NCAA Basketball: Ranking the 20 best head coaches from past 5 seasons

Coach Accomplishments the past 5 seasons
SEC Regular Season Champion: 1 (2019)
Atlantic 10 Regular Season Champion: 1 (2016)
NCAA Tournament Appearances: 2 (2016, 2017)

Coaching Points Breakdown
0 points for National Championships
0 points for Final Four Appearances
40 points for Regular Season Conference Championships (SEC and A 10)
0 points for Conference Tournaments (SEC/A 10)
0 points for Sweet Sixteen Appearances (Did not coach LSU during Sweet 16 appearance in 2019)
0 points for every season with 30 or more wins
16 points for every season with 20 or more wins
4 points for every NCAA Tournament berth (Did not coach LSU during the 2019 NCAA Tournament)
Total Coaching Points: 60

Over the past five seasons:

Best Season: 2018-2019 and even though Wade’s last game coaching that season was on March 6th when his LSU team defeated Florida on the road in overtime, he and his Tigers team essentially secured the SEC regular-season title with a 15-2 record in SEC play. That season under Wade, LSU defeated two top-five ranked teams and four top 25 ranked teams.  Wade defeated every SEC team at least once and he has accredited 25 victories before his season-ending suspension.

Biggest Regular Season Win: Winning at Rupp Arena is not an easy task but during an early February conference game to determine which team would be in first place atop of the SEC standing and LSU already having won five games on the road that season, the Tigers defeated No. 5 Kentucky by a score of 73-71. It was Wade’s first huge road win in conference play as the head coach of LSU.

Defining moment: In late February of 2019 after a gut-wrenching loss at home five-point loss at home in overtime to Florida, Wade and his Tigers face No. 5 ranked Tennesse at home.  LSU was ranked in the top 15 nationally and on a Saturday night in Baton Rouge, the No. 13 LSU was victorious over fifth-ranked Tennessee by a final score 82-80 in overtime.

Wade and his Tigers team would win their next three games to approximately secure the SEC regular-season title before Wade’s suspension and the Tigers victory of SEC foe Vanderbilt who would end up winless in SEC conference play.

Best NCAA Tournament Victory: Some may be surprised that LSU’s 69-67 victory over Maryland to reach the Sweet Sixteen in 2019 is not the pick here and that is only because interim coach Tony Benford coached the Tigers that game and not Wade. Wade’s best NCAA Tournament victory was actually when he was the head coach of VCU in 2016 when his Ram’s team upset No. 7 seed Oregon State in the first round of the tournament.