Teams With the Most NCAA Tournament Championship Wins
By
Richard Janvrin
Contributor Updated: 01 July 2024
Richard Janvrin Contributor
Richard has been writing about sports since he was a teenager. Still, his first professional role came in 2015, covering all things NFL and fantasy football-related. From there, in December 2018, he started in the sports betting industry, covering sportsbook reviews before arriving to where he is today.
Teams With the Most NCAA Tournament Wins
In visiting the best college basketball betting sites, chances are you’ll wager on games, the most NCAA tournament wins, and of course, who will win the championship.
Since the tournament era began in 1939, there’s only one college program that’s won double-digit titles.
Below, we’ll examine that team and the other top teams that have all won two championships or more.
- Most NCAA Basketball Championship Wins: UCLA Bruins – 11
- Second-Most NCAA Basketball Championship Wins: Kentucky Wildcats – 8
- UConn Huskies – 6
- North Carolina Tar Heels – 6
- Duke Blue Devils – 5
- Indiana Hoosiers – 5
- Kansas Jayhawks – 4
- Villanova Wildcats – 3
- The Rest: Cincinnati, Florida, Louisville, and More – 2
Most NCAA Basketball Championship Wins: UCLA Bruins – 11
The UCLA Bruins haven’t won a national title since 1995.
This just further illustrates their dominance in years past. They haven’t made the title game since 2006 or the Final Four since 2021.
Their first title came in 1964, and they were incredibly dominant in the 60s and 70s to become the NCAA basketball all-time champions.
Between 1964 and 1975, they won 10 national championships with the legendary head coach John Wooden. During that span, UCLA won 335 games and only lost 22 of them. That’s a winning percentage of .938 over more than a decade. That is utterly absurd.
Wooden left after the 1975 season, and stars like Bill Walton, Lew Alcindor (now known as Kareem Abdul-Jabbar), and others were in the rearview mirror.
In 1995, they won after going 32-1. This was the most NCAA basketball wins in a single season.
Second-Most NCAA Basketball Championship Wins: Kentucky Wildcats – 8
For today’s generation, the Kentucky Wildcats have always been successful, whether it be Final Four appearances or overall NCAA tournament success, but they haven’t won a championship in some time.
Their most recent title was 2012; they’ve won eight overall since 1948. They also won the Helms and Premo-Porretta championships in 1933 and 1934, respectively.
Their tournament wins are a bit scattered but in clumps: 1948, 1949, 1951, 1958, 1978, 1996, 1998, and 2012.
The 2012 championship team included Anthony Davis, and six players were drafted, including Davis and Michael Kidd-Gilchrist, who went No. 1 and No. 2 overall.
The Wildcats have the second most NCAA tournament wins with 130.
UConn Huskies – 6
In 2022, the Huskies had four total national title wins, and now, they have six.
They went back-to-back in 2023 and 2024 and dominated this past season. Now, they’re looking forward to become the new NCAA basketball all-time champions.
Before this, they won in 1999, 2004, 2009, 2011, and 2014. They’ve been a wildly successful 21st-century college basketball team. In fact, they’ve never lost a national championship game.
The back-to-back title wins haven’t happened in 17 years since the Florida Gators.
Over the years, this team has seen several successful players, including Andre Drummond, Rudy Gay, Shabazz Napier, Donyell Marshall, and more.
Now, heading into the 2024 NBA Draft, there’s Donovan Clingan, Stephon Castle, Tristen Newton, Cam Spencer, and Alex Karaban — all of these players will be drafted quite highly.
North Carolina Tar Heels – 6
The Tar Heels are synonymous with Michael Jordan and rightfully so. Jordan is arguably the best basketball player to live and he perhaps wasn’t even the best Tar Heel ever with Tyler Hansbrough atop many lists.
In their history, the Tar Heels have been to 12 national championships and they won half of those. Their most recent was 2017 and their first was 1957.
They also won two titles in the mid to late 2000s in 2005 and 2009. The 2009 win included Hansbrough. That season, he averaged 20.7 points and 8.1 rebounds per game.
The Tar Heels have the most NCAA tournament wins with 133.
Duke Blue Devils – 5
Coach K is a college basketball legend, and rightfully so. He’s responsible for all five of the Blue Devils national championships.
He coached the school from 1980 to 2022 and in that time they won five titles (went to nine total), went to 13 Final Fours, 17 Elite Eights, 26 Sweet Sixteens, and 101 tournament wins.
Three of their national title wins came this century, including 2001, 2010, and 2015. They also won back-to-back titles in 1991 and 1992.
