1979      1980      1981

Champion Second Place Third place Fourth place
Louisville UCLA Purdue Iowa
Denny Crum Larry Brown Lee Rose Lute Olson

Active coaches (10+ games)

Rank Coach, Current school Yrs W-L Pct. Latest Final
All Trn 1980 (seed) All 4 2 1
1 Joe B. Hall, Kentucky 14 5 1-1  (1) 13-4 .765 1980 2 2 1
2 Bob Knight, Indiana 15 5 1-1  (2) 12-4 .750 1980 2 1 1
T3 Jud Heathcote, Michigan State 9 3   8-3 .727 1979 1 1 1
T3 Gene Bartow, Ala.-Birmingham 18 3   8-3 .727 1977 2 1 0
T3 Lee Rose, Purdue 13 2 5-1  (6) 8-3 .727 1980 2 0 0
6 Don Haskins, UTEP 19 6   9-5 .643 1975 1 1 1
T7 Frank McGuire, South Carolina 30 8   14-8 .636 1974 2 2 1
T7 Jerry Tarkanian, UNLV 12 7   14-8 .636 1977 1 0 0
T7 Johnny Orr, Michigan 15 4   7-4 .636 1977 1 1 0
10 Denny Crum, Louisville 9 7 5-0  (2) 13-8 .619 1980 3 1 1
11 Eddie Sutton, Arkansas 11 5 0-1  (10) 8-5 .615 1980 1 0 0
12 Bob Weinhauer, Pennsylvania 3 3 1-1  (12) 6-4 .600 1980 1 0 0
13 Jack Kraft, Rhode Island 19 7   11-8 .579 1978 1 1 0
14 Dean Smith, North Carolina 19 10 0-1  (3) 16-12 .571 1980 5 2 0
15 Lefty Driesell, Maryland 20 6 1-1  (2) 9-7 .563 1980 0 0 0
T16 Digger Phelps, Notre Dame 10 8 0-1  (4) 12-10 .545 1980 1 0 0
T16 Jack Hartman, Kansas State 18 5 1-1  (7) 6-5 .545 1980 0 0 0
T18 Guy Lewis, Houston 24 10   14-14 .500 1978 2 0 0
T18 Ray Meyer, DePaul 38 10 0-1  (1) 13-13 .500 1980 2 0 0
T18 Don Donoher, Dayton 16 6   8-8 .500 1974 1 1 0
T18 Lou Henson, Illinois 18 6   7-7 .500 1975 1 0 0
22 Ned Wulk, Arizona State 29 8 1-1  (5) 8-9 .471 1980 0 0 0
T23 Tex Winter, Long Beach State 27 6   7-9 .438 1968 2 0 0
T23 Abe Lemons, Texas 24 8   7-9 .438 1979 0 0 0
T25 Ted Owens, Kansas 16 6   6-8 .429 1978 2 0 0
T25 Joe Williams, Florida State 16 7 1-1  (8) 6-8 .429 1980 1 1 0
27 Lou Carnesecca, St. John's 12 8 0-1  (3) 5-10 .333 1980 0 0 0


Highlights:

In his third trip to the Final Four, Denny Crum, takes it all this year as Louisville defeats UCLA in the title game, jumping into the top ten at .619.  Crum had been an assistant under John Wooden before taking the head coaching job at Louisville.
Lee Rose takes Purdue to the Final Four, winning the national third place game, and debuts on the list at .727, tied for third with Jud Heathcote and Gene Bartow who are not invited this year.  Rose is currently the only active coach to reach the Final Four every time he's been to the tournament having taken UNC-Charlotte to a national fourth place finish in 1977.
Joe B. Hall and Bobby Knight both win one and lose one, slipping to .765 and .750 respectively, but maintain their first and second place positions on the list.
A first round loss for Arkansas drops Eddie Sutton from fifth place to eleventh at .615.
Pensylvania wins one and loses one, giving Bob Weinhauer enough to debut on the list at .600.  Last year, Weinhauer led Pennsylvania to the Final Four for the first time ever.
Top ranked DePaul suffers a loss in it's first tournament game (after a first round bye) dropping Ray Meyer back to .500.
Kansas State wins one and loses one for Jack Hartman, allowing him to debut on the list at .545.
Once again, the tournament is expanded, this time to 48 teams with 16 teams receiving first round bye's.  Also, the NCAA decided to drop its two team per league rule without which the Final Four teams Purdue, Iowa and UCLA would not have been invited.





















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