As soon as once more CBS Sports activities has been publishing our Candid Coaches collection, which spotlights related matters and points in males’s faculty basketball. Gary Parrish and Matt Norlander polled practically 100 coaches in current weeks on quite a lot of topics. Coaches spoke on background and have been supplied anonymity to supply unfiltered opinions. At the moment, we flip to the subject of the very best coaches but to win a nationwide championship.
Profitable the NCAA Event is a career-defining achievement, one thing so troublesome that a few of the best coaches within the sport, males who led packages for over 30 years and coached near or greater than 1,000 video games failed to attain.
If you happen to’re curious on a few of the best to by no means win all of it, this is the checklist of males’s Division I coaches with 700-plus wins however zero NCAA Event titles: Bob Huggins, Rick Barnes, Eddie Sutton, Kelvin Sampson, Lefty Driesell, Dana Altman, Lou Henson, Ed Diddle, John Beilein, Mark Few, Ray Meyer and Norm Stewart. (Bruce Pearl gained a Division II title in 1995, in order that counts.)
Profitable even one NCAA crown alters a coach’s legacy, some a lot that it is the occasion that may bolster them to eventual Naismith Corridor of Fame standing.
There are simply seven energetic males’s D-I coaches who can declare an NCAA tourney title on their résumé: John Calipari, Scott Drew, Todd Golden, Dan Hurley, Tom Izzo, Rick Pitino and Invoice Self. That leaves a number of alternative for others to hitch that membership. Florida‘s Todd Golden, who simply turned 40 this summer season, is the latest first-time champion. And earlier than him, Dan Hurley altered his popularity perpetually: He went from zero NCAA Event wins at UConn to back-to-back nationwide titles and clinched an eventual Corridor of Fame ceremony for himself years from now.
So, who’s subsequent? That is immediately’s survey Q.
Which coach would be the subsequent first-time nationwide champion?
Others receiving a number of votes: Nate Oats (Alabama), Tommy Lloyd (Arizona), Dusty Might (Michigan), Grant McCasland (Texas Tech)
Quotes that stood out
About Sampson
- “He was clearly a possession away final 12 months. He has a very good mix of younger expertise and retention of essential items. That is the 12 months he will get it performed.”
- “That is the simple, low-hanging fruit reply however he is means too good of a coach and has gotten too shut for it to not occur within the subsequent 1-2 years, then probably experience off into the sundown. KenPom averages over the previous 5 years: 2.6 general rating, twelfth on offense, fifth on protection.”
- “Persistently has the protection and toughness to win a nationwide championship however now could be recruiting offensively expert McDonald’s All-People that can put them over the hump. And they’ll at all times be outdated.”
- “I’m locked in to Kelvin Sampson since I feel they’re the staff to beat this 12 months.”
- “Has created probably the greatest cultures in faculty basketball. His groups play more durable and extra collectively than most. They’ve been killing it on the recruiting path. Solely a matter of time till the expertise and toughness equal title.”
About Painter
- “I do not know if I am answering with my head or my coronary heart — however I will go along with Paint. He is so good and so deserving. I feel he will get it this 12 months. I hope he does.”
- “Has been extremely constant. CULTURE. Recruits, retains, X’s and O’s. In all probability greatest staff within the nation headed into season.”
- “Totally loaded roster with expertise. He is been in each place doable from dropping within the first spherical to creating the championship sport. He is getting it performed this season.”
Candid Coaches: Do you belief that your rivals will observe new recruiting guidelines?
Gary Parrish
About Scheyer
- “He has confirmed in three years that he can recruit the very best, coach with the very best and is changing arguably the best coach of any sport in historical past, exhibiting he can deal with the problem of Duke. He doesn’t make it about himself. It is about Duke and his gamers. I have to emphasize that he’s a nationwide champion alumnus of Duke. He has unbelievable cachet and it’s only going to develop.”
- “I feel they’re at all times going to be in play for the highest expertise within the nation. They’re going to at all times have what you hope to should compete for a nationwide championship, before everything, however I additionally assume he is a fairly good coach and chief. As a younger head coach, he is received the ‘It’ issue. He is set as much as be subsequent. And it is Duke.”
About Pope
- “Since UK can do issues no different college can financially, he must be a whole bozo to not win one quickly.”
The takeaway
For these maintaining observe, the highest two vote-getters for this query are additionally the 2 coaches main the groups that completed within the prime two once we requested which staff can be greatest within the nation for 2025-26. Surprisingly sufficient, Purdue gained out for greatest staff, but Kelvin Sampson and his Cougars take it right here, which in fact might be the case. Purdue might show the plurality of coaches who voted it No. 1 to be proper; it may very well be the No. 1 general seed within the 2026 NCAA Event, however that is no assurance Houston or another person wins the title.
Sampson has made the Closing 4 thrice (2002, 2021, 2025). A fourth journey appears on the desk with such a robust group. And for lots of coaches within the sport, they’re rooting for him to get there and lower down the nets as a result of they imagine he is too good to not get no less than one title.
Whereas Sampson will flip 70 in October, Painter is 55 and nonetheless has far more tread on his tires. The Purdue roster might have the NPOY in Braden Smith, and talent-wise, it might show to be nearly as good as nearly any squad Painter’s placed on a ground in his tenure. Broadly (and non-mathematically) talking, it seems like Painter and Sampson collectively have a couple of 40% probability of successful all of it this season. It simply looks like one or the opposite is due.
Then there’s Scheyer, who’s getting into Yr 4 with Duke and really a lot looks like he is on his solution to successful a natty sooner or later. It may very well be 2026, it may very well be 2036. The NCAA Event is so fickle. However so long as he is sustaining a recruiting edge on the remainder of faculty hoops, he’ll constantly be on the brief checklist of greatest coaches with no title. Pope coming in fourth was a little bit of shock on my finish, primarily as a result of I did not obtain a single vote for him; all of his nominations got here from Parrish’s polling. Pope hadn’t gained an NCAA Event sport till this 12 months, however being at Kentucky does give him rocket gas to get one — and ideally have the roster within the subsequent few years to have a shot.
Many coaches I spoke with about this query primarily seen it via the prism of the upcoming season, which is sensible. If you happen to do not assume Hurley, Golden, Pitino, Calipari, Self, Izzo or Drew are including one other to their trophy instances, then it is sensible to choose the coach of the staff you assume it strongest. That stated, a semi-surprise on the general voting return: Not a single point out for Mark Few. If we might run this ballot three years in the past, I might be prepared to wager Gonzaga‘s coach would have simply been within the prime 5. This means that Few’s compatriots assume his window has handed.
Talking as a reporter, I will supply that it is at all times a privilege to have the ability to write and opine on the packages that win all of it with a first-time nationwide championship coach. To trace that journey within the weeks main as much as that Monday night time in April is at all times a novel story. In 2026, I count on there to be a coach who climbs a ladder in Indianapolis and dons a championship internet for the primary time in his profession.
Earlier 2025 Candid Coaches questions
