John Calipari has elite NCAA Tournament record

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On3 image — (Photo by Dr. Michael Huang | Kentucky Sports Radio)

Winning a national championship in college basketball might be the most difficult task among all major sports. In a win-or-go-home single-elimination tournament, almost anything can happen.

Due to this, the best team does not always bring home the hardware. As a matter of the fact, the champion in March Madness is quite often not the No. 1 team. That’s what makes the three weeks of postseason play so great.

Despite the randomness of the tournament, John Calipari has been one of the best postseason coaches in the sport. Of the coaches with at least 20 games of experience in this year’s tournament, no one has a higher winning percentage than Calipari. That even includes the great Mike Krzyzewski who we will all hear about nonstop over the next three weeks.

John Calipari: 56-16 (.778)
Mike Krzyzewski: 97-30 (.764)
Tom Izzo: 52-21 (.712)
Bill Self: 49-21 (.700)
Scott Drew: 17-8 (.680)
Jay Wright: 30-15 (.667)
Mark Few: 36-21 (.632)
Bruce Pearl: 15-10 (.600)
Kelvin Sampson: 19-16 (.543)
Matt Painter: 15-13 (.536)
Jamie Dixon: 12-12 (.500)
Mick Cronin: 11-11 (.500)
Rick Barnes: 24-25 (.490)
Mike Brey: 13-14 (.481)

Elsewhere, John Calipari has a higher winning percentage than some famous coaches that are not involved in the tournament this March — Tony Bennett, Jim Boeheim, and Rick Pitino.

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John Calipari has mostly had Kentucky in the mix

Throughout his 13 seasons, most of the time Kentucky basketball has been an enjoyable experience for both the parties in the program and their supporters. There were a few years of frustration — 2013 and 2021 — but for the most part, Kentucky has had a chance to win the whole thing every single year.

Calipari has led the program to four Final Four appearances, seven Elite Eight games, and a 17-1 record in the first weekend. Overall, Kentucky is 31-8 (.795) in the Big Dance under the 13th year head coach and has been in the conversation no matter where the seed landed on Selection Sunday.

Of course, everyone wants more titles, but that will come with time if Kentucky keeps knocking on the door. Under Calipari, the Wildcats have always been in the mix and have a good track record as a No. 2 seed.