13. Mark Few (Gonzaga)
No other coach on this list has gotten as painstakingly close as Few to national championship success. The work he’s done at Gonzaga has been utterly incomparable in the current college basketball setting. The Bulldogs were a mid-major Cinderella story fresh off an Elite Eight run when Few was promoted to head coach in 1999 and they’re much more than that a quarter century later.
Gonzaga’s greatness has been a testament to Few’s efforts. Outside of a boatload of WCC regular season and tournament titles, Few has won 83% of his games, boasting more than 700 career victories. He’s taken the Bulldogs to every NCAA Tournament during his tenure, most notably getting this program to the national title game in both 2017 and 2021. Gonzaga has regularly had deep runs into the postseason and Few seems almost destined to break through in one of these seasons.
Time may be running short for a coach already 26 years into his head coaching career, and that’s a big reason why Few isn’t towards the top of this list. It’s not so much about missed chances, though that 2021 undefeated run and loss to Baylor still stings, but about opportunities. Gonzaga moves into the Pac-12 next year and it’s hard to say what will happen in the climate of this sport in the coming years. Regardless, Few is one of the best coaches in this sport and this Gonzaga program will be a contender until his retirement.