Off Season Amusements: the GOAT of AT in coaching wins

[rocketeli]

Off Season Amusements: the GOAT of AT in coaching wins

We’ve all heard announcers on TV, podcast or what have you say Coach K has the “most wins” but we all know that isn’t really all time, all milieus for basketball. He has the most wins for a Division I NCAA basketball coach. But how does he stack up if we bring in other leagues? Afterall to a large extent coaching is coaching, whether the players are male or female, or 15 or 25.

Here to partially answer the question is a list combining high school boys and girls, men’s and women’s college-all NCAA divisions plus NAIA and AIWA plus NBA and ABA coaches. (Unfortunately, AAU, rec league, military, church league, middle school and overseas coaching records are not easily accessible if at all.)


The List
1.Larry Brown 1593 (NBA, ABA and college, FYI)
2.Leta Andrews 1416
3.Don Nelson 1335
4.Robert Hughes 1333
5.Lenny Wilkens 1332
6.Morgan Wootten 1274
7.Joe Lombard 1261
8.Jerry English 1227
9.Jerry Sloan 1221
10. Jim Smiddy 1217
11. Pat Riley 1210
12. Greg Popovich 1197 (still active)
13. Bob Hurley 1185
14. George Karl 1175
15. Phil Jackson 1155
16. Bertha Teague 1152
17.T Ralph Tasker 1122
17.T Harry Stratham (the only other solely NCAA coach in this list)
18. Lamar Rogers 1121
19. Michael Krzyzewski 1110

Notes:
Only one of the coaches ahead of Coach K is still coaching (Popovich) so if Coach K coaches a few more years he could easily climb into the current “Top 10.”

Is there anyone who is a treat to pass Coach K?
Persons of interest:
Dorothy Gaters 1106
Tara VanDerveer 1036
Geno Auriemma 1027 (1027-136 .883, age 64 most likely candidate)
Barbara Stevens 1011
Sylvia Hatchell 1005
C Vivian Stringer 997
Jim Boeheim 926
Jim Foster 903
Muffett McGraw 888
Bob Huggins 845
Roy Williams 842

[-jk]

What about Team USA basketball?

-jk

[Turk]

Fun list. Obviously, tough for college coaches to compete with the pros, due to number of games in the season. At 50 wins a season, Pop only needs 3 seasons or so to get into Top 5. Coach K needs about 4 years to make top 10 at 25-30 wins per.

[JasonEvans]

What about Team USA basketball?

No question this should be included.

According to the USA Basketball website:

Since 1979 he has been a member of 21 USA coaching staffs, and teams with Coach K on the coaching staff have compiled a 139-7 overall mark.

But, that isn't a fair number because plenty of those were teams upon which K was an assistant. To get his number of head coaching wins at Team USA we need to look at these teams:

Since 2005 when Colangelo named Krzyzewski head coach and on through the 2016 Rio Olympics, the USA men have compiled a remarkable 60-1 record in official FIBA or FIBA Americas competitions, (and ) added a 28-0 mark in exhibition games.

So, that is 88 more wins. Plus, we add in these competitions:

1983 - head coach U.S. Olympic Festival South: 3-1
1987 - head coach USA World University Games: 7-1
1990 - head coach USA Goodwill Games: 3-2
1990 - head coach FIBA World Championships: 6-2

That's another 19 wins. So, he has 107 more wins as a head coach for USA Basketball. Gotta add that to his total.

-Jason "in fairness, you would also need to add USA Basketball wins to a few other folks on the list (Geno, Larry Brown, others)... which could make compiling all this a pain in the rear" Evans

[rsvman]

Fun list. Obviously, tough for college coaches to compete with the pros, due to number of games in the season. At 50 wins a season, Pop only needs 3 seasons or so to get into Top 5. Coach K needs about 4 years to make top 10 at 25-30 wins per.

This.

The comparison is ludicrous. They play SO. MANY. MORE. GAMES. in the pros.

[rocketeli]

This.

The comparison is ludicrous. They play SO. MANY. MORE. GAMES. in the pros.

about half the coaches ahead of K are pros, and thus benefit from playing many more games. The other half are high school coaches, who usually play fewer games than college coaches.
The pros benefit from volume, and the HS from winning percentage.

[Reilly]

What about Team USA basketball?

-jk

The Duke basketball gamenotes does this to a degree:

RACKING UP MAJOR TITLES
» Duke head coach Mike Krzyzewski has won five NCAA titles,
three Olympic gold medals and two FIBA World Cup/World
Championship crowns for a total of 10 major championships.
» Coach K’s 10 titles tie him for the second-most major men’s
basketball championships all-time.
TOTAL MAJOR MEN’S CHAMPIONSHIPS | HEAD COACHES
Rk Coach Titles
1. Phil Jackson 11 (all NBA)
2. ^ Mike Krzyzewski 10 (5 NCAA, 3 OLY, 2 WC)
John Wooden 10 (all NCAA)
4. Red Auerbach 9 (all NBA)
5. John Kundla 5 (all NBA)
^ Gregg Popovich 5 (all NBA)
Pat Riley 5 (all NBA)

http://www.goduke.com/pdf9/5469674.pdf (p. 10)

I didn't know of John Kundla -- he died just last summer at the age of 101: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Kundla