A list of the best coaches is only useful if it says what "best" means. Most lists do not. This one names the criterion for every spot, so you can disagree with the criterion instead of the name. Assembly and daily habits beat the ATO binder. Active Division I head coaches only. Wins and percentages are career figures through the 2025-26 season, per the career coaching wins list. Titles are NCAA championships, vacated ones excluded.
The ranking
1. Dan Hurley, UConn. Criterion: championships, recent. Two national titles, 2023 and 2024, back to back. No active coach has won two in a row, and only two others on this list have won two at all. The culture is the system: how hard they play, not the playbook. UConn finished No. 2 in the final 2025-26 AP poll, so the run is not over.
2. Bill Self, Kansas. Criterion: championships plus volume. Titles in 2008 and 2022, 840 career wins at .755. Nobody active combines two titles with that many wins. He is the only coach on this list who has both the banners and the decade-scale consistency to go with them.
3. Mark Few, Gonzaga. Criterion: win rate. .832 career winning percentage, 772 wins, the highest percentage of any active coach and one of the highest in the history of the sport. No title, and that is the only reason he is not higher. The program he built from a mid-major into a permanent national contender is identity-first recruiting: players already know what Gonzaga is. That is why the win rate exists without a title.
4. Rick Pitino, St. John's. Criterion: titles across eras. A national title at Kentucky in 1996, 792 career wins at .715, and a rebuild at St. John's that is still under way at an age when most coaches are retired. His 2013 Louisville title is vacated and not counted here, and the record says so.
5. Tom Izzo, Michigan State. Criterion: sustained excellence at one school. One title, 2000, and 764 wins at .711, all of them at Michigan State. One school, one identity, habits over flash. Nobody active has stayed this good at one place for this long.
6. John Calipari, Arkansas. Criterion: wins. 863 career wins at .752, the most of any active coach, and the 2012 title at Kentucky. He is lower than the win total suggests because the recent results have not matched the resume, and this list weighs the present.
7. Kelvin Sampson, Houston. Criterion: program built. 829 wins at .697 and a Houston program rebuilt from nothing into a yearly top-ten team. No title. The most consistent non-champion of the last decade.
8. Scott Drew, Baylor. Criterion: the 2021 title. One championship and a Baylor program that did not exist on the national map before he arrived. He is here for the banner and the build together.
9. Todd Golden, Florida. Criterion: the 2025 title. One championship, won in his third season. Too early to rank him on a body of work, too recent a title to leave him off.
10. Dusty May, Michigan. Criterion: the 2026 title. The newest champion on the list, with a No. 1 finish in both final polls. Same logic as Golden, one year behind.
Few is the best coach without a ring, and I'd take him over half the men with one.
Who is not here and why
Rick Barnes has 861 wins, second among active coaches, and no title or Final Four since the Texas run in 2003. Bruce Pearl has 706 wins at .726 and a Final Four. Nate Oats and Matt Painter have Final Fours and no title. Each of them is a coach I would hire. None of them clears the bar the ten above set, which is a title, a historic win rate, or both.
Verdict
Wes Hardaway, Chalk Talk: Hurley is No. 1 until someone else wins two in a row. Self is the best resume. Few is the best coach without a ring, and I'd take him over half the men with one.
Best active coach right now?
Editors' pick: Hurley. Back-to-back titles.
