My Avatar, the Maker of Men. He accomplished what he accomplished while landing very few McDonald's All Americans.
I like Wooden, but as the man who was the topic in your other thread this morning has said, UCLA had a larger payroll than most NBA teams. Plus he had players for 4 years and an easier tournament. His players loved him, that too is huge. He evidently was a great man.
I like Wooden, but as the man who was the topic in your other thread this morning has said, UCLA had a larger payroll than most NBA teams. Plus he had players for 4 years and an easier tournament. His players loved him, that too is huge. He evidently was a great man.
John Wooden
College basketball’s greatest coach ever has to be John Wooden. His UCLA Bruins put a stranglehold on the sport during his time in Southern California.In Wooden’s 27 years as the Bruins’ head coach, his teams won an unprecedented 10 national championships, including seven straight at one point in the late 1960s and early 1970s. The next closest coaches in terms of titles won?
That would be Mike Krzyzewski and Adolph Rupp with a meager four each.
Wooden was a member of the inaugural College Basketball Hall of Fame in 2006 and was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame back in 1961.
Even more important than his basketball accomplishments, though, Wooden was seen as a great leader of young men. His famous and inspirational Pyramid of Success and Seven Point Creed philosophies were followed by scores of his most successful players, including NBA legends Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Bill Walton.
Given his greatness on and off the court, Wooden topping this list is simply a no-brainer.
Bobby Knight
Few coaches in the history of college basketball have been as intimidating, polarizing and utterly successful as the General, Bobby Knight. The second-winningest Division I coach ever (with 902 wins), Knight transformed Indiana into one of the country’s truly elite programs.In his nearly three decades in Bloomington, Knight’s Hoosiers won 11 Big Ten regular season championships, advanced to five Final Fours and won three national championships. But Knight’s fiery temper and hard-nosed style eventually got him banished from the program he almost singlehandedly built.
Knight was fired by the late Myles Brand (former NCAA and IU President) in 2000 after video footage surfaced of Knight putting his hands on the neck of one of his players (Neil Reed) during a team practice.
Even with the black eye, Knight’s spot at number two on the list is undeniable. He coached Mike Krzyzewski at Army and is the last coach to guide a team unscathed through an entire season in Division I—Quinn Buckner's 1976 Indiana Hoosiers.
Jim Calhoun
Jim Calhoun may have just retired from the UConn Huskies, but he didn’t do it without pulling off arguably the greatest construction of an elite college basketball program ever. Before arriving at Connecticut in 1986, hardly anyone outside of Storrs knew of the accomplishments of the men’s basketball team.It’s safe to say many know about Huskies basketball now. Calhoun’s UConn teams won over 600 games, seven Big East Tournament titles, made four Final Four appearances and won three national championships.
The most recent NCAA title came in 2011, which made Calhoun the oldest coach (at age 68) in Division I history to win college basketball’s grandest prize. It wasn’t always smooth sailing for the feisty Irishman out of Boston.
Calhoun’s team was placed on probation by the NCAA in 2011 for having a booster-turned-agent try to recruit a player (Nate Miles). Still, it’s tough to deny Calhoun’s lofty ranking on this list.
Dean Smith
Dean Smith was granted the North Carolina head coaching job back in 1961 with the task of cleaning up a Tar Heels program that was on probation.Not only did Smith clean it up, he turned it into one of the most successful programs in college basketball history. In his 36 years behind the Carolina bench, Smith amassed 879 victories, 11 Final Four appearances and two national championships (1982 and 1993).
Not only that, Smith was one of the great innovators of the game on the college level. Never was this more evident than in the implementation of his Four Corners offense, where he would spread his players out over the four corners of the court to ice a victory at the end of a game.
And if these accomplishments aren’t enough to get Smith this high on the list, don’t forget the fact that he coached the Tar Heel who many (including myself) consider to be the greatest basketball player to ever walk the face of the earth: Michael Jordan.
Adolph Rupp
Many great players and coaches have come and gone through the mighty Kentucky program over its storied history. Perhaps none other is more revered and accomplished than the Baron of the Bluegrass, Adolph Rupp.In his 42 seasons as head coach in Lexington, Rupp’s Kentucky teams made the NCAA Tournament 20 times. Six of those teams made the Final Four, and four of those went on to win the national championship.
Rupp was a four-time national coach of the year and a seven-time SEC coach of the year. The man who won 876 games and at an incredible 82 percent rate was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame in 1969.
Today, John Calipari’s Wildcat teams play their home games at Rupp Arena.
John Wooden Motivational Quote Archive
“Ability is a poor man’s wealth.”
“Ability may get you to the top, but it takes character to keep you there.”
“Adversity is the state in which man most easily becomes acquainted with himself, being especially free of admirers then.”
“All of life is peaks and valleys. Don’t let the peaks get too high and the valleys too low.”
“A coach is someone who can give correction without causing resentment.”
“Be prepared and be honest.”
“Be quick, but don’t hurry.”
“Be true to yourself, help others, make each day your masterpiece, make friendship a fine art, drink deeply from good books—especially the Bible, build a shelter against a rainy day, give thanks for your blessings and pray for guidance every day.”
“Being a role model is the most powerful form of educating…too often fathers neglect it because they get so caught up in making a living they forget to make a life.”
“Consider the rights of others before your own feelings, and the feelings of others before your own rights.”
