In the history of men’s college basketball, some national champions simply made it look easy. Here are the best of the best.

Since the inception of the NCAA Tournament in 1939, there have been nearly 100 teams crowned the national champion of Division I men’s college basketball.
Some of those teams were a lot more memorable than others, though.
We’ve previously detailed the blue-blood programs in men’s college hoops. For this exercise, though, we’ll focus on specific seasons of greatness as opposed to cumulative excellence. (There is plenty of overlap, of course, with all seven blue bloods appearing in this top 10.)
When we get to the honorable mentions, we’ll eventually touch on a few really good teams who failed to win it all. However, when it comes to ranking the 10 greatest teams of all time, winning the natty is mandatory.
Beyond that, we used overall record and pure dominance in the form of scoring margin and schedule strength as the primary criteria to rank the best of the best.
One key thing to note before we dive in: We’ve imposed a maximum of one placement in the top 10 per program. Sorry not sorry, UCLA Bruins, but you don’t get seven spots for that incredible run of more than a decade 50 years ago.
The 10 Best Teams in College Basketball History
1. 1971-72 UCLA Bruins (30-0)
Under John Wooden, UCLA won 10 national championships in the span of 12 seasons, including four undefeated campaigns.
There’s really no question, however, that the crème de la crème came in 1971-72, when the late, great Bill Walton, Henry Bibby and Jamaal Wilkes paced the Bruins through a perfect season in which their average margin of victory was a ludicrous 30.3 points.
They only played in two games decided by fewer than 13 points, mostly cruising to victory in what were games 16-45 of their historic 88-game winning streak.
2. 1975-76 Indiana Hoosiers (32-0)
It has been almost half a century, yet we still talk about this Indiana team on an annual basis.
Why?
Because those Bob Knight-coached Hoosiers were the most recent undefeated national champion in men’s college basketball.
There have been plenty of close calls since then, but that Indiana team is to college hoops what the 1972 Miami Dolphins are to the NFL — the legend seeming to grow just a bit more with each passing year as no one else manages to run the table.
They were damn good, too, just to be clear, winning their first 31 games of the prior season, as well. Back in the pre-three-point-arc days of college basketball, Indiana’s 1-2 frontcourt punch of Scott May and Kent Benson was absolutely unstoppable.
3. 1995-96 Kentucky Wildcats (34-2)
Kentucky had plenty of “loaded with NBA talent” seasons in its 15 years with John Calipari at the helm, but this Rick Pitino-coached squad with nine future NBA players in tow was a wrecking ball, averaging better than 91 points per game and a scoring margin of +22.0 PPG.
Coincidentally, Tony Delk, Antoine Walker, current UK head coach Mark Pope and Co. went up against Calipari twice that season, losing to Massachusetts in November before beating the Minutemen in the Final Four (the latter did actually happen, despite UMass having its achievement later vacated).
After the first loss to UMass, the Wildcats reeled off 27 consecutive wins. And in the NCAA Tournament, they consecutively blazed through Keith Van Horn (Utah), Tim Duncan (Wake Forest) and Marcus Camby (UMass) before upending Syracuse for the natty. Side note: both of Kentucky's losses came to teams the Wildcats also beat during the season.
4. 1991-92 Duke Blue Devils (34-2)
This particular iteration of Duke was quite possibly the most “you either love them or you hate them” team in college basketball history.
The Blue Devils had won it all the previous year, toppling undefeated UNLV in the Final Four en route to that title. And with the exception of Billy McCaffrey transferring to Vanderbilt, pretty much everyone came back the following year for what became a juggernaut.
That includes head coach Mike Krzyzewski and star players Bobby Hurley, Grant Hill and, of course, Christian Laettner, who hit that iconic overtime shot in the Elite Eight victory over Kentucky.
Duke got tripped up twice in February but never lost its grip on the No. 1 spot in the AP poll on its way to a second consecutive title.
5. 1956-57 North Carolina Tar Heels (32-0)
The crown for most points ever scored in a single season by a Tar Heel doesn’t belong to Tyler Hansbrough, Vince Carter, Antawn Jamison or even Michael Jordan.
It was Lennie Rosenbluth scoring 895 points (28.0 PPG) for this undefeated champion in the 1950s.
North Carolina needed every last one of those points in the closing stages of the NCAA Tournament, too. Both in the Final Four against Michigan State and in the national championship against Wilt Chamberlain and Kansas, UNC needed triple overtime to survive.
6. 1973-74 North Carolina State Wolfpack (30-1)
When you think back on North Carolina State’s championship teams, Jim Valvano frantically running around the court looking for someone to hug in 1983 is usually the first image that springs to mind. But that was a 10-loss No. 6 seed that caught fire at just the right time.
