But oh: he once scored 54 straight points in a game, a record that will never, ever, ever, ever be broken. 4 draft pick in 1952, played one season, went into the Armed Forces and became a dentist. The Owls count Bill Mlkvy (the Owl Without a Vowel) and Guy Rodgers as their consensus All-Americans. Until earlier this decade, Temple won more Big 5 titles than any school, but Villanova has since surpassed it.

Temple also just missed the cut for receiving national-championship credit it won the Helms/NIT championship in 1938. The Owls' trips to the Final Four came long ago under Litwack, in '56 and '58. He got to the NCAAs 17 times and won eight A-10 titles.Īfter Chaney, Fran Dunphy serviceably kept Temple competitive, but the program dipped a notch or two. Harry Litwack won 373 games (1952-1973), Don Casey added 151 more (1973-1982) and then John Chaney looked over this program and brought it to a heightened level of respect and consistency from 1982-2006, winning 516 games and making the Elite Eight five times, heartbreakingly never breaking through to the Final Four. TU hoops is one of the oldest institutions in basketball, having played its first game in 1894. This should not be a surprise ranking for the Temple fans who know their stuff. The Owls comfortably sit sixth - sixth! - in all-time victories with 1,940, only trailing Kentucky, Kansas, North Carolina, Duke and Syracuse. And if you've ever wondered who the 'Gallagher' in Gallagher-Iba Arena is, Ed Gallagher was as big a deal to Oklahoma State wrestling as Iba was to OSU hoops. Perhaps Cade Cunningham changes that in 2021. Oklahoma State had studs like Byron Houston, Brooks Thompson, Bryant Reeves, Desmond Mason, Tony Allen, Marcus Smart and James Anderson, but Kurland is the only consensus All-American in school history. Bob Kurland was the star of those early teams, a 7-footer at a time when college basketball had very few people 7-feet playing. He coached from 1934-70 (653-317), and he was so successful that it's surprising to realize that the late, great Eddie Sutton still trailed Iba by 285 wins when he left the program in 2008. OSU was Oklahoma A&M (until 1957) when Hank Iba made history by becoming the first coach, and thus A&M the first team, to win back-to-back national titles in 1945 and '46. The Cowboys also narrowly edged out Big 12 brethren Texas to crack the top tier, lifted in part because of two national titles, four additional Final Four appearances, then six more Elite Eight showings that don't include the previous six Final Four runs. Oklahoma State is behind in the all-time series with Bedlam buddies Oklahoma, but the totality of the resume leaves little doubt that this is the better program on the whole. Yeah, the list feels right starting with the Pokes. Greatest College Basketball Teams Ever: Nos. We proudly present the best programs in college basketball. This is from 1938-39 through the 2019-20 season.ĭrumroll, please. The project was finished in early November, prior to the 2020 NBA Draft and the release of the preseason AP Top 25 poll. CBS Sports ace researcher Andy Tulin provided all data on teams' wins over ranked opponents. I relied on data from the NCAA record book, Sports Reference,, , Stats Inc., school record books, and ESPN's College Basketball Encyclopedia. Wins over ranked opponents (0.5 points).Elite Eights without making the Final Four (3 points).Final Four appearances without a national title (10 points).NCAA Tournament championships (20 points).Those categories' points were added up and the master order was determined. I relied upon wins and losses, NCAA Tournament success, conference dominance, NIT titles - because it was a significant tournament for decades, and even still is a marked achievement in today's age - and the cultivation of NBA talent. Still, I did need to come up with categories and assign values to them. 50-26) was objectively driven by the data. From there, I wanted to provide a ranking built much more on statistics and achievements than broad perception or subjective rankings.ĬBS Sports' assembly of the 68 best programs in history (read the ranking of Nos. In this longest of offseasons, I was sparked to research the history of the sport, and in doing so began to assemble a list of the greatest schools. Below are the 25 most successful programs in men's Division I college basketball since the advent of the NCAA Tournament in 1939.

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