Updated September 12, 2026. The August version of this page still had Dusty May at Michigan and treated Bruce Pearl as if he were coaching. May took the Mavericks job in June, per NBA.com. Pearl stepped down on September 22, 2025, and Auburn named Steven Pearl the same day, per the school. Active Division I head coaches only. That is the rule. It has to mean it.
A list of the best coaches is only useful if it says what "best" means. This one names the criterion for every spot, so you can disagree with the criterion instead of the name. 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: the recent run, not a two-in-a-row lock. Titles in 2023 and 2024. Then back to the title game in 2026, where Michigan won 69-63, per NBA.com. That is why he is first. Someone passes him by winning a title and staying in that conversation. They do not have to stack two in a row first. Asking for another repeat before you move him is a rule invented to keep him there forever.
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. Rick Pitino, St. John's. Criterion: titles across eras, and he is still in it. A national title at Kentucky in 1996, 792 career wins at .715, and a St. John's program he has made a contender again. His 2013 Louisville title is vacated and not counted here, and the record says so. Few has the prettier percentage. Pitino has the banner that counted and a Hall of Fame career that did not stop when the first era did. I'd take that over a win rate with no ring.
4. 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 why he sits behind Pitino. The program he built from a mid-major into a permanent national contender is still the model. The model has not won the last game.
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. 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 last title came in 2012, 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.
The tenth chair is empty. May's 2026 title still happened. He is not an active college coach. The man in that Michigan chair now is on the new-hires list.
Pitino has the counted title. Few has the win rate. I'd take the title.
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. 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 nine above set, which is a title, a historic win rate, or both.
Bruce Pearl is not "not here." He is retired. Steven Pearl is the Auburn coach. That is a different list.
Verdict
Wes Hardaway, Chalk Talk: Hurley is No. 1 because the run is still the run. One more title from someone else can move him. Two in a row is not the test. Self is the best resume. I'd take Pitino over Few.
Best active coach right now?
Editors' pick: Hurley. The run, not a two-peat lock.
