Who Are the 10 Best College Basketball Programs From The Last 10 Years

This is a question that I was asked by former Wisconsin player Jordan Taylor over the week. So I brought it to Twitter and had a few people say throw it into a blog and here we area. The premise is pretty simple. Who have been the 10 best college basketball programs for the last decade? Note, we’re starting this with the 2007-08 season, just as a point of reference.

The way we debated this was looking at the program as a whole. Not just national titles, due to the fact the NCAA Tournament is incredibly fluky. I say it time after time again, it’s absolutely awesome, but in no way does it give us the best 4 teams in the Final Four, let alone the title game. So we looked at consistency throughout the decade, how often did they advance in the NCAA Tournament, how many regular season titles did they win and stuff along those lines. We took out anything NBA related or recruiting related as well.

There’s 0% chance people agree with me. So let me know your top-10 @barstoolreags and *coughs, clears throat* embrace debate.

1. North Carolina: 9 NCAA Tournaments, 7 Sweet 16’s, 6 Elite Eights, 4 Final Fours, 2 National Titles, 3 Championship Games, 6 ACC Regular Season Titles, 2 ACC Conference Tournaments, Average Seed: 2.7

Pretty simple here for UNC as the No. 1 team. They have absolutely dominated the ACC regular season, clearly one of the best conferences in college basketball every year. Throw in the fact they have the two titles, both with teams who were No. 1 seeds. Even without the most recent title, the Tar Heels would have been the best program the last 10 years. It’s truly impressive how consistent they are.

2. Duke: 10 NCAA Tournaments, 6 Sweet 16’s, 3 Elite Eights, 2 Final Fours, 2 National Titles, 1 ACC Regular Season Title, 4 ACC Tournament Titles, Average Seed: 2

What sticks out to me the most about Duke is the fact they’ve only won 1 ACC regular season title. Granted, they’ve consistently finished top-3/4, it’s still weird to think they’ve only had 1 in the last decade. They do obviously win the conference tournament quite a bit, which helps give them get a bump here. Again, two national titles and a high average seed, make it a clear top-2 for me with Duke and UNC.

3. Kansas: 10 NCAA Tournaments, 7 Sweet 16’s, 5 Elite Eights, 2 Final Fours, 1 National Title, 2 Championship Games, 10 Big 12 Regular Season Titles, 5 Big 12 Tournament Titles, Average Seed: 1.5 

You want to talk about consistency, there’s no one more consistent than Kansas. All they do is win Big 12 regular season titles. There’s something to that, especially in a league where it’s round-robin play. Winning the Big 12 or Big East now is more impressive than other leagues simply because everyone is playing the same schedule. There’s no imbalance and a team taking advantage of a weaker schedule. The average seed being a 1.5 is pretty ridiculous as well.

4. Kentucky: 8 NCAA Tournaments, 6 Sweet 16s, 6 Elite Eights, 4 Final Fours, 1 National Title, 2 Championship Games, 5 SEC Regular Season Titles, 5 SEC Tournament Titles, Average Seed: 4

Why isn’t Kentucky higher on this list? Two words. Billy Gillispie. They still have the stink of his two years which resulted in a No. 11 seed and a trip to the NIT. They’ve been pretty consistent under Calipari since then though, tying UNC for the most trips to the Final Fours and getting to the second weekend quiet a bit. They also have been the class of the SEC, taking advantage of winning both the regular season and conference tournament.

5. Louisville: 9 NCAA Tournaments, 6 Sweet 16s, 5 Elite Eights, 2 Final Fours, 1 National Title, 3 Regular Season Conference Titles, 4 Conference Tournament Titles, Average Seed: 3.5 

When it comes to just coaching, Rick Pitino is an all-time great. It can be hard to separate that from his bold statements (saying this year’s Louisville team has 5 or 6 first round NBA picks) or his Karen Sypher/hooker situation. That said, Louisville just wins under him. They have 3 regular season conference titles playing in the Big East and ACC – again, two of the best conferences year-in and year-out over the decade. The only time they’ve missed the NCAA Tournament was a probation period – they would have likely been a top-4 seed that year.

6. Michigan State: 10 NCAA Tournaments, 7 Sweet 16s, 4 Elite Eights, 3 Final Fours, 1 Championship Game, 3 Big 10 Regular Season Titles, 3 Big 10 Tournament Titles, Average Seed: 4.8

I know the whole fun thing to say is ‘You can’t bet against Izzo in March.’ But really it’s you can’t bet against Izzo in February. He gets his team really going in the middle of conference play and that allows them to win 3 Big 10 Tournaments and regular season titles. The one thing lacking on the resume for the last decade is that national title, but again, the NCAA Tournament is so fluky. They’ve been one of the best teams in the country that just had a bad game – looking at Middle Tennessee State in the first round. I was a little surprised to see them with the third lowest average seed, but being top-5 year-in and year-out is no joke.

7. Villanova: 9 NCAA Tournaments, 3 Sweet 16s, 2 Elite Eights, 2 Final Fours, 1 National Title, 4 Big East Regular Season Titles, 2 Big East Tournament Titles, Average Seed: 4.5 

Villanova finally shook the notion that they consistently underachieved in the NCAA Tournament when they won the title in 2016. What Villanova has been really good at though? Winning in the regular season. Since the split of the Big East, it’s been Villanova’s conference. And I know it will upset people, but the ‘new’ Big East has been a top-3 conference for all but the first year. So it’s not like it’s a mid-major.

8. Wisconsin: 10 NCAA Tournaments, 7 Sweet 16s, 2 Elite Eights, 2 Final Fours, 1 Championship Game, 2 Big 10 Regular Season Titles, 1 Big 10 Tournament Title, Average Seed: 5 

Speaking of model of consistency, Wisconsin getting to the Sweet 16 and in the NCAA Tournament is just that. They aren’t the most exciting program. They don’t produce a million pros. But, they win. Again, what was a little shocking for Wisconsin (same with Duke) is seeing just 2 Big 10 regular season titles. This largely has to do with the unbalanced schedule, but Wisconsin has finished in the top-4 every year. They have the back-to-back Final Fours and have been a top-5 seed as well on average.

9. UConn: 6 NCAA Tournaments, 3 Sweet 16s, 3 Elite Eights, 3 Final Fours, 2 National Titles, 2 Conference Tournament Titles, Average Seed: 5.5 

I know this is the one that will have people pissed off because of the two titles. But, the fact is UConn has been wildly inconsistent. If you think UConn is a top-3 program the last decade, I ask you if you think Eli Manning is a top-3 NFL Quarterback the last decade as well? That’s how to look at this. UConn has been a top-3 NCAA Tournament team, not a program. That said, they still have the two conference titles, including one in the old Big East. The two titles is damn impressive, but there’s just too much inconsistency here to have them higher.

10. Florida: 6 NCAA Tournaments, 5 Sweet 16s, 5 Elite Eights, 1 Final Four, 3 SEC Regular Season Titles, 1 SEC Tournament Title, Average Seed: 4.5 

If we did this two years earlier, Florida is a top-5 program. They had the back-to-back titles back at that point. HOWEVAH, Florida has still had some major success since that time. They’ve been the No. 1 overall seed. They made 3 straight Elite Eights. They’ve won 3 regular season titles. Similar to UConn though, they’ve missed the tournament 4 times. That’s a major downfall when looking at programs as a whole.