LEXINGTON, Ky. — By almost any statistical measure, Kentucky is one of the most historic programs in college basketball.

The Wildcats rank first in NCAA Tournament (59), Sweet 16 (44), and Elite Eight (38) appearances. They're second in all-time victories (combined regular and postseason) and national championships. They also lead the country in NBA draft selections.

Perhaps one of Kentucky's most underrated feats, however, is five different coaches (Adolph Rupp, Joe B. Hall, Rick Pitino, Orlando "Tubby" Smith and John Calipari) have led the program to a national title. Only two other schools even have three national-championship winning coaches: North Carolina (Frank McGuire, Dean Smith and Roy Williams) and Kansas (Phog Allen, Larry Brown and Bill Self).

Where do UK's five championship coaches rank on the school's all-time wins list?

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Here are the Wildcats' top 10 in coaching victories:

(Editor's note: This list only reflects victories at Kentucky. Games won as a coach at other schools are not counted in this list.)

1. Adolph Rupp, 876 wins

Record at Kentucky: 876-190 (.822 winning percentage) in 42 seasons from 1931-72; UK did not play any games in 1953

National championships: Four (1948, 1949, 1951, 1958)

SEC regular-season championships: 27 (1933, 1935, 1937, 1939, 1940, 1942, 1944, 1945, 1946, 1947, 1948, 1949, 1950, 1951, 1952, 1954, 1955, 1957, 1958, 1962, 1964, 1966, 1968, 1969, 1970, 1971, 1972; the titles in 1935, 1954, 1962 and 1972 were shared)

SEC Tournament championships: 13 (1933, 1937, 1939, 1940, 1942, 1944, 1945, 1946, 1947, 1948, 1949, 1950, 1952); the SEC Tournament was not contested from 1953 through 1978

It's simple: The Wildcats wouldn't be where they are today without Rupp.

When he was forced to retire in 1972 — at that time, all University of Kentucky employees were required to retire when they reached the age of 70 — he was college basketball's all-time wins leader. Years later, as more games were added to the schedule, he's fallen to ninth on that list among coaches who spent the majority of their careers at the Division I level.

Where he still's battling for supremacy, however, is win percentage. Among those who have spent at least 600 games on the sideline, Gonzaga's Mark Few is the only Division I coach to better the "Baron of the Bluegrass." Few recently inched past Rupp in this department; Few has won more than 83% of his games during his two decades with the Bulldogs.

Rupp put together a dizzying array of accomplishments in more than 40 years in Lexington. His regular-season and SEC Tournament success likely never will be matched. Who knows how many more league tournaments Rupp would have if the event hadn't disappeared in 1953? (It didn't return until 1978, six years after his retirement.)

Only one other coach in SEC history has multiple national championships. That's Billy Donovan, the former Kentucky assistant who won back-to-back titles at Florida in 2006 and 2007.

2. John Calipari, 373 wins (and counting as of Dec. 27, 2022)

Record at Kentucky: 373-104 (78.2%) in 13 seasons from 2010-present

National championships: One (2012)

SEC regular-season championships: Six (2010, 2012, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2020; the title in 2016 was shared with Texas A&M)

SEC Tournament championships: Six (2010, 2011, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018)

Calipari hopes he can join Rupp and Donovan as multiple-title-winning coaches from the SEC before he finally hangs up the whistle. For now, Calipari is trying to rediscover his early form at UK, when he took the school to the Final Four four times in five seasons.

The Wildcats haven't been back since, but it's an annual quest. And expectation.

The 63-year-old Calipari shows no signs of letting up any time soon.

He's averaged 28 wins a season as UK's coach. But to put in perspective how dominant Rupp was, for an extended period of time, consider this: Calipari would have to maintain that average for 19 more seasons to reach Win No. 877 and usurp Rupp.

3. Joe B. Hall, 297 wins

Record at Kentucky: 297-100 (74.8%) in 13 seasons from 1973-85

National championships: One (1978)

SEC regular-season championships: Eight (1973, 1975, 1977, 1978, 1980, 1982, 1983, 1984)

SEC Tournament championships: One (1984); the SEC Tournament was not contested from 1953 through 1978

Hall had the unenviable task of following Rupp. Yet Hall spent 13 seasons in the head-coaching chair, the second-longest tenure at UK behind Rupp. (Calipari now is in Year 13 with the Wildcats.)

His 297 victories also stood as Kentucky's second-highest tally until Calipari surpassed him in 2019. In addition to his national championship in 1978, Hall also led UK to the Final Four in 1975. UK lost in the national title game that season to John Wooden and UCLA.

Hall died in January at the age of 93.

Appreciation:Former UK coach Joe B. Hall lived long enough to earn Kentucky fans' love

4. Orlando "Tubby" Smith, 263 wins

Record at Kentucky: 263-83 (76.0%) in 10 seasons from 1998 to 2007

National championships: One (1998)

SEC regular-season championships: Five (1998, 2000, 2001, 2003, 2005; the titles in 2000 and 2001 were shared)

SEC Tournament championships: Five (1998, 1999, 2001, 2003, 2004)

Taking over for Pitino, Smith guided the Wildcats to a national title in his first season on the job.

But that was as good as it got for Smith: He didn't reach the Final Four again in his final nine seasons in Lexington. But he came close, appearing in the Elite Eight three more times.

He averaged 26 wins per season over the course of his tenure. When he brought his High Point University squad to Rupp Arena last season, Kentucky honored Smith with a commemorative jersey.

Smith stepped down in the middle of the 2021-22 campaign, earning 642 victories at seven different schools (Tulsa, Georgia, Kentucky, Minnesota, Texas Tech, Memphis and High Point) over the course of his 31 years as a head coach.

