Thrive for next five: The Top 15
Updated June 1
Forget who was great yesterday and who is great today. Here is who will be great five years from now because they have excellent coaches in place who are still in their primes and in no hurry to leave; excellent facilities that are improving; excellent administrations that are fully committed; and excellent recruiting bases in place that aren't changing anytime soon.
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| Rank | School | Explanation | ||
| 1. | UCLA | With Ben Howland in place, UCLA will have great players and do great things with them. | ||
| 2. | Ohio State | Thad Matta has won five league titles in seven years as a coach. That's a staggering statistic, and he's going to add more. | ||
| 3. | Kentucky | Being single has many advantages, only one of which is the ability to focus solely on basketball like Billy Gillispie can do while returning Kentucky to national prominence. | ||
| 4. | North Carolina | Roy Williams would be excellent almost anywhere. North Carolina would be excellent under almost anybody. Together, Williams and UNC are guaranteed to be excellent. | ||
| 5. | Kansas | Bill Self gets elite players, and elite players make elite teams. It's that simple, and it's why Kansas will keep stacking wins. | ||
| 6. | Michigan St. | Tom Izzo just took the worst roster he'll ever have to the second round of the NCAA Tournament. He's very good at what he does, and he's not going to stop doing it any time soon. | ||
| 7. | USC | Former NBA coach + large market + new arena = unprecedented success. | ||
| 8 | Indiana | Kelvin Sampson signed a top 10 class when he wasn't allowed to recruit. Do you really think this guy isn't winning big? | ||
| 9. | Duke | The evaluation of talent has slipped in recent years. But, with apologies to Pete Gillen, Duke is Duke, and even when the Blue Devils slip they don't slip far. | ||
| 10. | Memphis | If you could promise John Calipari will still be in Memphis in five years, I'd be willing to put the Tigers higher. In other words, this is a compromise based on the idea he'll leave at some point, but until he does the Tigers will make runs at Final Fours. | ||
| 11. | Texas | Rick Barnes and staff bring in elite recruiting classes too frequently to not make this list. | ||
| 12. | Tennessee | Bruce Pearl doesn't lose with average talent, so he isn't about to start losing now that the skill-level is steadily increasing. | ||
| 13. | Louisville | Rick Pitino is a Hall of Famer, one who hasn't lost his touch just yet. | ||
| 14. | Georgetown | As long as John Thompson III doesn't jump to the NBA the Hoyas will be a power in the Big East. | ||
| 15. | Arizona | Lute Olson has one more good run in him, I'm guessing. | ||
