As we get ready to place our NCAAB bets on this year’s National Championship game, let’s look back at the six schools with the most NCAA Men’s Basketball Championships.
T4 UConn (5)
The UConn Huskies added a National Title in 1999, 2004, 2011, 2014 and 2023. All titles have been fairly recent in comparison to some of the other schools we’ll discuss.
UConn ultimately has the most national championships in this century, with four.
The funny thing about the Huskies is that they’ve made the NCAA Tournament Finals only five times. But they’ve won each and every one of them. They’re 5-0 and undefeated in Championship games. That’s a nugget you might want to remember this year.
T4 Indiana (5)
Indiana has five National Championships of its own. However, the Hoosiers haven’t won a title since 1987.
The first NCAA Tournament win was in 1940. The Hoosiers then won one in 1953, 1976, 1981, and 1987. Branch McCracken graduated from Indiana in 1930 and took the head coaching job in 1938. He was the first coach to lead Indiana to an NCAA Tournament.
After McCracken’s tenure, Bob Knight took over and famously won his first championship with Indiana in 1976 after going 32-0. That was the last time any team had had a perfect season that included a national championship.
T4 Duke (5)
Duke’s first championship came in 1991, and the Blue Devils also repeated as champions in 1992. After those two championship wins, it took nearly ten years for Duke to add another one.
The Blue Devils won a National Championship in 2001 for their third banner. By 2015, Duke had two more championships after a 2010 National Championship and 2015 National Championship.
All of the championships for Duke came with Coach Mike Krzyzewski. He took over in 1981 and retired recently. Before he came over, Duke had been 0-2 in National Championship games. But since Coach K came, Duke went to nine championship games and won five of them.
Duke has had the most championship appearances since 1990. All-time, North Carolina lost six championship games.
3 North Carolina (6)
North Carolina has a Championship in 1957, 1982, 1993, 2005, 2009 and 2017.
In 1957, Frank McGuire led the Tar Heels to the second-ever undefeated national championship season in NCAA Tournament history.
However, McGuire was only able to land one championship with North Carolina. Eventually, it was Dean Smith’s turn to earn a banner. He took them to the Championship game in 1968, but the Tar Heels didn’t win it that year. Eventually, Smith would get his first NCAA Tournament Championship in 1982. It was a roster that included James Worthy, Sam Perkins and Michael Jordan.
Smith was still the coach for UNC’s title in 1993. The other three Championships came from Roy Williams, who is now retired.
The Tar Heels could’ve certainly added more throughout the year. North Carolina lost six National Championship games all-time. If the Tar Heels won those six games, they’d lead the nation in championships.
2 Kentucky (8)
Kentucky has a rich history of success. The Wildcats have four National Championships that came before 1960. They also added one in 1978 and two more in 1996 and 1998. But that 2012 National Championship team was one of the most elite teams the nation has ever seen.
Back in 1930-31, Adolph Rupp took over as Kentucky’s head coach. It took him 18 years to finally get through and help Kentucky win the first NCAA Title. After that win, Kentucky repeated and won another title back-to-back. The other 1950’s championships were also Rupp’s.
Since Rupp, Kentucky has had four different coaches win a title Joe B. Hall, Rick Pitino, Tubby Smith and John Calipari.
It’s almost time for another coach at Kentucky.
1 UCLA (11)
The UCLA Bruins haven’t won a National Championship since 1995. But they had a run from 1964-1975, during which they won nearly 94% of games and earned ten national championships in 12 seasons.
In today’s game, there’s no chance this record will ever get touched. However, the Huskies are currently two wins away from earning their second National Championship in a row.
However, again, the Bruins added ten championships in one decade and went 335-22 in that span under John Wooden. UCLA also snuck in a National Championship in 1995 and has been runner-up twice all time.
