Most successful college basketball programs

Michigan State football is one of eight schools still in the running for an elite running back in the class. MSU listed as one of best college basketball programs over last 10 years Kirthmon F. More Spartans Wire. In addition to this, Indiana lacks a single conference tournament championship in their history. However, they are clearly one of the great schools in basketball history and have a proud and storied tradition. Indiana is the sixth-greatest college basketball program in NCAA history and have plenty to be proud of when wearing their school colors.

The Kansas Jayhawks are one of the most difficult teams to rank on this entire list. When viewing their overall resume, few schools can match their program in terms of history, tradition and longevity.

For example, Kansas is second all-time in wins with 2, and counting. They trail Kentucky by only 22 victories and hold a narrow lead over third-place North Carolina.

Kansas' impressive winning percentage is third-best in NCAA basketball history, and they have won more conference regular season championships than any other program. However, Kansas simply lacks the championship pedigree to back up their regular season success.

They have won three NCAA titles in their school's history, which is certainly impressive. With that being said, that is the same amount as Connecticut, who has appeared in 10 fewer Final Fours than Kansas yet has won the same number of championships. The Jayhawks have appeared in nine NCAA national final games, but they have only walked away with the trophy three times. Simply put, college basketball's finest programs need to win on the biggest stage in order to be considered the best of the best.

Besides their lack of championships, Kansas has other impressive historical figures. They rank fifth all-time with 14 Final Four appearances and only trail Duke and Kentucky by one in that category. Their conference championships best any other school and are truly the class of the Big Kansas has had more recent success in the past few decades, but they do feature great success from across the basketball spectrum. In terms of winning percentage by decade , Kansas appears among the top 20 schools in the s, s, s and s.

The school has a proud history, as former head coach Phog Allen was one of the early innovators of the sport. He led the school to three appearances in the national title game and is honored by having Kansas name their arena after him. Kansas also produced a player by the name of Wilt Chamberlain who became one of the most dominant forces of all time during his playing career in college and the NBA. All in all, Kansas boasts one of the most historical and impressive basketball programs of all time.

The Connecticut Huskies made this list of the 10 greatest basketball programs completely because of Jim Calhoun and his accomplishments during his tenure. Without Calhoun, though, UConn would be nowhere on this list. This same principle applies to the Duke Blue Devil basketball program. The legendary coach took over the team in and has produced arguably the greatest coaching run by anyone not named John Wooden. Krzyzewski's greatest five-year run was from , in which he led the Blue Devils to five consecutive appearances in the Final Four, including three straight trips to the national final and winning back-to-back championship trophies in and Duke's history before "Coach K" is limited, but it is more prolific than most casual fans think.

Led by head coach Vic Bubas, Duke made its presence known on the national scene by advancing to three Final Fours in a four year span, from Foster, where the Blue Devils fell to eventual champion Kentucky. In addition to the school's championship pedigree, they boast an incredible conference record playing in the competitive Atlantic Coast Conference.

Their rivalry with the North Carolina Tar Heels is perhaps the most famous rivalry in American sports and is always full of intensity, tough play and memorable moments. Duke has also won 24 ACC Tournament titles, which is good for the third most all-time. Despite the assumption that they achieved nothing before Mike Krzyzewski's arrival, their 36 appearances in the NCAA tournament ranks sixth in the sport's history.

All in all, Duke has arguably been the best team of the previous 30 years. Even though they lack the more consistent all-time success of programs such as Kentucky and Kansas, they can boast about having the best head coach in college athletics and will likely be a key title contender long beyond the eventual departure of "Coach K. Ranking this entire list has been an extremely difficult process.

It is difficult separating programs that are only one championship, one conference title or a few regular season victories apart from each other. With that in mind, I do believe that there are three clear choices for the best programs in college basketball history. On one hand you have the UCLA Bruins, who lead the nation in national championships and produced the greatest dynasty in college basketball history.

The Kentucky Wildcats are another clear contender, with their all-around blend of dominance in the early and latter days of basketball history and their status as the all-time wins leader.

Finally, you have the North Carolina Tar Heels. Playing in the Final Four on a consistent basis is a good barometer of seeing how often a particular program was one of the very best teams year in and year out. North Carolina certainly passes that test with flying colors. The difficulty in ranking these three programs is placing them in order. As you can see, I have the Tar Heels rated third all-time and although there is certainly a valid debate for them to place higher, I believe that three is the correct placement on the all-time list.

In terms of wins, North Carolina is third all-time behind Kentucky and Kansas. However, they are second in history in terms of winning percentage, topping that of UCLA. North Carolina has certainly produced countless memorable figures, including former head coach Dean Smith and former player and all-time great Michael Jordan. Those two people still keep North Carolina relevant to this day with their historical impact and how they changed the game of basketball forever. The Tar Heels are also second all-time in conference tournament titles, finishing one spot ahead of rival Duke with They only trail Kentucky in this category.

In terms of all-time history, North Carolina certainly has an impressive spread of dominance across multiple eras of basketball. Their first national championship occurred in , when head coach Frank McGuire guided his team to a perfect season record.

Dean Smith won the school's following two championships in and , with many Final Four appearances occurring during that time period. When Roy Williams took over the program in , he guided the Tar Heels to championships in and Of the schools on this list, North Carolina is the only one to have two head coaches win multiple national titles.

However, the school's overall championship pedigree is what ultimately places it third all-time instead of further up on the list. The Tar Heels can brag about reaching 18 Final Fours.

However, having won only five championships out of those 18 trips suggests that North Carolina is a program that is consistently near the top of the mountain, but also one that ultimately fails at the end more often than not. Out of those 18 trips to the sport's final weekend, they only advanced to the national final game nine times.

When ranking the absolute best programs in the sport, a program simply must perform better on basketball's biggest stage to be considered as the best of all-time.

With that being said, their overall resume is extremely impressive and Roy Williams has their future headed in a great positive direction. They are one of college basketball's most elite schools and boast a tradition and history that would be the envy of any program.

With North Carolina sitting in third place, the final showdown for basketball's best program came down to its two greatest champions in Kentucky and UCLA. The two greatest schools in basketball have incredibly rich traditions and have consistently won at the very highest level of the sport. Having won 11 national titles, they have won three more championships than Kentucky, six more than North Carolina and Indiana, seven more than Duke and eight more than Kansas and Connecticut.

Granted, this is not surprising considering the number of championships that they have contended for and won. It is still an impressive feat none the less. Now that the s are complete, though, it is time to take a look back and analyze which programs were truly the most successful. In this article, I will break down my rankings for the top 25 programs of the decade. As one would expect, bluebloods are littered throughout the rankings as some of the top programs in the nation.

Many of these schools, though, might not have been even on the radar to reach this list in Next 1 of 26 Prev post. Next: Kansas State. More SEC Rumors ». More Big Ten News ». More Big Ten Rumors ». View all Big Ten Sites.