Fansided

College basketball blue bloods ranked by all-time legacy

By Mike Phillips

Michael Jordan is all smiles along with coach Dean Smith as Jordan announces at a 1984 press conference that he will forgo his senior year in college to play professional basketball. (Raleigh News & Observer/TNS via Getty Images)
Michael Jordan is all smiles along with coach Dean Smith as Jordan announces at a 1984 press conference that he will forgo his senior year in college to play professional basketball. (Raleigh News & Observer/TNS via Getty Images) /
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ANAHEIM, CA – MARCH 26: Head coach Jim Calhoun of the Connecticut Huskies cuts down the net after defeatng the Arizona Wildcats to win the west regional final of the 2011 NCAA men’s basketball tournament at the Honda Center on March 26, 2011 in Anaheim, California. (Photo by Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images)
ANAHEIM, CA – MARCH 26: Head coach Jim Calhoun of the Connecticut Huskies cuts down the net after defeatng the Arizona Wildcats to win the west regional final of the 2011 NCAA men’s basketball tournament at the Honda Center on March 26, 2011 in Anaheim, California. (Photo by Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images) /

10. UConn

  • Record: 1,664-921 (.644 Winning Percentage)
  • NCAA Tournament Appearances: 33
  • Final Fours: 5 (1999, 2004, 2009, 2011, 2014)
  • National Titles: 4 (1999, 2004, 2011, 2014)
  • Notable Alums: Ray Allen, Richard Hamilton, Kemba Walker

If we made this list 20 years ago, UConn wouldn’t be close to the list. The Huskies were tournament regulars in the 1950s and 1960s, appearing in the dance 11 times between 1951 and 1967, but UConn only made two trips between then and 1989.

Things started to turn around when Jim Calhoun took over the program, which had been a bottom feeder in the Big East for years. Calhoun took over as head coach in 1986, and by his fourth year at the helm, UConn was back in the NCAA Tournament.

The Huskies became March Madness regulars again, but the program took a quantum leap forward in 1999 when they reached the Final Four for the first time and upset a heavily favored Duke team to win the national championship. That title put UConn hoops on the map, and the Huskies continued to be a Big East powerhouse for the next decade.

UConn won titles in 2004 and 2011 under Calhoun, with the latter being a surprising victory thanks to a red-hot March from Kemba Walker. After Calhoun retired in 2012, Kevin Ollie succeeded him and presided over the Huskies’ transition from the Big East to the American Athletic Conference.

Ollie followed in his old coach’s footsteps in 2014, going on a stunning March run to claim the program’s fourth national championship as a seven seed. The Huskies have fallen on hard times since, leading to Ollie’s dismissal, but Dan Hurley appears poised to guide UConn back to the top of the heap in the near future.