BYU has had several historic basketball coaches, names that will never be forgotten. How do they stack up in the wins column?
This debate depends on what criteria you focus on. There are several different ways to paint this picture? Are we just counting wins? Are we counting winning percentage? Let's take a look.
Highest Win Totals
If we focus on this from the perspective of just wins, then the answer is Stan Watts. Coach Watts was with BYU from 1949-1972. In his 23 seasons, he amassed a total of 371 wins. He also led BYU to two NIT championships (1956 and 1966). He was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 1986. Watts led teams also won 8 regular season conference championships and made 7 NCAA tournament appearances.
Second on that list is a coach that most of us remember, Dave Rose. Coach Rose led some of the most memorable BYU basketball teams, including the team highlighted by Jimmer Freddette. Rose totaled 348 wins in his 14 years, a truly impressive number. Teams coached by Dave Rose won 72% of their games.
I would be remiss if I didn't mention another legendary BYU coach. Jeff Judkins led the BYU women's basketball team for 21 years and tallied 456 wins at a .691 winning percentage. He also led BYU to four conference tournament championships and 11 March Madness appearances.
Ranking by Winning Percentage
This is a tricky situation, there are several coaches with very high winning percentages, but not much longevity to show for it.
Three coaches have a higher winning percentage than Dave Rose. Fred Bennion coached the Cougars for two seasons (1909-1910) and led them to a .727 winning percentage. Clayton Teetzel was at the helm for BYU from 1906-1908 and won 78.6% of the games he coached. Finally, Henry Rose led BYU for just eight games, and the Cougars won all eight. The Rose name runs deep in Cougar blue, although as far as I have researched there is no relation.
All stats found at Sports Reference.