When you get mad in March, remember why.

Ah, college basketball. It's that time of year when damn-near every office building in the country is running an illegal office pool, the term "bracketologist" somehow slips into ESPN's vocabulary and every college student in the country is praying for their team to win not out of pride but rather a burning desire to riot like drunken vikings after the game.

As the country finds iteself quickly becoming wrapped up in the Madness that is March, let's take a look back at some of the greatest coaches to ever wear a whistle in the history of whistle-wearing. And, wow, would you look at that? The top coaches in NCAA history were either born or coached in Kansas.

Dr. James Naismith: University of Kansas Coach
The Father of Basketball wasn't born in Kansas, but he obviously knew a good thing when he saw it. Dr. Naismith invented the game in Springfield, Mass to keep students occupied during the winter months and brought his peach basket sport to Lawrence in 1898. He spent the next 39 years at KU teaching, explaining and evangelizing the game. He coached some kid named Forrest Clare Allen, too. One bit of trivia everyone but you knows? He's the only coach in KU history to retire with a losing record. Namesake and first inductee into the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame.

Forrest "Phog" Allen: University of Kansas Coach
Hanging from the rafters in an old barn on the KU campus isn't so much a sign as a warning. "Pay Heed All Who Enter. Beware of the Phog." Visitors are warned because Allen Fieldhouse is named after the winningest coach in KU history who retired in 1956 as the winningest coach in NCAA history with 746 wins (with four teams over 48 years). Phog went 590-219 in 39 seasons with the Hawks, winning 24 conference championships and one NCAA title in 1952. He was also the driving force behind adding basketball as an Olympic sport and coached a few players named Dean Smith, Adolph Rupp and Ralph Miller along the way. Member of the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame.

Adolph Rupp: Halstead, KS
Known as the "Baron of Basketball" or "Baron of Bluegrass Basketball" (depending on which state you're from), this native son retired as the winningest coach in NCAA history with 879 wins. He played at KU under Coach Allen, began coaching at the high school level at Burr Oak, KS and eventually made his way to Kentucky in 1931. There he coached the Wildcats for 42 seasons to an amazing 879-190 record. He took 27 SEC titles, one NIT championship and four NCAA crowns ('48, '51 and '58). And that landed him SEC Coach of the Year honors seven times and National Coach of the Year honors four times. Kentucky's Rupp Arena is named after him. Member of the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame.

Ralph Miller: Chanute, KS
The Normal Dale of Kansas. He was a three-time All-Conference player and team captain for Phog Allen's Jayhawks, where he learned the fine art of "pressure basketball". Coach Miller then took that experience to Wichita East High School, where a 63-17 record in his first three seasons earned him a state title. From there he moved on to coach Wichita State and Iowa, but Oregon State is the school that comes to mind when you think of Ralph Miller. With a 674-370 record in 39 years of coaching, he retired as the eighth winningest coach in NCAA history. He's also only one of a select few to win Coach of the Year honors twice in three different conferences (Missouri Valley, Big 10 and Pac 10) and National Coach of the Year twice. Member of the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame.

Dean Smith: Emporia, KS
A native Kansan who obviously forgot his roots and is considered by many to now be neither native or Kansan, this member of the 1952 KU Jayhawk National Championship team under Coach Allen retired from North Carolina as the winningest coach in NCAA history with an 879-254 record. A stolen Four Corners strategy (contrary to public opinion, he didn't invent it) lead Smith to 11 Final Four trips, two NCAA titles and one NIT championship. He was voted National Coach of the Year three times and named Major League Asshole of the Century in 2003 after playing the Daddy Figure-card on KU's then-coach Roy Williams to "return home to Chapel Hill". North Carolina named their basketball area the Dean E. Smith Center in his name. Member of the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame.

