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NCAA basketball: Ranking the 25 best college basketball coaches ever

By Nate Williamson

Mike Krzyzewski, Duke Blue Devils, Roy Williams, North Carolina Tar Heels. (Photo by Streeter Lecka/Getty Images)
Mike Krzyzewski, Duke Blue Devils, Roy Williams, North Carolina Tar Heels. (Photo by Streeter Lecka/Getty Images) /
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Best college basketball coaches ever
(Photo by Sonia Canada/Getty Images) /

No. 20: Rick Pitino

Rick Pitino is one of an elite group of coaches that have taken three different programs to the Final Four, while he’s also captured the ultimate goal, winning the National Tournament in 1996. When he took his Louisville Cardinal team to the 2005 semifinal, he made history by founding the aforementioned group of coaches, the first to accomplish the feat.

Pitino also had a unique, fast-paced style to the game that is recognizable in many major systems in college basketball. A huge supporter of the three-point heavy motion offense and an aggressive style of pressing that often became a full-court type of defense, Pitino found his greatest success at Kentucky.

His career highlights and accolades include the championship mentioned above, and a vacated 2013 championship, as well as another vacated Final Four appearance, a Conference USA Coach of the Year, three SEC Coach of the Year awards. He’s back in college basketball as the new coach at Iona where he’ll look at add to his list of accomplishments and achievements in the NCAA.