The top 25 college hoops teams of all time

Nolan Richardson had a team that could not only unleash his "40 minutes of hell" but also had a ton of talent that was tough to stop offensively. Corliss Williamson was too much for opponents to handle inside, while Scotty Thurman provided the outside touch. After winning the 1994 national championship over Duke, the Razorbacks returned to the title game in 1995 only to lose to UCLA.

It is rare that a team wins a national championship and then everyone returns to make another run at it. That's what the 2006 Florida Gators did when they became the first team since the 1992 Duke Blue Devils to repeat as champions. In what now looks like a clash of the old era meeting the new, Joakim Noah, Al Horford and Corey Brewer beat one-and-done heavy Ohio State for the 2007 title.

Here is the first team on our list that didn't win a national championship. Houston's teams in the early 1980s were great but just ran into other great teams along the way (North Carolina 1982, NC State 1983, Georgetown 1984). The 1983 team was the best of the bunch, as Hakeem (formerly Akeem) Olajuwon had arrived as one of the best players in the nation. The Cougars finished 31-3 (and undefeated in SWC play). Olajuwon, Clyde Drexler, Michael Young and Benny Anders formed "Phi Slama Jama" that was stopped in the national championship game on Lorenzo Charles' putback dunk at the buzzer.

People critical of UCLA's run of championships in the 1960s and 1970s usually start with "well, they had Alcindor and Walton." Not the 1971 Bruins. This was the team that began the Bruins' record 88-game winning streak after their only loss of the season at Notre Dame. UCLA, led by Sidney Wicks and Curtis Rowe, won its seventh title in eight seasons by winning a tough string of NCAA Tournament games. (Their final three contests were won by an average of 5.5 points.)

The Jayhawks shot out to a 20-0 record before a late-season swoon in the Big 12 where they lost three of seven games. But those three games were their only losses, as Mario Chalmers, Darrell Arthur, Brandon Rush and a deep rotation of players would go on to win the Big 12 conference tournament and NCAA Championship. That Final Four is the only one where all four No. 1 seeds made it to that point. The Jayhawks would maul North Carolina in the national semifinal before pulling off a miraculous comeback to topple Memphis in the title tilt. 

Michigan State won a good Big Ten conference and cruised to the NCAA Championship... beating Larry Bird and Indiana State in the title game. Sophomore Magic Johnson was the star of the team, but he had plenty of help. Greg Kelser was a great player in his own right (the teammates would go No. 1 and No. 4 overall in the 1979 NBA Draft) with guys like Jay Vincent, Ron Charles and Mike Brkovich providing toughness.

The Patrick Ewing-era Hoyas comprised one of the best runs in college basketball history, even though it only netted the one championship, in 1984. Georgetown went to three NCAA Tournament championship games in Ewing's four seasons with the one title over Hakeem Olajuwon and the Houston Cougars. Ewing was surrounding by wings David Wingate, Reggie Williams and guard Michael Jackson. After SMU played slow-down basketball to nearly upset the Hoyas in the first round, John Thompson's bunch cruised to the program's lone national championship. 

This edition of the Blue Devils was stacked. Shane Battier won several player of the year honors, like the Wooden and Naismith Awards, while Jay Williams won the NABC Player of the Year. Duke also boasted Mike Dunleavy Jr., Carlos Boozer, Chris Duhon, Nate James and Dahntay Jones and would beat Gilbert Arenas, Richard Jefferson and the Arizona Wildcats for the NCAA title. 

UConn finally gets its first national title and would go on to win four over the next 15 years. This was a stout roster featuring Rip Hamilton, Jake Voskuhl, Khalid El-Amin and Ricky Moore, who defeated top-ranked Duke in one of the better championship games you'll see. The Huskies faced nine ranked opponents during the regular season, going 34-2 overall.

The Wildcats didn't lose a game that season until January and finished the season with a record of 30-2 following a 94-88 win over the Duke Blue Devils in the finals of the NCAA Tournament. In that game, Jack Givens scored 41 points in one of the best performances in NCAA Tournament history. 

Ohio State finished the season 25-3 and won the only basketball national championship in school history. The Buckeyes blew through the 1960 NCAA Tournament, winning each game by an average of 19.5 points. They had the nation's best offense, averaging over 90 points per game. Hall of Famers Jerry Lucas and John Havlicek led the team, and they had some kid named Bobby Knight on the bench. 

This is what started the dynasty. Gail Goodrich, Walt Hazzard and Keith Erickson set the groundwork for what would be one of the greatest dynastic periods in sports, as UCLA would win 10 championships in 12 years. The Bruins breezed through a mediocre AAWU and would beat Duke, 98-83, for the national championship.

John Calipari's great experiment of crafting a program filled with one-and-dones finally reached its potential when the 2012 Wildcats won the national championship. Kentucky lost two games all season long — a buzzer-beater loss at Indiana and a sluggish showing against Vanderbilt in the SEC Tournament. Once the NCAA Tournament began, Anthony Davis and Michael Kidd-Gilchrist led the bulldozing of the field in which they were barely challenged en route to the Wildcats' eighth national championship.