Leading up to that 1991 title, they took down the heavily favored UNLV Runnin’ Rebels, and all-time Blue Devils greats Grant Hill and Christian Laettner were on the team.
Coach K possesses the most NCAA basketball wins as a coach with 1,202.
Indiana Hoosiers – 5
Where there’s a Coach K, there’s a Bobby Knight for the Hoosiers. He coached the team from 1971 to 2000, and they won three of their titles during his stretch. The other two came in 1940 with Branch McCracken and again in 1953. Unfortunately, the school was hit with sanctions in 1960, which slowed the recruiting process, as they were barred from postseason play during their probationary period.
The Hoosiers’ most recent tile came 37 years ago in 1987. During Knight as their coach, they won 662 games, had 22 seasons with 20+ wins, and a .735 winning percentage.
Steve Alford led the Hoosiers to their last title in 1987, but Keith Smart hit the game-winning shot.
Since their title win, the Hoosiers went to another title game in 2002 but lost. Since then, they’ve made just three Sweet Sixteens.
Kansas Jayhawks – 4
Before the Huskies went back-to-back the past two years, the Jayhawks won in 2022 and beat the Tar Heels, 72-69.
Before the 2022 win, they won in 1952, 1988, and 2008.
This program has had an almost never-ending number of successful players including Paul Pierce, Wilt Chamberlain, Danny Manning, Andrew Wiggins, Joel Embiid, and many more. In addition to their four wins, they made six other titles. Overall, they’re 4-6 in title games.
Bill Self took over in 2003 and he’s been there ever since and is responsible for half of the title wins. Before coming to Kansas, he coached Oral Roberts, Tulsa, and Illinois and he’s won more than 800 career games.
Villanova Wildcats – 3
With three wins in their history, the Wildcats won two of those three in three years, winning in 2016 and 2018. Before that, they last won in 1985 with Rollie Massimino as head coach. They took down Patrick Ewing and the 10-point favorite Georgetown.
With Jay Wright as head coach, they won their other two titles. Leading up to the 2016 win, they had an average margin of victory of nearly 21 points per game.
In 2018, they were led by Mikal Bridges and Donte DiVincenzo.
DiVincenzo had 31 points, five rebounds, three assists, two steals, and two blocks in that national title game.
The Rest: Cincinnati, Florida, Louisville, and More – 2
Finally, there are seven schools that are all tied with two championship wins. Below, we’ll cover each of them.
- Cincinnati Bearcats: The Bearcat’s first college basketball season was in 1901, and their two title wins came in back-to-back years in 1961 and 1962. They finished as the runner-up in 1963. Their first title came with rookie head coach Ed Jucker.
- Florida Gators: Interestingly enough, the Gators are another team that won two titles and also in back-to-back years. They won in 2006 and 2007 with Billy Donovan as their head coach. Their first title win came against UCLA who has the all-time national title wins record and in 2007, three of their starting five were first-round NBA Draft picks.
- Louisville Cardinals: This is a bit of a grey area. The Cardinals technically won three titles, but their 2013 one was vacated after it was found that then-director of basketball operations Andre McGee arranged inappropriate circumstances for prospects, including sexual acts. There were two other wins, in 1980 and 1986, with Denny Crum as head coach. They also beat UCLA 59-54 to capture the 1980 championship.
- Michigan State Spartans: The Spartans last won a national title at the turn of the century in 2000 and before that in 1979. The first win came with head coach Jud Heathcote, and the other with Tom Izzo, who’s been with the team since 1995.
- NC State Wolfpack: The Wolfpack’s two title wins came in 1974 and 1983, and they’re fresh off a Final Four appearance in 2024 before losing to the Purdue Boilermakers. The Wolfpack are 2-0 all-time in title games. Their last title win came with Jim Valvano as head coach. To get there, they beat Houston, North Carolina, and Virginia. These teams had Hakeem Olajuwon, Michael Jordan, and Ralph Sampson, respectively.
- Oklahoma State Cowboys: Yet another team with two national title wins coming in back-to-back years, the Cowboys last won in 1945 and 1946. Since then, they’ve made one other title game (1949) and haven’t made a Sweet Sixteen since 2005. The wins came with Henry Iba as head coach.
- San Francisco Dons: Led by Bill Russell, San Francisco won titles in 1955 and 1956 and made it to the Final Four in 1957. Phil Woolpert coached the team. Russell averaged 20.7 points and 20.3 rebounds during his time with the team. San Francisco hasn’t made a Sweet Sixteen since 1979, but it made its first tournament appearance in 1998 in 2022.
