RADIO
The first week of March is not quite madness. Most are patiently waiting for high-major conference championship week, which doesn't tip off until March 12.
While we sit around and twiddle our thumbs in anticipation, it's always fun to take a step back and look at the landscape of college basketball more holistically, indulging in some of the storylines and narratives that will start to be creep back up as the big dance approaches.
Much of this discussion is centered around the coaches that have come up short in March, failing to either cut down the nets on the biggest stage or even reach that elusive title game throughout their careers. In no particular order, here are the best current college basketball coaches who have not yet won a national championship.
Matt Painter
Team: Purdue Boilermakers
Career Record: 464-206 (.693)
NCAA Tournament record: 17-5 | 6 Sweet 16s, 1 Elite Eight
Accomplishments: 5x Big 10 Regular Season Champion, 2x Big Ten Tournament Champion, 4x Big Ten Coach of the Year
I know I said 'in no particular order' above, but Painter and Gonzaga's Mark Few are assuredly at top of the list when you think about elite head coaches that haven't been able to get over the hump. Few probably takes the cake having been to two national championships, but the Boilermakers show-runner has had some elite teams over the years and has still consistently fallen short in the NCAA Tournament.
There's no questioning that the job he's done in West Lafayette has been incredible, building Purdue into a perennial powerhouse in one of the toughest conferences in college basketball. Jon Rothstein put it perfectly: Death, Taxes, Matt Painter.
He's taken his team to the NCAA Tournament 14 out of 17 years as the head coach of Purdue. Some of the players he's developed into superstars consist of JaJuan Johnson, E'Twaun Moore, Robbie Hummel, Carsen Edwards, Caleb Swanigan (rest in peace) and Zach Edey. Braden Smith could also add his name to this list when it's all said and done. The fact that Painter only has one Elite Eight with this slew of players is definitely disappointing.
Everyone will remember last year's historic loss as a No. 1 seed to No. 16 seed Fairleigh Dickinson, the latter infamously being the shortest team in the country but still managing to take down 7-foot-4 National Player of the Year Zach Edey. That's the nature of the sport we know and love.
At the highest level, legacies are measured by how you perform in March, and Painter has not been able to crack the code. Perhaps he will this year, with the Boilermakers eyeing a No. 1 overall seed for the 2024 NCAA Tournament.
10 days ago, FDU lost to Merrimack in the NEC Tournament Championship.
However, Merrimack wasn’t eligible for the NCAA Tournament, so the Knights got the bid.
Tonight, Farleigh Dickinson pulled off an all-time upset by taking down No. 1 Purdue.
Anything can happen in March pic.twitter.com/JlDWJ8ZyQa
— CBS Sports (@CBSSports) March 18, 2023
Mark Few
Team: Gonzaga Bulldogs
Career Record: 711-141 (.835)
NCAA Tournament record: 41-22 | 13 Sweet 16s, 6 Elite Eights, 2 Final Fours
Accomplishments: 2x National Runner Up, 22x WCC Regular Season Champion, 19x WCC Tournament Champion, 14x WCC Coach of the Year, 2017 AP Coach of the Year
The accolades for Few are just ridiculous. 2012 was the only season that the Zags did not win the WCC since 1999, and they have only been knocked out of the conference tournament five times in that time span. Few has the highest win percentage (.835) among active head coaches by a long shot (minimum of 10 years coached). Bill Self is second with a .770 mark.
The dominance that this program has seen under his tutelage is completely unmatched by any other team in the country. Seven straight Sweet 16 appearances, three No. 1 seeds, and two near national titles in 2017 and 2021.
Unlike Painter, Few has actually had tremendous success in the NCAA Tournament, but he has just not been able to bring home that national championship trophy. Few had his best chance to win it during the COVID-shortened season in 2020-21 when the Zags entered the tournament with an unblemished 26-0 record and the No. 1 overall seed, but were blitzed in the title game by Baylor, 86-70.
This season is the first in a while where the Bulldogs don't have high expectations (currently projected as a No. 7 seed by Joe Lunardi), but would anyone be that surprised if they made it to their third Final Four in the past seven years?
Betting against Mark Few? Not the best idea...
Zags spoiled Saint Mary's perfect (15-0) conference record on the ROAD and punched their ticket to the NCAA Tournament for the 25th consecutive year.
