the Final Four. Pitino was off to coach the New York Knicks after his storybook season at Providence, so the number went back to four the next year but when Seton Hall’s P.J. Carlesimo took his team to the national title game in 1989, the number was back up to five until Carnesseca retired in 1992. But the pinnacle for Big East coaching might have been in 1987. Along with the five coaches who had made Final Four appearances by the end of that season, Carlesimo was quickly ramping up his program at Seton Hall, and the future Hall of Famer Calhoun was beginning his re-building at Connecticut and would later make four Final Four appearances and win three national titles.

Around this same time, the Big 10 was refusing to be outdone by the Big East on the coaching front. For five seasons, from 1989 to 1993, the Big 10 had five coaches who had reached the Final Four. The leader of the pack was Hall of Famer Bobby Knight from Indiana (1973, 1976, 1981, 1987, 1992), with the General winning national titles in 1976, 1981, and 1987. Add to the list Michigan’s Steve Fisher (1989, 1992, 1993), Illinois’ Lou Henson (1989; also New Mexico State 1970), Michigan State’s Jud Heathcote (1979), and Northwestern’s Bill Foster (Duke 1978) and the Big East was equaled at five. Heathcote won the national title in 1979 in the famous Magic Johnson vs. Larry Bird battle and Fisher surprised the country as an interim coach 10 years later when he won the national championship over Carlesimo’s Seton Hall team.

You might be wondering how Foster snuck his way onto this list. An excellent coach in his time, Foster was on his last rodeo and had about as much of a chance of reaching the Final Four at Northwestern as Donald Trump and Joe Biden enjoying Happy Hour together at the White House. One other matter to clarify before moving on, the Big 10 actually had 10 teams during this time. Now the Big 10 has 14 teams, and I’m still trying to figure that one out. Think the Big East’s founder Dave Gavitt was a branding genius when he decided to not attach a number to his conference back in 1979?

Hopefully, by now you’re not as exhausted by all this Final Four coaching history as I am blogging about it, so let’s move on and analyze how this relates to the present-day landscape in college basketball. Although the Big 10 has only Izzo as its one Final Four coach, it is clearly the best conference in college basketball this season. Many coaches roaming the sidelines in the Big 10 who have not been to the Final Four are coaches on the rise that will be there someday.

What about the ACC, with its four coaches who have won national titles? Only Virginia’s Bennett is in his prime, and Coach K (1974) and Boeheim (1969) even began their college coaching careers before UCLA legend John Wooden retired in 1975. Williams began not long after that in 1978. Coach K is arguably right there with Wooden for GOAT (they are tied for most Final Fours at 12) and Williams isn’t far behind. For somebody who has endured his share of criticism over the years, Boeheim is one of the all-time greats, too. But with all the money coaches are being paid these days, careers might be lasting a little longer than they should. Wooden retired at the age of 65 but who knows how much longer he would have coached if the salaries back then were anything like they are now? Coach K, Williams, and Boeheim now all make more money in one year than Wooden did in his entire 27 seasons at UCLA.

Don’t get me wrong, all three legends can still coach with the best but let’s tackle this from another angle. With all the turmoil that is going on in our country these days, relating to 18 to 22-year-olds is harder than it’s ever been, so I suspect more of the better prospects will opt to play for younger coaches in years to come. I’m definitely not ready to bury Coach K, Williams, and Boeheim just yet, but I must confess, discovering that none of these coaching legends had their teams in last week’s AP Top 25 left me wondering. I heard on the air that the last time neither North Carolina or Duke was in the Top 25 was 1982.

This brings me back to the youth factor and how it pertains to the SEC and Big 12 in comparison to the ACC. Four of the five coaches in the ACC who have reached the Final Four are in their 70s — Boeheim (76), Krzyzewski (73), Larranaga (71), and Williams (70). When your spring chicken is Bennett at 51, your league might be a little on the old side. Compare that to the SEC and Big 12, with no coaches in their 70s and many even in their 40s.

The oldest in the SEC is Barnes at 66, followed by Howland (63), Calipari (61), Pearl (60), Martin (54), and Crean (54). If I had to predict which coach in the SEC had the best chance to reach the Final Four next it would Alabama’s Nate Oats, who is only 46. Oats did a great job of building Buffalo into a Top 25 program before being hired by Alabama in the spring of 2019. The Tide are as hot as any team in the country right now and are ranked 18th in the AP poll after winning nine in a row. I watched Alabama beat a very good Tennesee team on the road a few weeks ago and came away impressed with the Tide’s offensive firepower and Oats’ coaching ability. It would not surprise me at all if Alabama makes a run at the Final Four this season, and if not I predict Oats will have the Tide there sometime in the future.

And there are some other rising SEC coaches in their 40s who have their sights on the Final Four as well. Taking schools to the Sweet 16 were Missouri’s Cuonzo Martin (49) at Tennessee in 2014 and Texas A&M’s Buzz Williams (48) at Virginia Tech in 2019. Florida’s Mike White (43) was in his 30s when he went to the Elite 8 with his Gators in 2017, losing a seven-pointer to SEC foe South Carolina. Otherwise, White would be on the SEC’s Final Four coaching list instead of the Gamecocks’ Martin. Arkansas’ Eric Musselman (56) has been around a little longer but the outstanding job he did at Nevada advancing the Pack to the Sweet 16 in 2018 probably has Razorback fans yearning for 1994 when they won a national championship under Nolan Richardson.

But the league currently with the best chance to break the tie and get to seven coaches with Final Four credentials is definitely the Big 12. Under the leadership of 50-year-old Scott Drew, Baylor is ranked No. 2 and clearly has been one of the two best teams in the country along with top-ranked Gonzaga. What a bummer it was for college hoop fans when an earlier scheduled game between the two teams was canceled because of Covid. I think there is a decent chance we will see them playing in the Final Four.

Drew is obviously one of the best young coaches in college basketball but two other coaching stars in the Big 12 are even younger. Texas’ Smart is only 43 and he became one of the youngest coaches in NCAA history to take a team to the Final Four with 11th seeded VCU in 2011. Texas Tech’s Beard is 47 and almost won the national title in 2019 when his Red Raiders lost to Bennett’s Virginia squad in overtime. The success of Self at Kansas has been pretty amazing considering he is just 58. The league’s elder statesman is Kruger at 68, followed by Huggins at 67 and Weber at 64. But none are in their 70s like the ACC’s legends.

So I will end by making this bold prediction; in this decade the hoop coaches in both the SEC and Big 12 will make their fans forget about football (at least during March Madness!) by making more Final Four appearances and winning more national championships than the other four power conferences.