NCAA Basketball: Ranking the last 25 national title winning head coaches

An innovator and legendary coach, Bob Knight was known as “The General” and made his mark on college basketball. He currently sits third all time in career victories and won a trio of national titles at Indiana. He’s the most recent coach to lead a team to an undefeated season and he mentored some of college basketball’s biggest names.

Knight graduated from Ohio State and was part of a Buckeyes team that won the 1960 national title. After a brief stint at the high school level, he began his coaching career as an assistant at Army, becoming the head coach in 1965.

It was there that he mentored Mike Krzyzewski, who would become Army’s head coach a few years after Knight’s departure. Knight led the Black Knights to many NIT bids before getting his shot back in the Big Ten.

Knight took over at Indiana in 1971 and would spend the next 29 years leading the Hoosiers. They would make five Final Fours and win national titles in 1976, 1981 and 1987. That 1976 team was the most recent undefeated season in Division I hoops.

His career didn’t come without controversy, including chucking a chair across Assembly Hall, leading to his departure from the Hoosiers. He ended his career spending nearly seven seasons with Texas Tech, leading them to a Sweet 16, which was a fabulous accomplishment before Chris Beard (a Knight assistant) came along these last few years.

There’s a lot to Knight’s story, from his innovation of the motion offense to his outbursts and lunatic behavior. He won a lot of games throughout his career and built one of the most impressive programs of the 1970s and 1980s.

His Hoosiers were constantly in the championship conversation and Knight was one of the game’s biggest personalities. He mentored a couple of today’s best coaches and he built an undeniable legacy for the Hoosiers.