| 1987 | 1988 | 1989 |
| Champion | Second Place | Third place (tied) | Third place (tied) |
| Kansas | Oklahoma | Duke | Arizona |
| Larry Brown | Billy Tubbs | Mike Krzyzewski | Lute Olson |
Active coaches (10+ games)
| Rank | Coach, Current school | Yrs | W-L | Pct. | Latest | Final | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| All | Trn | 1988 (seed) | All | 4 | 2 | 1 | ||||
| 1 | Larry Brown, Kansas | 7 | 7 | 6-0 (6) | 19-6 | .760 | 1988 | 3 | 2 | 1 |
| 2 | Bob Knight, Indiana | 23 | 12 | 0-1 (4) | 27-9 | .750 | 1988 | 4 | 3 | 3 |
| 3 | Tom Davis, Iowa | 17 | 4 | 2-1 (5) | 10-4 | .714 | 1988 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 4 | Mike Krzyzewski, Duke | 13 | 5 | 4-1 (2) | 12-5 | .706 | 1988 | 2 | 1 | 0 |
| 5 | Rollie Massimino, Villanova | 17 | 9 | 3-1 (6) | 19-8 | .704 | 1988 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 6 | Denny Crum, Louisville | 17 | 13 | 2-1 (5) | 29-13 | .690 | 1988 | 6 | 2 | 2 |
| 7 | Dean Smith, North Carolina | 27 | 18 | 3-1 (2) | 39-19 | .672 | 1988 | 7 | 4 | 1 |
| T8 | John Thompson, Georgetown | 16 | 12 | 1-1 (8) | 22-11 | .667 | 1988 | 3 | 3 | 1 |
| T8 | Jud Heathcote, Michigan State | 17 | 5 | 10-5 | .667 | 1986 | 1 | 1 | 1 | |
| T8 | Norm Sloan, Florida | 36 | 5 | 1-1 (6) | 8-4 | .667 | 1988 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 11 | Billy Tubbs, Oklahoma | 14 | 8 | 5-1 (1) | 15-8 | .652 | 1988 | 1 | 1 | 0 |
| 12 | Jim Valvano, North Carolina State | 17 | 8 | 0-1 (3) | 13-7 | .650 | 1988 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 13 | Jerry Tarkanian, UNLV | 20 | 13 | 1-1 (4) | 24-14 | .632 | 1988 | 2 | 0 | 0 |
| 14 | Paul Evans, Pittsburgh | 15 | 4 | 1-1 (2) | 6-4 | .600 | 1988 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 15 | Dale Brown, LSU | 16 | 8 | 0-1 (9) | 13-9 | .591 | 1988 | 2 | 0 | 0 |
| T16 | Gene Bartow, Ala.-Birmingham | 26 | 10 | 14-10 | .583 | 1987 | 2 | 1 | 0 | |
| T16 | Butch van Breda Kolff, Lafayette | 22 | 4 | 7-5 | .583 | 1967 | 1 | 0 | 0 | |
| T16 | Sonny Smith, Auburn | 12 | 5 | 1-1 (8) | 7-5 | .583 | 1988 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| T16 | John Chaney, Temple | 16 | 5 | 3-1 (1) | 7-5 | .583 | 1988 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 20 | Terry Holland, Virginia | 19 | 8 | 11-8 | .579 | 1987 | 2 | 0 | 0 | |
| 21 | Hugh Durham, Georgia | 22 | 6 | 8-6 | .571 | 1987 | 2 | 1 | 0 | |
| 22 | Eddie Sutton, Kentucky | 19 | 13 | 2-1 (2) | 17-13 | .567 | 1988 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| 23 | Jim Boeheim, Syracuse | 12 | 10 | 1-1 (3) | 13-10 | .565 | 1988 | 1 | 1 | 0 |
| 24 | Johnny Orr, Iowa State | 23 | 7 | 0-1 (12) | 9-7 | .563 | 1988 | 1 | 1 | 0 |
| 25 | Bobby Cremins, Georgia Tech | 13 | 5 | 1-1 (5) | 6-5 | .545 | 1988 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 26 | Wimp Sanderson, Alabama | 8 | 6 | 7-6 | .538 | 1987 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
| T27 | Don Haskins, UTEP | 27 | 11 | 0-1 (9) | 11-10 | .524 | 1988 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| T27 | Lute Olson, Arizona | 15 | 9 | 4-1 (1) | 11-10 | .524 | 1988 | 2 | 0 | 0 |
| T27 | Don Donoher, Dayton | 24 | 8 | 11-10 | .524 | 1985 | 1 | 1 | 0 | |
| 30 | Digger Phelps, Notre Dame | 18 | 13 | 0-1 (10) | 16-15 | .516 | 1988 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| T31 | Lou Henson, Illinois | 26 | 13 | 1-1 (3) | 14-14 | .500 | 1988 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| T31 | Tom Young, Old Dominion | 28 | 5 | 6-6 | .500 | 1986 | 1 | 0 | 0 | |
| T33 | Jerry Pimm, UC Santa Barbara | 14 | 6 | 0-1 (10) | 5-6 | .455 | 1988 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| T33 | Don DeVoe, Tennessee | 17 | 6 | 5-6 | .455 | 1983 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
| 35 | Lou Carnesecca, St. John's | 20 | 15 | 0-1 (11) | 13-17 | .433 | 1988 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| 36 | LaDell Andersen, Brigham Young | 15 | 8 | 1-1 (4) | 6-10 | .375 | 1988 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| T37 | Gene Keady, Purdue | 10 | 7 | 2-1 (1) | 4-7 | .364 | 1988 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| T37 | J. D. Barnett, Tulsa | 13 | 7 | 4-7 | .364 | 1987 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
| 39 | Norm Stewart, Missouri | 27 | 9 | 0-1 (6) | 5-9 | .357 | 1988 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| T40 | Ralph Miller, Oregon State | 37 | 9 | 0-1 (12) | 5-10 | .333 | 1988 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| T40 | Gale Catlett, West Virginia | 16 | 8 | 4-8 | .333 | 1987 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
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Led by Danny Manning, sixth seeded and unranked Kansas wins the title allowing Larry Brown to jump into the top spot, replacing Bobby Knight whose Indiana team suffers a first round loss. While Oklahoma was heavily favored to beat Kansas for the title, their second place finish moves Billy Tubbs up from .588 to .652. |
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Mike Krzyzewski takes Duke to the Final Four for the second time in three years, improving his record to .706, good enough for fourth place. |
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Lute Olson goes to the Final Four for the second time, this time with Arizona, to improve his record to .524, only one game over .500. He also took Iowa to a national fourth place finish in 1980. |
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Three Villanova wins pushes Rollie Massimino over .700 to .704, though he drops one position to fifth place. |
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Florida wins one, but it's not good enough to keep Norm Sloan over .700 as he drops out of third place to .667. |
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For the third time in four years, North Carolina wins three, moving Dean Smith up a bit to .672, good for seventh place. |
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Temple wins three, putting John Chaney on the list for the first time at .583. In five tries with Temple, Chaney has always won at least one game. |
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Georgia Tech wins one and loses one, allowing Bobby Cremins to debut on the list at .545, one game over .500. In 1979, Cremins also took Appalachian State to the tournament. |
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Paul Evans debuts on the list after Pittsburgh wins one and loses one. Evans coached David Robinson in two NCAA appearances for Navy in 1985 and 1986. |
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Gene Keady debuts near the bottom of the list at .364 after Purdue (seeded #1) wins two games. |
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