1979      1980      1981

Active and Former (20+ games)

Rank Coach, Schools (*=not active) Yrs. W-L Pct. Final
4 2 1
1 John Wooden*, UCLA 29 47-10 .825 12 10 10
2 Al McGuire*, Marquette 20 20-9 .690 2 2 1
3 Hank Iba*, Oklahoma State 41 15-7 .682 4 3 2
T4 Frank McGuire, South Carolina 30 14-8 .636 2 2 1
T4 Jerry Tarkanian, UNLV 12 14-8 .636 1 0 0
6 Adolph Rupp*, Kentucky 42 30-18 .625 6 5 4
7 Denny Crum, Louisville 9 13-8 .619 3 1 1
8 Dean Smith, North Carolina 19 16-12 .571 5 2 0
9 Digger Phelps, Notre Dame 10 12-10 .545 1 0 0
T10 Guy Lewis, Houston 24 14-14 .500 2 0 0
T10 Ray Meyer, DePaul 38 13-13 .500 2 0 0
T10 Jack Gardner*, (Kansas State, Utah) 28 12-12 .500 4 1 0


Highlights:

National Champs: Louisville Denny Crum
Second place: UCLA Larry Brown
Third place: Purdue Lee Rose
Fourth place: Iowa Lute Olson

In his third trip to the Final Four, Denny Crum, takes it all this year as Louisville defeats UCLA in the title game, giving him enough games to debut in seventh place at .619.  Crum had been an assistant under John Wooden before taking the head coaching job at Louisville.
Dean Smith (North Carolina), Digger Phelps (Notre Dame) and Ray Meyer (DePaul) all suffer first round losses this year.
Once again, the tournament is expanded, this time to 48 teams with 16 teams receiving first round bye's.  Also, the NCAA decided to drop its two team per league rule without which the Final Four teams Purdue, Iowa and UCLA would not have been invited.