The much, much better Wolfpack squad was the one from a decade prior, coached by Norm Sloan and led by the dynamic duo of David Thompson and Tom Burleson, who combined to average 44 points and 20 rebounds per game.
NC State went a perfect 27-0 in 1972-73, but was deemed ineligible for the NCAA Tournament due to recruiting violations. It was welcomed back the following March, though, where it put an end to UCLA’s run of seven consecutive national championships, downing the Bruins in double overtime in the Final Four. (State proceeded to defeat Marquette by a dozen in the title game.)
7. 2023-24 Connecticut Huskies (37-3)
In the past quarter century of college basketball, never has a national champion felt as inevitable as this UConn group.
It wasn’t because they also won it all the previous year. If anything, that had been a curse for nearly two decades since the last time any team went back-to-back. It was because they won it all in 2023 and came back stronger on both ends of the floor.
Tristen Newton was the perfect leader. Cam Spencer was the perfect grad-transfer. Stephon Castle was the perfect freshman phenom. And Donovan Clingan was a monster down low.
Connecticut won 27 of its final 28 games, including winning each tournament game by at least a 14-point margin.

8. 2017-18 Villanova Wildcats (36-4)
In lockstep with the Golden State Warriors — who became an NBA dynasty around the same time by routinely catching fire from three-point range — these Wildcats were nothing short of relentless from the perimeter.
Led by Mikal Bridges, Donte DiVincenzo and Jalen Brunson, Villanova sank an NCAA D-I record 464 three-pointers in 2017-18, including 76 in their six NCAA tournament games, winning all six by at least a dozen.
In winning it all for the second time in three years, Jay Wright’s guys led the nation in scoring, and played darn good defense, too.
9. 2007-08 Kansas Jayhawks (37-3)
The 2008 tournament was famously the only time that all four No. 1 seeds have made it to the Final Four. Kansas emerged victorious from that gauntlet, destroying UNC in the Final Four before an OT victory over Memphis in the title game.
Though there were seven future NBA players on the roster, the beauty of that Kansas squad was its lack of a “we can’t win if that guy doesn’t show up” National Player of the Year frontrunner. Instead, it had seven different guys who could lead the way on any given night.
The only one of the bunch who didn’t score in double figures in multiple tournament games that year was Sasha Kaun, who shot a perfect 6-for-6 from the field as Kansas narrowly survived its Elite Eight showdown with Steph Curry and the Davidson Wildcats.
10. 1965-66 Texas Western (Now UTEP) Miners (28-1)
Prior to the NCAA tournament, Texas Western had played just one game against a ranked opponent, yet played eight games decided by single digits, including a regular-season ending loss to 10-loss Seattle.
This left many to question just how good this Independent team was, and those concerns lingered as the Miners were taken to OT in both the Sweet 16 and the Elite Eight.
Nevertheless, the Glory Road Miners made (eventual movie-making) history, becoming the first team to win a national championship while starting five black players, taking down an all-white, No. 1-ranked Kentucky starting five in that title game.
Other Champions Worthy of Honorable Mentions
In addition to our top 10, here are 10 other national champs that we considered, several of whom would have made the cut were it not for our “max of one top-10 spot per program” rule. These are presented in chronological order.
- 1955-56 San Francisco Dons (29-0) — After losing at UCLA three games into the 1954-55 campaign, the Dons won 55 straight en route to consecutive national championships. Bill Russell averaged better than 20 points and 20 rebounds per game in each of those seasons.
- 1961-62 Cincinnati Bearcats (29-2) — Cincinnati fell just short in the tournament in each of its three seasons with all-time great Oscar Robertson on the roster. The Bearcats finally broke through after he graduated, though, winning it all in both 1961 and 1962, beating Ohio State and the legendary Jerry Lucas in each of those championship games.
- Pick Another UCLA Season — In addition to the 1971-72 season, the Bruins ran the table in 1963-64, 1967-68 and 1972-73. But its second-best team might have been the 29-1 champs of 1967-68, avenging its two-point loss at AP No. 2 Houston during the regular season with a 32-point blowout of the Cougars in the Final Four. Lew Alcindor (later known as Kareem Abdul-Jabbar) sure could ball.
- 1988-89 Michigan Wolverines (30-7) — Calling this one of the 10 best champions would be a bit much, but it was certainly one of the most memorable, winning it all with an interim coach (Steve Fisher) after telling its previous one (Bill Frieder) to kick rocks upon learning he was leaving for the Arizona State job. Glen Rice scored an NCAA-record 184 points during that championship run.
- 1989-90 UNLV Rebels (35-5) — Won three of its six NCAA tournament games by a margin of 30 points, including the national championship victory over Duke; however, the following year’s edition of UNLV was even better.
