College basketball’s all-time victories lead has been a race among these 3 bluebloods
For more than three decades the same programs have held the top three spots on college basketball’s list of all-time victories, and for most of that stretch, the leader has been Kentucky.
But the Wildcats have company for No. 1 and could be supplanted atop the list during this men’s NCAA Tournament.
Kentucky’s stunning loss to No. 15 seed St. Peter’s in the first round keeps the Wildcats’ victory total at 2,353. Kansas was second on the list but has tied the Wildcats after its first-round victory over Texas Southern and a second-round win over Creighton on Saturday.
Third-place North Carolina, which won its first-round game against Marquette and beat top-seeded Baylor on Saturday, stands third at 2,320.
Those schools have been college basketball’s top threesome in all-time victories since the 1987-88 season, and it’s been Kentucky leading for more than a quarter-century. Kansas has never led during this stretch.
The victory trends have followed a Hall of Fame coaching track. Kansas set the early pace with Phog Allen. The Jayhawks were the first to 600 victories in 1945 and the first to 800 in 1957, Allen’s first year of retirement.
Kentucky’s Adolph Rupp, a member of Allen’s KU teams in the early 1920s, had college basketball’s winningest program in the 1940s and 1950s and put the Wildcats in front.
North Carolina’s Dean Smith, a reserve guard for Allen in the early 1950s, piloted college basketball top program in the 1970s and 1980s and pushed the Tar Heels to the top.
Kansas stood fifth on the list behind Kentucky, North Carolina, St. John’s and Oregon State in 1983 when Larry Brown arrived. Through Roy Williams and Bill Self — all three coaches in the Naismith Hall of Fame — the Jayhawks steadily picked up ground.
When Self started at KU in 2003, the program owned 1,801 victories and stood 48 behind Kentucky. The gap no longer exists.
“Personally, I don’t even know if it registers on what it would mean to the program,” Self said Friday on tying Kentucky with a win Saturday. “What it would mean is we won another game. And playing in the Sweet 16 is far more important than tying that.
“I hope we tie it. I hope we pass it by a couple by the end of the year, but not because of that, just that we’re still going to be playing.”
This isn’t the first potential intersection between KU and UK. The schools raced to become the first to 1,000. In 1969, Rupp celebrated what he called the program’s 1000th triumph.
But the NCAA didn’t agree. Kentucky was including five victories from an overseas trip two years earlier. The NCAA said those games don’t count, and in early January 1969, Kansas led 997-955.
Kentucky still got there first, defeating Alabama for victory No. 1,000. North Carolina became the first to 1,500. The Wildcats were the first to 2,000.
Kansas became the second to 2,353 and shares the top step of the podium.
Here’s the current top five through Saturday:
2,353: Kansas
2,353: Kentucky
2,320: North Carolina
2,242: Duke
1,962: Temple
This story was originally published March 18, 2022 at 1:05 PM with the headline "College basketball’s all-time victories lead has been a race among these 3 bluebloods."