The Bearcats won the second of their back-to-back national championships by beating Ohio State in the title game for the second straight year. Paul Hogue, Tony Yates and Tom Thacker led Cincinnati in the repeat by beating UCLA in the national semifinal just before the Bruins dynasty began. The Bearcats played relentless defense all season long. 

The Wolfpack actually finished the 1973 season undefeated (27-0) but were banned from the NCAA Tournament due to recruiting violations. NC State entered the 1973-1974 season as the No. 2 ranked team in the nation and lost only once all year: an early-season game to UCLA. NC State would get the sweetest revenge as it beat the Bruins in the national semifinals in double overtime...ending UCLA's streak of seven consecutive championships. David Thompson and the Wolfpack would beat Marquette two nights later for their first title. 

This team is noted for being the first all-African American starting lineup to win an NCAA championship and doing so against an all-white Kentucky squad. The Miners lost just one game all year (a two-point loss at Seattle in their regular-season finale) and beat Cincinnati, Kansas, Utah and Kentucky en route to their only championship. This team had a larger impact on social change and was a catalyst in the integration of southern basketball.

No, this edition of the Runnin' Rebels actually didn't win the national championship — that was the previous year's team. But this UNLV squad went undefeated during the regular season and advanced all the way to the Final Four before losing to Duke in a huge upset. Larry Johnson, Stacey Augmon and Greg Anthony were all lottery picks, as members of the high-flying Rebs team that would score nearly 98 points per game. 

Frank McGuire's New York pipeline stocked the Tar Heels roster with northeastern kids (10 from the New York/New Jersey area), and they brought Chapel Hill their first national championship. In what may be the greatest Final Four run ever, North Carolina beat Michigan State in triple overtime on Saturday then had to beat Wilt Chamberlain and the Kansas Jayhawks in triple overtime on Sunday. The Tar Heels were the second team to go undefeated and win the NCAA Tournament.

This Wildcats team is arguably Kentucky's most talented in history. Guys like Antoine Walker, Tony Delk, Ron Mercer, Walter McCarty, Nazr Mohammed, Derek Anderson and Jeff Sheppard cruised to the national championship with just two losses (one to future Kentucky head coach John Calipari and Massachusetts). The Wildcats would lose the 1997 national championship game and then win the 1998 title. 

This Tar Heels team had James Worthy, Sam Perkins and a freshman named Michael Jordan who helped win Dean Smith's first national championship. While the Heels went 27-2 during the regular season, they were severely tested during the NCAA Tournament. Four of their five tournament games were decided by five points or less, including the national championship game in which Jordan hit the game-winning jumper to beat Georgetown, 63-62. Twelve players from this roster were drafted by the NBA, including three who were taken in the first four picks.

This is the last team to finish the season undefeated. The top-ranked Hoosiers began the season facing off against No. 2 UCLA and blew out that team. They had scares against rivals Kentucky and Michigan during the season but became more dominant as the year wore on. The Final Four saw Indiana play rematches against UCLA and Michigan and handily beat both teams again. There were four first-round picks on the roster, with Kent Benson going No. 1 overall in the 1977 NBA Draft. 

The 1992 Duke Blue Devils became the first team to repeat as national champions since the John Wooden UCLA dynasty that ended in the 1970s. Christian Laettner, Bobby Hurley and Grant Hill returned to Durham to be placed among the greatest teams ever, and they lived up to it. They were challenged at every step of the way, losing only to North Carolina and Wake Forest and winning one of the greatest college basketball games ever when Laettner hit a buzzer-beater to oust Kentucky in the regional final. Duke would spank Michigan's Fab Five freshmen in the championship game.

This UCLA team featured Bill Walton, Jamaal Wilkes and Henry Bibby. The Bruins finished 30-0 and defeated Florida State for the national championship. UCLA beat teams by an average of 27 points per game for the entire season and played in only two games in which they won by less than 10 points. The crew would get back together (well, aside from the senior Bibby) to repeat in 1973 with another 30-0 mark. It was the eighth title in nine seasons for UCLA.

This Dons team won the second of back-to-back titles and became the first undefeated team to win the NCAA Tournament. Bill Russell would average 20.6 points and 21 rebounds a game that season. Behind Russell was a deep roster of talented guys like K.C. Jones (who was ineligible for the tournament), Hal Perry and Mike Farmer, and the Dons cruised to their second straight national championship. 

Sure, this edition of the Bruins dynasty saw the team's 47-game winning streak come to an end in the "Game of the Century" against Houston, but UCLA would get revenge by blowing the Cougars out in the Final Four and going on to win its fourth championship in five years. Junior Lew Alcindor led the Bruins with 26.2 points and 16.5 boards a game.