- 1998-99 Connecticut Huskies (34-2) — A very good team that was also a considerable underdog in the national championship against Duke. Rip Hamilton paid no mind to the greatness of those Blue Devils, leading the Huskies to their first national championship.
- 2000-01 Duke Blue Devils (35-4) — Jay Williams and Shane Battier led a freight train with a scoring margin greater than 20 points per game. Maybe the best team since 2000, but not quite as good as the 1991-92 Duke squad.
- 2004-05 North Carolina Tar Heels (33-4) — Scott May landed at No. 2 with the ‘76 Hoosiers; his son, Sean, gets an honorable mention with the ‘05 Tar Heels. May averaged a double-double for the Heels, including going for 26 and 10 in a sensational national championship showdown with 37-1 Illinois.
- 2006-07 Florida Gators (35-5) — Limped into the dance with losses to unranked foes in each of their final three road games of the regular season, but the reigning champs flipped a switch once the calendar flipped to March, becoming one of just three back-to-back champs in the past 50 years.
- 2011-12 Kentucky Wildcats (38-2) — It was the only title John Calipari won at Kentucky, but Anthony Davis, Michael Kidd-Gilchrist and Marquis Teague put an end to the B.S. narrative that you can’t win it all with one-and-done players leading the way.
Non-Champs Who Simply Must Be Mentioned
Fair or not, it only takes one, slightly off night during the NCAA Tournament for a team to plummet from “might be the best of all-time” to “doesn’t even belong in the conversation after failing to win it all.”
But, man, there were some unbelievable teams who simply picked the wrong night to lose a game. Or — in the case of our first non-champs honorable mention — didn’t even get the chance to win an undefeated title.
- 1972-73 NC State Wolfpack (27-0) — As previously mentioned, this team was denied an opportunity to play in the NCAA tournament due to a recruiting violation. But that NC State team was the 1B to six-time-reigning-champ UCLA’s 1A, and it’s a shame they didn’t get to settle it on the court that year.
- 1974-75 Indiana Hoosiers (31-1) — Also previously mentioned, this iteration of Indiana might have been even better than the one that went undefeated the following year, as the 1974-75 team had Steve Green in addition to Scott May and Kent Benson. However, the Hoosiers simply could not slow down Kentucky in that 92-90 loss in the Elite Eight.
- 1990-91 UNLV Rebels (34-1) — In the entire regular season, UNLV played in one game decided by single digits, winning 112-105 on the road against AP No. 2 Arkansas in mid-February. But Duke somehow slowed down Larry Johnson and Stacey Augmon just enough to clip the undefeated Rebels 79-77 in the Final Four.
- 1998-99 Duke Blue Devils (37-2) — In KenPom history (which dates back to 1997), only one team has finished a year with an adjusted efficiency margin of +37.4 or greater. It was this Duke team at an outrageous mark of +43.01, entering the Final Four with an average scoring margin of just under 26 points per game. But after a close call against Michigan State, Duke was toppled by aforementioned UConn in the title game.
- 2014-15 Kentucky (38-1) — Ah yes. The infamous 38-1 team. One year after Wichita State became the first team in 23 years to carry an undefeated record into the NCAA tournament, Kentucky (which ended Wichita State’s dream of perfection in the second round in 2014) took it a bit further by reaching the Final Four before falling at the hands of Frank “the Tank” Kaminsky and the Wisconsin Badgers.
- 2020-21 Gonzaga Bulldogs (31-1) — While Kentucky was unblemished into the Final Four in 2015, Gonzaga was the first team to play in a national championship with a zero in the loss column since Larry Bird and the Indiana State Sycamores lost to Magic Johnson in the 1979 championship. Within five minutes, though, Baylor had the Zags in an unbreakable chokehold, cruising to a 16-point victory.

Hypothetical All-Time Fantasy College Basketball Lineup
While we’re on this “all-time greatest college basketball seasons” wavelength, we thought it would be fun to also approach it from a fantasy perspective, since, you know, that’s kind of what we do here.
If you could take any player’s best season and draft an all-time fantasy college basketball lineup, what would that look like?
Great question, but we do need to note something pretty important before we dive in: The NCAA didn’t start tracking assists until 1973, blocks and steals weren’t added until 1979 and there were no three-point field goals until 1986.
It is what it is, though. We’re not going to retroactively credit Wilt Chamberlain with blocks, Oscar Robertson with assists and Pete Maravich with three-pointers. But they still would have been wildly valuable fantasy assets.
PG: Oscar Robertson, Cincinnati (1957-58)
Before becoming the patron saint of triple-doubles in the NBA, with 181 of them in his professional career, “Big O” was a force of nature for the Bearcats, averaging 33.8 points and 15.2 rebounds per game over the course of his three-year career. His first season was the most prolific, though, at 35.1 PPG.