Bulldogs close out the regular season on an 8-game win streak!🔥 pic.twitter.com/k9RLvlgU41
— College Basketball Report (@CBKReport) March 3, 2024
Rick Barnes
Team: Tennessee Volunteers
Career Record: 803-412 (.661)
NCAA Tournament record: 27-26 | 5 Sweet 16s, 2 Elite Eights, 1 Final Fours
Accomplishments: 5x Conference Regular Season Champion (3 Big 12, 2 SEC), 2x Conference Tournament Champion (1 Big East, 1 SEC), 5x Conference Coach of the Year (4 Big 12, 1 SEC), Naismith Coach of the Year (2019)
Most known for his work at Texas where he coached the Longhorns for 17 seasons that included 16 trips to the NCAA Tournament and a Final Four in 2003, Barnes is now at Tennessee where he is still searching for his first national title.
Before this, the 69-year old had stops at George Mason, Providence, and Clemson as a head coach before turning Texas into a national powerhouse. During his tenure as a Longhorn, Barnes coached two National Players of the Year in T.J. Ford (2003) and Kevin Durant (2007), and also won a school record 402 games.
Barnes has reinvigorated a Tennessee program that had just went through two coaches in two years when he was hired in 2015 -- although one of those, Cuonzo Martin, resigned after taking the Vols to a surprise Sweet Sixteen run. The program was not necessarily in the gutter, but Barnes took what was usually a middling SEC squad and turned them into a program regularly competing for conference titles.
While he was able to reach one Final Four at Texas, he only made it to two total Elite Eights in 17 years, despite winning at least 24 games in 10 seasons. Similarly while in Knoxville, the journeyman head coach has not made it past the Sweet Sixteen, only reaching this stage twice in nine years. Barnes definitely falls into the category of head coaches who have racked up a number of regular-season accomplishments but have not had much success when it comes to the tournament.
The Vols just clinched their first outright SEC title under Barnes with a win at No. 17 South Carolina. They will have to face Kentucky at home to close out the year, and if they win that, it likely means the first NCAA Tournament No. 1 seed in the school's history. This is definitely the best team Barnes has had since he accepted the Tennessee job, but can they finally advance past the Sweet Sixteen?
holding steady
25th time ranked inside the top 5 under Barnes (17 instances prior) pic.twitter.com/JFbtLiDnNY
— Tennessee Basketball (@Vol_Hoops) March 4, 2024
Kelvin Sampson
Team: Houston Cougars
Career Record: 758-348 (.685)
NCAA Tournament record: 24-18 | 3 Sweet 16s, 2 Elite Eights, 2 Final Fours
Accomplishments: 6x Conference Regular Season Champion (4 AAC, 2 Big 12), 5x Conference Tournament Champion (3 Big 12, 2 AAC), 6x Conference Coach of the Year, AP Coach of the Year (1995)
Sampson is one of the best defensive head coaches in the sport's history, especially known for his innovative methods for defending the pick and roll, which has helped him succeed at basically every stop of his long career.
The North Carolina native has definitely had the most interesting career out out of this group. He burst onto the scene at Oklahoma where he won the AP Coach of the Year award in just his first season, the year before the Big 12 was formed.
Sampson helped put Oklahoma on the map with 11 NCAA Tournament appearances in 12 seasons, winning over 20 games in nine of those. The Sooners also won the Big 12 tournament three consecutive years from 2000-2003 under Sampson, despite zero first place finishes in the regular season.
Sampson then left for IU, but his time in Bloomington lasted less than two years. Due to a myriad of recruiting violations, most famously of star guard Eric Gordon, Samson was forced to resign as head coach. He took Indiana to the tournament in his only season at the helm, but lost in the second round to UCLA.
After bouncing around in the NBA as an assistant for a number of years, Sampson found a home at Houston, where he has brought the Cougars back to a national title contending program -- something they haven't experienced since the "Phi Slama Jama" era.
This program infamously went to three straight Final Fours from 1981-1984, including two losses in the title game, one of which gave the greatest finish in the history of college basketball. The Cougars have won four of the last five AAC regular season titles, two conference tournament titles, and have also been to five straight NCAA Tournaments under Sampson, including a Final Four in 2021.
Houston has the best record in college basketball over the past five seasons, winning an average of 29.8 games. All he's done this year is maintain a top-five ranking all season with a potential NCAA Tournament No. 1 overall seed in sight, and win the toughest conference in college basketball his first season in the league.
Houston has gone AAC to Big 12 without much of a hiccup.
"We didn't change anything. We believe in what we're doing here," Kelvin Sampson told ESPN.
And now they're No. 1 and a title contender.
