Our 2026 Candid Coaches sequence wrapped within the first week of September, with one of many remaining questions on this 12 months’s survey doubling as one of many sneaky-good barroom debates in school sports activities.
Who’s the very best school basketball staff since 2000? Not the very best program, however the very best staff from a single season.
We polled practically 100 coaches on that query, and the absurdly dominant 2023-24 UConn crewwon by incomes 17% of the votes. Not a runaway by any means, nor ought to it have been. That Huskies group was loaded, however the eight different highest vote-getters all have a declare, far as I can inform. This query prompted quite a bit of responses and suggestions from followers as effectively, so, since September is the slowest month of the faculty hoops calendar, we figured why not lengthen this subject and get some enter from the CBS Sports activities school hoops posse.
All 5 CBS Sports activities school hoops scribes sat down on the roundtable to hash it out. Who’s the very best staff of the twenty first century up to now?
2000-01 Duke
Once I added this query to our 2026 Candid Coaches rundown in mid-July, I gave actual thought to which staff would have the strongest case within the ensuing weeks, as I obtained suggestions from a wide range of coaches.
After two months of mulling, I landed on the primary potential candidate initially of the timeline. Mike Krzyzewski’s third staff to win a nationwide title didn’t have the very best report of any nationwide champion previously 26 years, but it surely did win all of its NCAA Match video games by double digits, turning into the primary faculty within the expanded match period (since 1985) to realize the feat.
My clincher: That is the one staff to ever have teammates win nationwide participant of the 12 months awards in the identical season. That might be Shane Battier and Jay Williams, who’re for positive two of the ten greatest gamers Coach Okay ever had. The remainder of the beginning 5: Carlos Boozer, Chris Duhon and Mike Dunleavy Jr. That quintet can go head-to-head with some other previously 26 seasons. Moreover, that Duke staff completed 35-4 and beat opponents by a mean of 20.2 factors (!), one of many largest margins by any staff previously 50 years.
Their KenPom effectivity margin (+37.32) was nearly 5 factors higher than No. 2 Stanford and is likely one of the three largest gaps between first and second within the 30-year historical past of Pomeroy’s database. That Duke staff additionally beat 13 ranked opponents, second-most ever (solely eclipsed by Arizona final season). Probably the most well-known of the 13 wins was this basic last-minute comeback on the highway to beat Maryland. — Matt Norlander
2014-15 Kentucky
As famous above, there was no consensus reply to this query in our annual Candid Coaches sequence. However what’s fascinating is that if we flipped only one outcome from the previous 26 years, there most likely would’ve been.
What outcome?
Wisconsin 71, Kentucky 64 on April 4, 2015.
For those who flip that UK loss right into a UK win, the Wildcats would’ve been 39-0 heading into the title recreation of the 2015 NCAA Match, the place they might’ve been favorites over Duke. Win that recreation, and 2012 Kentucky would’ve gone down as school basketball’s first and solely 40-0 nationwide champion and change into the plain reply to any query concerning the twenty first century’s greatest staff to this point.
I imply, return and have a look at that roster.
Completely loaded.
It featured 9 future NBA gamers — amongst them the No. 1 decide (Karl-Anthony Cities), No. 6 decide (Willie Cauley-Stein), No. 12 decide (Trey Lyles) and the No. 13 decide (Devin Booker) within the 2015 NBA Draft. The roster was so stacked that Booker, now a five-time All-Star with the Phoenix Suns, got here off the bench and solely performed 19 minutes within the Closing 4. (He has began 712 video games within the NBA, however by no means did it as soon as at UK.)
Would Calipari have two nationwide titles now if he’d simply shortened his rotation and/or performed his greatest gamers probably the most minutes? That is a query with no definitive reply that Kentucky followers will ponder without end. Both approach, what’s clear is that there is a enormous distinction between being a 38-1 non-champion and a 40-0 nationwide champion, and if Kentucky have been the latter as a substitute of the previous, the Wildcats would’ve most likely been the main vote-getter — by a superb margin — in our Candid Coaches sequence. — Gary Parrish
2025-26 Michigan
Maintain your boos about recency bias; I do know what I watched. A staff that did not lose by double figures all 12 months. A staff that bludgeoned the opposition into submission repeatedly.