Honorable Mention: 2017-18 Trae Young, Oklahoma (27.4 PPG, 8.7 APG, 3.9 RPG, 1.7 SPG)
Second HM: 1987-88 Avery Johnson, Southern (11.4 PPG, 13.3 APG, 3.5 SPG)
SG: Pete Maravich, LSU (1967-68)
Before Steph Curry and Jimmer Fredette had the benefit of extra points for limitless range, “Pistol Pete” became the king of shooting anywhere, anytime. In his three seasons at LSU, Maravich averaged 38.1 field-goal attempts and 13.9 free-throw attempts per game, meaning his career scoring average of 44.2 PPG wasn’t actually all that efficient.
You don’t lose fantasy points for missed shots, though, so the Pistol’s permanent green light would have been a fantasy gold mine. And in his first year of college hoops, Maravich put up 43.8 points and 7.5 rebounds per game.
Honorable Mention: 1969-70 Austin Carr, Notre Dame (38.1 PPG, 8.3 RPG)
Second HM: 1976-77 Freeman Williams, Portland State (38.8 PPG, 4.8 RPG)
SF: Rick Barry, Miami (1964-65)
In what’s maybe the most ludicrous line in college basketball history, Barry averaged 37.4 points and 18.3 rebounds in his final season with the Hurricanes.
Because Miami didn’t even make the NCAA tournament that year, though, and because Princeton’s Bill Bradley was named the unanimous National Player of the Year at 30.5 PPG and 11.8 RPG, what Barry did while leading the ‘Canes to near 100 points per game often gets overlooked. Make no mistake about it, though, Barry and his underhand free-throw stroke were legendary.
Honorable Mention: 1993-94 Glenn Robinson, Purdue (30.3 PPG, 10.1 RPG, 1.9 APG, 1.6 SPG)
Second HM: 2006-07 Kevin Durant, Texas (25.8 PPG, 11.1 RPG, 1.9 BPG, 1.9 SPG, 1.3 APG)
PF: Larry Bird, Indiana State (1976-77)
As a reminder, there were no three-pointers yet when Larry Legend was in college. Nevertheless, Bird averaged 32.8 points, 13.3 rebounds and 4.4 APG in his first season of college hoops.
When he and the Sycamores almost went undefeated two years later, he “only” averaged 28.6 points, but he upped the ante in the other departments to 14.9 rebounds and 5.5 assists. Depending on your preferred fantasy scoring system, that season may have been slightly more valuable.
Honorable Mention: 1988-89 Hank Gathers, Loyola Marymount (32.7 PPG, 13.7 RPG, 2.1 APG)
Second HM: 1953-54 Tom Gola, La Salle (23.0 PPG, 21.7 RPG)
C: Artis Gilmore, Jacksonville (1969-70)
It’s a shame the NCAA didn’t start tracking blocks until about a decade after the A-Train was patrolling the paint for the Dolphins. He averaged 26.5 points and 22.2 rebounds per game while carrying them to the 1970 national championship game against UCLA.
Sports-Reference retroactively credits Gilmore with 269 blocks (10.1 per game!) for the following year, and surely the 7’2” southpaw center had more than a few rejections for the season in question.
Honorable Mention: 1966-67 Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, UCLA (29.0 PPG, 15.5 RPG)
Second HM: 1957-58 Wilt Chamberlain, Kansas (29.6 PPG, 18.9 RPG)
Frequently Asked Questions
What college basketball team has won the most national championships?
That would be UCLA with 11 titles, 10 of which came in the span of 12 years (1964-75).
Kentucky isn’t terribly far behind the Bruins with eight. And with all six of its titles coming since 1999, UConn is starting to feel like the program most likely to overtake UCLA one day.
How many undefeated champions have there been?
Seven, all of which accomplished that feat a lifetime ago.
The San Francisco Dons went 29-0 in 1955-56. The following year, the North Carolina Tar Heels went a perfect 32-0. And then after UCLA put together a quartet of 30-0 campaigns (1963-64, 1966-67, 1971-72 and 1972-73), the 1975-76 Indiana Hoosiers were the most recent undefeated champ, finishing off a perfect 32-0 season a couple of months before the USA celebrated its bicentennial.
Will there ever be an undefeated champion again?
Maybe?
Probably?
It’s certainly tougher than it used to be. Trying to go 40-0 with a three-point line is a lot more difficult than trying to win 30-32 consecutive games before that great equalizer was painted onto the court.
And yet, there have been quite a few close calls, most recently 2014-15 Kentucky and 2020-21 Gonzaga just barely falling short of making that history. (Though, Gonzaga only would’ve gone 32-0, thanks to that COVID-truncated season.)
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