5 Biggest College Basketball Programs Right Now

[DrewDevil]

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Duke has 2 more Final 4s than Kansas, one more title, 12 more tournament wins, and 8 less tournament losses.

They have also never been the victim of a huge first round upset, while Kansas has twice.

Pretty hard to argue Kansas > Duke imo, and I'm a Maryland fan.

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The 12 more tournament wins just say that Duke has had their best run recently and has benefited from the expanded field. The 8 less losses just show they've been to the tournament less than Kansas.

My point is that Duke doesn't have near the history of the other 5. Yes they have all the numbers, but the glory is mainly confined to one very good era.

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Duke went to the Final Four in 64, 65, and 66 without Coach K. They are, what, 4th or 5th in total wins? Certainly the Coach K era has been phenomenal, but Duke basketball is certainly not just Coach K, for cripes' sake.

And WTF are you saying, they've benefitted from the expanded field? The expanded field makes it harder to win titles, not less. Wooden's UCLA teams only had to win 4 tournament games to win the title, and they got to play the first 2 games at Pauley Pavilion!

[DrewDevil]

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Not to pimp my own school too much, but Kansas is pretty much the trunk from which all great college basketball branches.

In addition to the multitude of conference championships (50!), tourney appearances, final fours, national championsips, etc that we all know...

Kansas is home to:
James Naismith
- nailed a peach basket to a wall
- was the only coach in KU history with a losing record
Phog Allen
- retired with, by far, the most wins of any coach at the time (771)
- was possibly THE most important person in making basketball an olympic sport (the effects of this on the current popularity of the game are huge.
- coached and taught Adolph Rupp
- coached and taught Dean Smith

The 3 winningest programs in college basketball history all play in arenas named after Kansas alumni. The 2 most important men in the advancement of basketball as a sport were Kansas coaches.

So to whoever said that Duke is obviously ahead of Kansas... well, I'm going to bite my tongue.

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I am a Duke fan and I have to agree with everything posted here.

[DrewDevil]

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I don't want to use the word "clearly" but I feel pretty strongly the top 6 all-time are UCLA, Kentucky, Indiana, UNC, Duke, and Kansas.

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Completely agree.

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I agree also.

The top 2 programs for the past 20 years have been Duke, UConn, UNC and Kentucky.

[CarlSpackler]

The fact that people voted for Florida as one of the current top 5 bball programs right now is ridiculous. Have they had the best team in the country the last couple of years? Absolutely. Are they currently a top 5 program? Not even close.

Florida is a football school! They sold out what, 2 home games this year for men's bball? And this is your guys' definition of a top 5 program? Absolutely hillarious. You could actually make a good case that the only school UF is ahead of on that list is Texas.

I guess if USC, Notre Dame, or Nebraska suddenly produces back-to-back men's bball national championships, they too will be considered a top 5 bball program.

[capone0]

Since 1994, they've been the Final Four 4 times, won it once could win it again.

# of FF Since 1994:

UNC-4
Duke-4
UF-4
UCLA-3
MSU-4
Zona-3
Kansas-2
Arkansas-2
Maryalnd-2
Cuse-2
Kentucky-3
UCONN-2

So Florida has been pretty good for a while.

USC with their new coach will probally be more of a basketball school then in the past. They got Mayo to come.

[Iplayboard]

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Since 1994, they've been the Final Four 4 times, won it once could win it again.

# of FF Since 1994:

UNC-4
Duke-4
UF-4
UCLA-3
MSU-4
Zona-3
Kansas-2
Arkansas-2
Maryalnd-2
Cuse-2
Kentucky-3
UCONN-2

So Florida has been pretty good for a while.

USC with their new coach will probally be more of a basketball school then in the past. They got Mayo to come.

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The NCAA can re-write the history books all it wants. Michael Redd and Scoonie Penn still took the Buckeyes to the Final Four in 1999.

[capone0]

Whoops, your right. tOSU-2. Forgot about this year for tOSU. There are other programs with only 1 which of course I didn't include including GT, Stanford, etc.

[mattsey9]

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And WTF are you saying, they've benefitted from the expanded field? The expanded field makes it harder to win titles, not less. Wooden's UCLA teams only had to win 4 tournament games to win the title, and they got to play the first 2 games at Pauley Pavilion!

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And they had Sam Gilbert financing the team during their greatest years...

[TheNoodleMan]

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Duke has 2 more Final 4s than Kansas, one more title, 12 more tournament wins, and 8 less tournament losses.

They have also never been the victim of a huge first round upset, while Kansas has twice.

Pretty hard to argue Kansas > Duke imo, and I'm a Maryland fan.

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The 12 more tournament wins just say that Duke has had their best run recently and has benefited from the expanded field. The 8 less losses just show they've been to the tournament less than Kansas.

My point is that Duke doesn't have near the history of the other 5. Yes they have all the numbers, but the glory is mainly confined to one very good era.

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Duke went to the Final Four in 64, 65, and 66 without Coach K. They are, what, 4th or 5th in total wins? Certainly the Coach K era has been phenomenal, but Duke basketball is certainly not just Coach K, for cripes' sake.

And WTF are you saying, they've benefitted from the expanded field? The expanded field makes it harder to win titles, not less. Wooden's UCLA teams only had to win 4 tournament games to win the title, and they got to play the first 2 games at Pauley Pavilion!

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Read it again, I didn't say anything about the titles, just the number of tournament wins.

[CarlSpackler]

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Since 1994, they've been the Final Four 4 times, won it once could win it again.

# of FF Since 1994:

UNC-4
Duke-4
UF-4
UCLA-3
MSU-4
Zona-3
Kansas-2
Arkansas-2
Maryalnd-2
Cuse-2
Kentucky-3
UCONN-2

So Florida has been pretty good for a while.

USC with their new coach will probally be more of a basketball school then in the past. They got Mayo to come.

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I'm not debating that UF has had great success since 1994. A team's win-loss record, however, isn't the sole factor in measuring how good a program is. Considering the success that Florida's teams have had on the hardwood over the last several years, their fan support is HORRIBLE. Off the top of my head, I can't even think of a national champion in the last 20 years that has worse fan support than Florida.

Calling them a top 5 program is laughable. Florida is the defending national champs, yet they didn't come close to selling out there allotment of tickets for either site they've played at thus far in the tourney. UNLV and Butler sold all 1200 of their allotted tickets in St. Louis, but Florida sent 500 back. That's absolutely pathetic, when you consider that they're defending national champs and have been to 4 final 4's since 1994.

The bottom line is, if you're a basketball school, at a football university, in a football state, you're almost certainly never going to be a top 5 bball program.