5. Rick Pitino, 219 wins

Record at Kentucky: 219-50 (81.4%) in eight seasons from 1990-97

National championships: One (1996)

SEC regular-season championships: Two (1995 and 1996; Kentucky had best record in SEC in 1990-91 at 14-4, but since it was ineligible for the SEC and NCAA Tournaments, it does not claim the regular-season title.)

SEC Tournament championships: Five (1992, 1993, 1994, 1995, 1997)

Pitino would rank higher on this list had he not left after eight seasons to become the Boston Celtics' head coach. But what a run he had. His winning percentage trails only Rupp in Kentucky's annals. And while he didn't win multiple national championships, the core of Smith's national championship squad was recruited by his predecessor.

Pitino took a program that was within inches of the NCAA's death penalty and brought it back to prominence almost immediately. UK was ineligible for the NCAA in both of his first two seasons. In the six seasons the Wildcats were eligible, Pitino piloted them to the Elite Eight, or better, five times.

He later switched sides in the Bluegrass State's most heated rivalry, putting together another exceptional era at Louisville.

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6. Eddie Sutton, 88 wins

Record at Kentucky: 88-39 (69.3%) in four seasons from 1986-89; Sutton's actual on-court record was 90-40 (69.2%), but the NCAA forced Kentucky to vacate its results from the 1988 tournament, where the Wildcats went 2-1

National championships: None

SEC regular-season championships: *Two (1986 and *1988; SEC presidents voted to vacate the Wildcats' 1988 SEC regular-season and tournament championships because of violations)

SEC Tournament championships: *Two (1986 and *1988; SEC presidents voted to vacate the Wildcats' 1988 SEC regular-season and tournament championships because of violations)

Sutton ended his Hall of Fame coaching career with more than 800 victories at the Division I level — and that doesn't 84 addition wins (in 98 games) at Southern Idaho, a junior college.

He had a stellar start to his tenure at Kentucky, going 32-4 in his first season. The Wildcats took a step back the following season, going 18-11 and losing to Ohio State in an 8/9 matchup in the first round of the NCAA Tournament. Kentucky bounced back in 1987-88, once again winning the SEC's regular-season and tournament titles and ending the season in the Sweet 16. The championships from that 27-6 campaign, later revised to 25-5, are for naught now, as Kentucky vacated both titles.

The Wildcats slumped to 13-19 (8-10 SEC) in Sutton's final season. Rather than be fired, Sutton, along with athletics director Cliff Hagan, resigned once the season concluded amid ongoing scandal surrounding the program. At the time of his resignation, Sutton said he left because he didn't want the university "to suffer anymore."

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7. George Buchheit, 44 wins

Record at Kentucky: 44-27 (61.9%) in five seasons from 1920-24

National championships: None

SEC regular-season championships: N/A; Buchheit's tenure predated the SEC, which was founded in 1932.

SEC Tournament championships: See above.

Buchheit had an up-and-down tenure, with three winning seasons and two sub-.500 campaigns. But he'll forever have one piece of UK history to himself: He led the program to its first league title, of any sort, as the Wildcats won the first edition of the Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Association tournament in 1921. After his final season in 1924-25, he left for the same position at Duke.

T8. John Mauer, 40 wins

Record at Kentucky: 40-14 (74.0%) in three seasons from 1928-30

National championships: None

SEC regular-season championships: N/A; Mauer's tenure predated the SEC, which was founded in 1932.

SEC Tournament championships: See above.

Mauer didn't win a regular-season or conference tournament championship. But in all three of his seasons leading the Wildcats, he won at least 2/3 of his games. He set the stage for what was to come, as he was Rupp's immediate predecessor.

These days, Mauer is known for still being the only person to lead three different SEC basketball programs. (He also coached Tennessee and Florida.)

T8. Billy Gillispie, 40 wins

Record at Kentucky: 40-27 (59.7%) in two seasons from 2008-09

National championships: None

SEC regular-season championships: None

SEC Tournament championships: None

At the time of his hire in 2007, Gillispie was one of the brightest stars in the coaching profession, having engineered immediate turnarounds at Texas-El Paso and Texas A&M, leading the latter to three straight 20-win seasons for the first time in history.

While he won at Kentucky, he simply didn't win enough.

Missing the NCAA Tournament in his second, and final, season in 2008-09 snapped the Wildcats' string of 17 consecutive appearances. And UK's 14 losses that season tied for its second-most ever in a single season. He was fired shortly thereafter.

The whole story:Gillispie’s UK tenure retold with oral history

Where is he now?Gillispie back in Division I close to home at Tarleton State

10. W.W.H. Mustaine and Others, 21 wins

Record at Kentucky: 21-35 (37.5%) in seven seasons from 1903-09

National championships: None (The NCAA Tournament did not begin until 1939.)

SEC regular-season championships: None (The SEC was not founded until 1932.)

SEC Tournament championships: None (See above.)

Note the years here. That's important, because 1903 marked the first season of Kentucky's men's basketball program. Per UK's official athletics website, in 1903, Mustaine "called together some students, took up a collection totaling $3 for a ball and told them to start playing."

From those inauspicious beginnings, college royalty sprang forth.

It took seven seasons before Kentucky finished a season above .500, going 5-4 in 1909. But brighter days were on the horizon.

The Wildcats recorded their first undefeated campaign in 1911, finishing 9-0.

Reach Kentucky men’s basketball and football reporter Ryan Black at rblack@gannett.com and follow him on Twitter at @RyanABlack.

This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: Kentucky basketball: Who are the Wildcats' 10 winningest coaches?