March Madness 2024: College basketball’s 10 teams with most Sweet 16 appearances in NCAA Tournament since 2000
The 2024 NCAA Tournament completed its first weekend, setting the stage for the Sweet 16 and beyond with a handful of shocking upsets and its annual share of nail-biting games.
The second round was chalk-heavy as only one team seeded above the No. 6 line advanced to the Sweet 16, but March Madness remained as entertaining as always. Over the coming days, the sport’s best teams will duel for a shot at the national championship.
The ultimate goal for every team in the field is to cut down the nets as national title-winners, but getting through the first weekend is a key benchmark in itself. Once in the Sweet 16, teams stand just two wins away from the coveted Final Four.
Since 2000, the schools that boast the most second-weekend appearances are mostly blue-bloods whose March Madness success extends much further than the turn of the century. A few programs on that list may come as a surprise, though.
Below are the 10 college basketball programs with the most Sweet 16 appearances since 2000
All of Syracuse’s NCAA Tournament appearances this century came under Jim Boeheim, who led the Syracuse basketball program from 1976 to last season before announcing his retirement. Few coaches have ever reached Boeihem’s success. Under his watch, the Orange made three runs to the Final Four since 2000, including the 2003 campaign, which culminated in Syracuse’s only national championship. The Orange failed to reach the tournament in the first season of the Adrian Autry era, going 20-12 overall and 11-9 in ACC play.
Only one Big Ten program has more Sweet 16 appearances since 2000 than the Badgers, who quietly developed a reputation as one of the country’s top college basketball operations. Between longtime coach Bo Ryan and current head man Greg Gard, Wisconsin reached the NCAA Tournament 20 out of a possible 21 times since Ryan’s debut season of 2000-01. Included during that stretch are back-to-back Final Four berths, including a national runner-up finish in 2015. Wisconsin fell out of this year’s tournament in a first-round upset at the hands of No. 12-seed James Madison
Arizona is an NCAA Tournament fixture as one of the nation’s premier college basketball programs, but they still saw their share of significant changes since the turn of the century.
The 2000s began with legendary coach Lute Olson in charge, and following his stint, Kevin O’Neill and Russ Pennell held one-year posts atop the program. Sean Miller held the position for 12 years before Tommy Lloyd took over, and the former Gonzaga assistant picked up where his predecessors left off, taking the Wildcats to three-straight tournaments and a pair of Sweet 16s.
The 2000s began with three-consecutive Sweet 16 trips for UCLA under former coach Steve Lavin, and in his successor Ben Howland’s third season in charge, the Bruins returned to the Final Four for the first time since the 1995 squad captured the national championship. That was the first of three-straight Final Four appearances for UCLA under Howland. Steve Alford then led the Bruins to a trio of Sweet 16 berths during his six-year run as head coach. Mick Cronin led UCLA to a Final Four in 2021 and Sweet 16s in 2022 and 2023 before missing the current postseason
Kentucky was home to three head coaches since the turn of the century, and two enjoyed sustained success on the national level. First, it was Tubby Smith, who won a national championship in his first year at the helm in 1997-98 and followed that title up with four Sweet 16 appearances after 2000. The Billy Gillispie era lasted only two seasons and gave way to current coach John Calipari’s run in Lexington. In addition to making Kentucky a destination for future NBA Draft lottery picks, Calipari has won a national title and been to three additional Final Fours. This year’s first-round exit, though,
Only a small group of programs have been as consistent as Gonzaga over the past two decades. Over the course of the 25-year Mark Few era, the Zags have never missed the NCAA Tournament and this season earned a No. 5 seed despite standing on the bubble until late in the campaign. In addition to 13 Sweet 16 appearances — including nine in a row through this year’s tournament — Gonzaga reached the Final Four twice and fell in the national championship game on both occasions.
Tom Izzo and the month of March are a lethal combination, as Michigan State showed in the first round of this year’s tournament before it fell out in a matchup against No. 1-seed North Carolina. Izzo got the century started off on the right foot when he led the Spartans to the 2000 national championship, which he followed up with a Final Four appearance the next season. While they have been shut out of another title in the years since, the Spartans have six Final Four appearances and another national championship game on their ledger.
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