Best program of all time? Pick from this six
NEW ORLEANS — Never before have college basketball’s all-time winningest programs met in the NCAA tournament’s Final Four, much less the championship game, as Kentucky and Kansas will do today.
“It’s going to be cool . . . the bluest of the blue bloods getting a chance to play,” Kansas coach Bill Self said Sunday.
Taking everything into account, from sustained excellence during the regular season and in the tournament to impact on the sport and even decorum — following the rules — which program is best? Six are in the conversation.
Kentucky
Case for: The most all-time wins (2,089 in 109 seasons) is a good place to start, along with 15 Final Four appearances and seven NCAA titles. Adolph Rupp is one of the game’s icons. The excellence continues under John Calipari today. And nowhere — nowhere — are emotions for the game and the program more deeply felt. Big Blue Nation is a real thing.
Case against: From questions about Rupp’s inclination to integrate the program to the point-shaving scandal that brought a one-season suspension of competition in the early 1950s to another infractions case that barred the Wildcats from the NCAA tournament in 1990 and ’91, there’s uncomfortable history.
North Carolina
Case for: Just 24 fewer wins than Kentucky in three fewer seasons, and with far less offthe-court baggage. Nobody has more than the Tar Heels’ 18 Final Four appearances, and only UCLA and Kentucky have more than their five national titles. Dean Smith coached here. Roy Williams does now. Voters didn’t wait until either retired to induct them into the Hall of Fame. Oh yeah, and a guy named Michael Jordan played for both of them (when Williams was a Smith assistant).
Case against: By the time the school discovered the sport in 1910, Kansas had played 12 seasons and won three conference titles. The bit of NCAA baggage the Heels do have cost coach Frank Mcguire his job in 1961.
Kansas
Case for: The program was founded by James Naismith in 1898, seven years after he tacked a couple of peach baskets to the walls and invented basketball in Springfield, Mass. He was the Jayhawks’ first coach, and successor F.C. “Phog” Allen helped build the game, selling it as an Olympic sport and helping get the NCAA tournament off the ground. Adolph Rupp? Dean Smith? They played here. Few, if any, programs have been as consistently good as KU in its 23 years under Williams and now Bill Self. Allen Fieldhouse might be the best place to take in a game.
Case against: While Wilt Chamberlain spent his two-year college career at KU, his recruitment generated questions of impropriety and helped draw a year’s NCAA probation. The Jayhawks also were slapped by the NCAA after winning the 1988 national title, barred from defending it for recruiting irregularities under Larry Brown.
UCLA
Case for: Home to not only the greatest coach, John Wooden, in this sport but perhaps any. He and the Bruins set so many bars for excellence — the 10 national titles in 12 years, the 88game winning streak. The program’s 11 titles are unmatched. Pauley Pavilion is a shrine.
Case against: This was a losing program (256-263) in its first 27 seasons, not pulling above .500 until 1946-47. Wooden got there two years lat- er. The Bruins are a little schizophrenic now, missing the tournament twice in the last three years and dealing with some unflattering headlines.
Duke
Case for: On and off the court, the modern standard for excellence. Beyond his four national titles and seven other Final Four appearances, coach Mike Krzyzewski has melded NBA players into an Olympic gold medal team. Vic Bubas and Bill Foster coached the Blue Devils to Final Fours before him. Intimate Cameron Indoor Stadium should be a national historic site.
Case against: So much of this still is about a single coaching tenure: Krzyzewski’s.
Indiana
Case for: There’s a tendency to identify this program with Bob Knight, but there’s plenty of history before him. Hall of Famers Everett Dean and Branch Mccracken preceded him as coach, and Mccracken won a couple of national championships. Knight won three and fielded college basketball’s last unbeaten team in 1976.
Case against: The Hoosiers have ebbed. They last won a national title in 1987, have reached the Final Four once since ’92 and just got as far as the tournament’s Sweet 16 for the first time in a decade.