Let's get one thing out of the way right now. Ranking the top coaches requires more than listing them in order of career victories, national championships or winning percentage.
| Positional rankings |
| Monday: Point guards |
| Tuesday: Shooting guards |
| Wednesday: Small forwards |
| Thursday: Power forwards |
| Friday: Centers |
Not everyone gets to coach at Duke or North Carolina, Kentucky or Louisville, Kansas or Indiana.
Yes, getting a job at a basketball factory takes an incredible amount of skill. But once you're there, you're supposed to win big. We'll note that, but to borrow a great line from Dangerous Liaisons, you don't praise the tenor for clearing his throat.
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That said, we're still going with the active co-leader in national championships as our No. 1 coach. We're going with the guy at Duke.
No, Mike Krzyzewski didn't make Duke a basketball power. Duke basketball was good before he got there.
But what Krzyzewski has done, and is continuing to do, joins the feats of John Wooden at UCLA, Bob Knight at Indiana and Dean Smith at North Carolina as four of the most amazing coaching jobs in college basketball.
The hard part: Who's No. 2?
Nah. Not hard. Here you go, the SportsLine.com Sweet 16:
| Rank | Coach | School | Record | Final Fours/Titles | Skinny |
| 1 | Mike Krzyzewski | Duke | 694-231 | 10/3 | Has the numbers, plus Kobe likes him |
| 2 | Tubby Smith | Kentucky | 315-114 | 1/1 | Wins big and clean in mammoth pressure |
| 3 | Jim Calhoun | Connecticut | 680-302 | 2/2 | Getting better with age |
| 4 | Eddie Sutton | Oklahoma State | 755-292 | 3/0 | Hello, Hall of Fame? Induct this guy now |
| 5 | Bob Knight | Texas Tech | 832-322 | 5/3 | Like him or not, he can flat-out coach |
| 6 | Jim Boeheim | Syracuse | 676-234 | 3/1 | Orange's sum always exceed its parts |
| 7 | Rick Pitino | Louisville | 416-154 | 4/1 | Has Cardinals all the way back |
| 8 | Bill Self | Kansas | 231-114 | 0/0 | Will go down as one of the all-time greats |
| 9 | Gary Williams | Maryland | 522-293 | 2/1 | Could win 20 games with me at PG |
| 10 | Bo Ryan | Wisconsin | 98-55 | 0/0 | His work with Badgers defies belief |
| 11 | Lute Olson | Arizona | 711-249 | 5/1 | Has taken two schools to Final Four |
| 12 | Tom Izzo | Michigan State | 207-90 | 3/1 | Enormous courtside presence |
| 13 | Rick Barnes | Texas | 343-192 | 1/0 | Turned Texas into a basketball school |
| 14 | Roy Williams | North Carolina | 437-112 | 4/0 | Next decade will be fun for UNC fans |
| 15 | Skip Prosser | Wake Forest | 232-107 | 0/0 | Brilliant but humble |
| 16 | John Chaney | Temple | 708-283 | 0/0 | Genius from another era |
