Those on the CBS Final Four studio show last week paid tribute to St. John’s coach Rick Pitino, saying that he had the largest coaching tree in college basketball history. Hard to believe, but 41 men who coached or played for Pitino have gone on to become head coaches at NCAA Division I schools or in the NBA.
So I researched the coaching trees of the game’s Hall of Fame coaches and found that Arizona’s Lute Olson is third in history, with 21 head coaches in his coaching tree, trailing just Pitino and Duke’s Mike Krzyzewski, with 23. (Thanks to coachesdatabase.com for its wealth of historic information).
Arizona's Sean Elliott, left, and Steve Kerr joke with coach Lute Olson during an April 1, 1988, practice in Kansas City during that year's Final Four.
Here’s Olson’s list of those who became head coaches, including Mike Bibby, new head coach at Sacramento State:
– Josh Pastner, Memphis, Georgia Tech, 276 wins
– Jason Gardner, IUPUI, 64 wins
– Damon Stoudamire, Pacific, Georgia Tech, 102 wins
– Tony McAndrews, Colorado State, 80 wins
– Jim Rosborough, Northern Illinois, 31 wins
– Scott Thompson, Rice, Wichita State, Cornell, 150 wins
– Kevin O’Neill, Marquette, Tennessee, Northwestern, Arizona, USC, 219 wins
– Ricky Byrdsong, Detroit, Northwestern, 89 wins
– Jessie Evans, Louisiana, San Francisco, 177 wins
– Jack Murphy, NAU, 78 wins
– Phil Johnson, UTEP, San Jose State, 41 wins
– Ken Burmeister, Loyola-Chicago, UTSA, 319 wins
– Jay John, Oregon State, 72 wins
– Rodney Tention, Loyola-Marymount, 30 wins
– Dick Kuchen, Cal, Yale, 231 wins
– Kirk Speraw, Central Florida, 279 wins
– Dwight Jones, Long Beach State, 70 wins
– Steve Kerr, Golden State Warriors, 564 wins
– Luke Walton, Los Angeles Lakers, Sacramento Kings, 166 wins
– Floyd Theard, Denver, 107 wins
Olson’s pupils have won a combined 3,143 games, second only to Pitino’s coaching tree. That doesn’t include four Olson players who became head coaches in the NBA G League — Jason Terry, Bret Brielmaier, Joseph Blair and Matt Brase.