Bill Guthridge: Parsons, KS
Ol' Bill won more games his first year than any other first-year coach in NCAA history. He won more games his first two years than any other coach in NCAA history and tied Everett Case for the most wins in three seasons. After replacing fellow Kansan Dean Smith as the head roundballer at North Carolina, Bill took two of his three teams to the Final Four and was named National Coach of the Year in '98. He also played or participated in 14 Final Fours; the most of any person in NCAA history. All told, he has been on the court or sidelines for 938 college basketball victories. He played and then coached at K-State under the legendary Tex Winter (the same Tex responsible for the Triangle Offense and the brains behind five Chicago Bulls' championship rings). Bill also played high school ball for Harold Johnson in Parsons, one of two brothers who innovated the zone press in the 1930s.

Gene Keady: Beloit, KS
The walking comb-over has won 851 games as a head coach at the high school, junior college, collegiate and international level. He's also an impressive 504-243 in 24 seasons as the head coach of the Purdue Boilermakers. Gene helped fellow Kansan Eddie Sutton turn the Arkansas Razordback program into one of the nation's best in the late '70s and from '66-74 he transformed a weak Hutch Juco team into a national powerhouse that still dominates to this day. He's enshrined in the National Junior College Basketball Hall of Fame as a player and coach, and in the Kansas Hall of Fame as a coach. He's also been nominated for membership into the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame; inductees will be announced in April.

Eddie Sutton: Bucklin, KS
Few people know where Bucklin is, and fewer still actually know Oklahoma State's saving grace of a coach was born there. A career that began as an assistant to the legendary Henry Iba (commonly referenced as Mr. Iba in Stillwater), Sutton has amassed an impressive 724-288 record in 33 years of coaching. He's a seven-time Conference Coach of the Year and four-time National Coach of the Year. Previously at Creighton, Arkansas and Kentucky, he's most closely associated with his alma mater; hell, they love this guy so much in Stillwater that they named the court after him and he hasn't even retired yet. Only one active coach (Tech's Bobby Knight) ranks ahead of Sutton in both victories and winning percentage, and Sutton ranks behind only Dean Smith in victories through 33 or fewer years of coaching. But the reason we like him so much? We personally watched Coach Sutton walk over to the KU bench during the KU Senior Day game two years ago to hug Nick Collison and Kirk Heinrich after each played their last games in a KU uniform. He drips class, although the Kentucky faithful might have a few words about that and the probation he forced upon the school.

Billie Morre: Westmoreland, KS
She's the first coach in woman's basketball history to lead two different schools to two national titles. She did it with both Cal-State Fullerton and UCLA. While at Cal, she went an incredible 140-15 and won eight conference titles. She won almost 300 games at UCLA and even coached the first woman's US Olympic team to the silver in Montreal back in '76. Member of the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame.

John McLendon: Hiawatha, KS
Arguably the single greatest coach in NCAA history you've never heard of before. Coach M. began his career at KU, learning the finer points of the game from none other than Dr. Naismith himself. He then went on to an eye-popping 523-165 career record as a coach and was the first coach in history to win three consecutive national titls with Tennessee State taking the NAIA national crown in '57, '58 and '59. He was the first coach in history to win 500 games, the first to author an instructional book on basketball and the first to coach a US team overseas. He's credited with inventing, playing and teaching the first Four Corners offense back in the early '30s, well before Dean Smith even knew how a damn whistle worked; seems old Dean has stolen more than coaches in his colored past. The basketball arena at Cleveland State is named in Coach M's honor, and he was the first black coach inducted into the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame.

Bet you thought he was white.

Because blacks weren't allowed to play at the varsity level back then, Coach M. chose to be a part of the first class of physical-education majors at KU. That's where he took courses from Dr. Naismith and Phog Allen. One story that Coach M. often told dealt with his time as a student at KU. In order to graduate, every student had to pass a swim test. However, black students were officially barred from the university pool. When John tried to swim one day, school officials drained the pool. He left without getting wet. Several days later, John returned to find three of KU's biggest basketball players waiting for him poolside. Apparently Dr. Naismith had heard of the incident earlier in the week and instructed his players to keep everyone away from the pool while John swam. "There was never another problem like that again", John would later say with a laugh.