So how good are they? Opposing coaches break it all down.https://t.co/3e6O1aNNQ2
— Jeff Borzello (@jeffborzello) February 29, 2024
Bruce Pearl
Team: Auburn Tigers
Career Record: 669-260 (.720)
NCAA Tournament record: 17-11 | 3 Sweet 16s, 1 Elite Eight, 1 Final Four
Accomplishments: 5x Conference Regular Season Champion (3 SEC, 2 Horizon League), 3x Conference Tournament Champion (1 Sec, 2 Horizon League), 6x Conference Coach of the Year (3 SEC, 3 Horizon League)
Like Barnes, Pearl has also bounced around quite a bit, but has found a home at Auburn, where he has resided since 2014. His first stop as a D1 head coach was at Milwaukee, where he led the Panthers to their first ever Sweet Sixteen in 2005.
After virtually running through the Horizon League for four consecutive years, Pearl took a major leap to the SEC where he coached the Tennessee Volunteers from 2005-2011. In this span, he won an SEC regular season title and reached the NCAA Tournament all six seasons, making one Elite Eight in 2010.
Known for this raucous demeanor on the sideline similar to Dan Hurley, Pearl might be one of the national leaders in technicals received, but his players love him and that's why he's been a solid program builder at every stop in his career.
During his time as a Vol, Pearl committed some minor recruiting violations, which including hosting a cookout with former Ohio State guard Aaron Craft (a high schooler at the time). Because he lied about the event, an NCAA investigation began and ultimately led to Pearl leaving the school. After a few years away from coaching, he was hired as the 20th men's basketball coach in Auburn history.
It took Pearl a few seasons to get the Tigers back on the map, but he's established a culture of toughness and leadership at Auburn that was severely lacking from the program.
The Tigers have won an average of 23.5 games in the past six years, highlighted by the 30-win 2019 season in which they were one tragic foul away from competing for a title. This year, Pearl might have the deepest team in college basketball. After being picked to finish sixth in the SEC, his bunch is currently ranked No. 5 overall in KenPom, and are top 15 in both offensive and defense efficiency, one of four teams in the country that can claim this.
Auburn’s Head Basketball Coach, Bruce Pearl, is a National Treasure & a man of his word. pic.twitter.com/HGDjO8rpZy
— Te𝕏asLindsay™ (@TexasLindsay_) March 3, 2024
Honorable Mentions
Jim Larranaga, Miami
You can't make a list of legendary college coaches and not have Larranaga's name mentioned somewhere. He'll mostly be remembered for leading No. 11 seed George Mason to a historic overtime upset of No. 1 overall seed and title favorite UConn in the Elite Eight, which made the Patriots the second ever double-digit seed to reach a Final Four.
The former Virginia assistant has been the coach of Miami since 2011, where he's won two regular-season titles and one tournament title, including a pair of conference Coach of the Year awards. Larranaga also reached his second Final Four a season ago, where the Hurricanes lost to eventual national champion, UConn. The 74-year old is 31st on the all-time wins list with 725, which ranks sixth among active head coaches.
Leonard Hamilton, Florida State
Another legendary ACC coach, Hamilton has been the head man in Tallahassee for the past 22 years. In his head-coaching career that includes stops at Oklahoma State and Miami, Hamilton has won two regular-season conference titles and one tournament title, with five conference Coach of the Year awards.
His NCAA Tournament track record is not the greatest, with only four Sweet Sixteens and one Elite Eight, but Hamilton has reached the 20-win mark 12 times during his time at Florida State in an always tough ACC. We're not likely to see Hamilton hoisting the national championship trophy anytime soon with Florida State in a multiyear slump at the moment and retirement inching ever closer, but there's no doubting that he is one of the top coaches in the sport.
Randy Bennett, St. Mary's
Only the ones that follow college basketball closely are familiar with Bennett, but he's built St. Mary's into a perennial NCAA Tournament team in a conference that is not exactly brimming with talent and competition. It's unfortunate for his career and the program as a whole that Gonzaga has ultimately played the part of big brother to St. Mary's for the past 20 years.
If Few had chosen to go elsewhere back in 1999, we would probably be talking about Bennett the same way we mention the Zags head coach today. With three WCC tournament championships and five regular-season titles under his belt, Bennett is easily a top three mid-major coach in college basketball. He's won six WCC Coach of the Year awards, and taken the Gaels to nine (going on 10) NCAA Tournaments, including a Sweet Sixteen appearance in 2010.
