NCAA Basketball Coaches With the Most Final Four Appearances It takes a lot of coaching and practice to get to the NCAA Final Four, and these are the coaches that have done it the most. March Madness marks some of the most exciting moments in sports history. It’s the time in college basketball when young stars can shine their brightest, separating the good from the great. After all, who can forget Mario Chalmers’ 3-point shot in the 2008 national championship that sent the game into overtime and led to a Kansas Jayhawks win against the Memphis Tigers? Gut-wrenching stuff. Of course, it takes a lot of coaching and practice to get to these elite moments, and there are some coaches that do it better (and more) than others. These are the NCAA basketball coaches who have appeared in the Final Four the most (some of whom are still coaching). 6. Rick Pitino Elise Amendola / AP Photo Head coaching career (college basketball): Boston University (1978–1983), Kentucky (1989-1997), Louisville (2001-2017), Iona (2020-23), St. John’s (2023-present) No. of Final Four Appearances: 7 Head coaching record (overall): N/A Bottom Line: Rick Pitino Adam Glanzman / Daily / Wikimedia Commons Rick Pitino has been the head coach of several basketball teams around the world, including NCAA Division I schools, NBA teams and even Greece’s senior national team. As such, he was the first coach to take three different schools to the NCAA Final Four and the only one to win a national championship with two different schools. But Pitino’s career is also riddled with scandal. In 2017, he was suspended for five games because of his involvement in an escort scandal in which women were paid to dance for and have sex with players and recruits at the University of Louisville. Pitino was also under federal investigation for bribing recruits, and Louisville fired him as a result. These issues also led to the NCAA vacating the 2012 and 2013 Final Four wins and 2013 national championship win for the school. Yikes! 5. Tom Izzo Eric Gay / AP Photo Head coaching career: Michigan State (1995–present) No. of Final Four Appearances: 8 (1999, 2000, 2001, 2005, 2009, 2010, 2015, 2019) Head coaching record (overall): 704–291 (.708) Bottom Line: Tom Izzo U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class David Danals / Wikimedia Commons Tom Izzo has been the head coach of the Michigan State Spartans for almost 30 years, and during that time, the team has gone to eight Final Fours and won six Big Ten tournament titles. What’s more, Izzo has never had a losing season as head coach, and as of Jan. 30, 2024, he has 700 career wins to his name. Throughout his time at MSU, he has won four national Coach of the Year awards, and he has an impressive coaching tree to show for it. Several of his assistant coaches are now head coaches at other Division I schools. 4. Roy Williams David Martin / AP Photo Head coaching career: Kansas (1988–2003), North Carolina (2003–2021) No. of Final Four Appearances: 9 (1991, 1993, 2002, 2003, 2005, 2008, 2009, 2016, 2017) Head coaching record (overall): 903–264 (.774) Bottom Line: Roy Williams Zeke Smith / Wikimedia Commons Like Pitino, Roy Williams had major success with not one but two teams — as head coach of the Kansas Jayhawks for 15 seasons and of the North Carolina Tar Heels for 18. That said, we still believe he would have stayed at KU had a position at his alma mater not opened up. Still, he’s the only NCAA basketball coach in history to have led two different programs to at least four Final Fours each and the only one to have 400 or more victories at two separate NCAA Division I schools. 3. Dean Smith Pete Leabo / AP Photo Head coaching career: North Carolina (1961–1997) No. of Final Four Appearances: 11 (1967–1969, 1972, 1977, 1981, 1982, 1991, 1993, 1995, 1997) Head coaching record (overall): 879–254 (.776) Bottom Line: Dean Smith University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill / Wikimedia Commons Before Roy Williams, Dean Smith led the North Carolina Tarheels to an impressive 11 Final Four appearances during his 36 years as head coach. Smith was actually Williams’ mentor when Williams served as his assistant coach. And, interestingly enough, Smith also had roots with the Kansas Jayhawks, having played for KU and serving as assistant coach there before moving to Chapel Hill. While Smith’s stats speak for themselves, he was also revolutionary in that he pushed for equal treatment of African American players, even recruiting the university’s first Black scholarship player, Charlie Scott, in 1967. And it was 14 years later in the 1981-82 season that Smith won his first national championship, with Black players Michael Jordan, James Worthy and Sam Perkins all leading the team. 2. John Wooden AP Photo Head coaching career: Indiana State, (1946–1948), UCLA (1948–1975) No. of Final Four Appearances: 12 (1962, 1964, 1965, 1967–1975) Head coaching record (overall): 664–162 (.804) Bottom Line: John Wooden Associated Students, University of California, Los Angeles / Wikimedia Commons As the winningest NCAA national championship coach of all time, it’s no surprise to see John Wooden on this list. After all, he won twice as many championships as the second-winningest coach. What is surprising is that, of the 12 Final Four appearances for UCLA under Wooden’s regime, the school won an impressive 10 national titles and seven of them were in a row. To put that in perspective, no other team has won more than four in a row for either men’s or women’s college basketball. Of course, it didn’t hurt that basketball greats Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Bill Walton played for him during this time. 1. Mike Krzyzewski Jim Mone / AP Photo Head coaching career: Army (1975–1980), Duke (1980–2022) No. of Final Four Appearances: 13 (1986, 1988, 1989, 1990, 1991, 1992, 1994, 1999, 2001, 2004, 2010, 2015, 2022) Head coaching record (overall): 1,202–368 (.766) Bottom Line: Mike Krzyzewski Lance Moritz / The Chronicle / Wikimedia Commons Nicknamed Coach K, Michael Krzyzewski was Duke’s head coach for a whopping 42 years and led them to the Final Four a record 13 times during that time period. He also has the second-most national championship titles (five) after the aforementioned John Wooden. What’s more, his coaching expertise goes beyond college basketball, having coached the U.S. national basketball team and leading them to win gold medals at the 2008, 2012 and 2016 Olympics. For more amazing college basketball coaches, check out “Greatest College Basketball Coaches by Career Winning Percentage.”