A staff that made a superb, 36-win Arizona outfit seem like a junior varsity membership for 40 minutes within the Closing 4. A staff with perhaps the very best protection I’ve ever seen. Watching staff after staff simply slowly collapse within the second half towards Michigan‘s all-world protection was considered one of my favourite developments. It was inevitable.
Perhaps much more spectacular was how related that staff was, regardless of being constructed primarily by means of the portal. 4 transfers made up Michigan’s beginning lineup, and but, they performed collectively nearly flawlessly. Historical past mentioned you were not supposed to have the ability to win a Nationwide Championship primarily utilizing the portal till Dusty Might got here alongside and took your historic developments and threw ’em into the trash.
That is teaching, analysis and sacrifice.
Michigan completed with a +19.9 web score towards high-major groups. That rated within the 99th percentile, per CBB Analytics. Michigan’s single-season web score at KenPom is the second-best mark of the web period, behind solely 1998-99 Duke. For the primary time since 2005, Michigan had three lottery picks in the identical draft: Morez Johnson, Aday Mara and Yaxel Lendeborg. Might was such a superb coach that the Dallas Mavericks believed he was the person who might unlock the subsequent stage for the generational Cooper Flagg.
Michigan was so good that the first plea many prayed to upset the Wolverines was “hopefully, they do not make 3s.”
Particular staff. — Isaac Trotter
2023-24 UConn
I used to be on the fence between 2025-26 Michigan and 2023-24 UConn. After Trotter selected Michigan, I felt it was solely proper to choose UConn. The Huskies had one of the vital dominant runs in NCAA Match historical past to win the title.
What made it much more spectacular is that UConn was the reigning champs on the time and nonetheless instilled a stage of dominance through the match we would not see once more.
I might be shocked if a males’s school basketball staff repeated as nationwide champions within the subsequent 20 years. Florida may have an opportunity to make it two in three years subsequent spring, however profitable back-to-back titles on this period is hard.
UConn’s 2024 title staff received all six video games by double-digits. It is the identical outcome that its predecessor achieved in 2023. One of the vital spectacular elements of UConn’s title staff is that Stephon Fort, who went on to win NBA Rookie of the 12 months and has emerged as one of many league’s greatest younger stars, wasn’t even the very best participant on that title staff.
Tristen Newton was an All-American. Cam Spencer and Alex Karaban have been each elite of their roles. Donovan Clingan was probably the greatest defenders in school basketball. The Huskies have been dominant and did not have a single upset scare throughout their match run. They’re the very best title staff within the final 25 years. — Cameron Salerno
2011-12 Kentucky
The 2012 Kentucky staff was analytically much less dominant than its 2015 counterpart, which began 38-0 earlier than dropping to Wisconsin within the nationwide championship recreation. However the 2012 Wildcats can completely be thought to be “higher” since they completed the job with a title. As the one title-winning staff of John Calipari’s tenure, they’re actually remembered extra fondly. UK completed 38-2 (16-0 SEC), using the all-world play of Anthony Davis earlier than he was taken with the No. 1 general decide within the 2012 NBA Draft.
Davis’ 35.1 PER is the best of any participant on a title-winning staff since Sports activities Reference started monitoring the metric in 2010. He averaged a double-double and blocked 4.7 photographs per recreation. Even throughout a poor offensive evening in UK’s 67-59 title recreation victory over Kansas, Davis nonetheless impacted the sport with 16 rebounds, six blocks, 5 assists and three steals. With an anchor like that main the way in which, the Wildcats have been a historic drive.
Kentucky’s lone loss throughout a 30-1 common season got here by a degree on the highway towards Indiana. The Wildcats avenged that defeat within the Candy 16 as a part of an NCA Match path that featured some treachery. Every of Kentucky’s remaining 4 opponents within the NCAA Match completed as top-20 groups at KenPom. It wasn’t a straightforward highway, however the Wildcats made it look easy. — David Cobb