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- The San Francisco Dons men's basketball team represents the University of San Francisco in NCAA Division I men's college basketball. The Dons compete in the West Coast Conference, where they have won sixteen regular season championships and one conference tournament championship. The current head coach is Chris Gerlufsen. They play home games at the War Memorial Gymnasium, which also serves as the venue for women's basketball, volleyball, athletic department offices, and athletic training rooms. Some games may be played at the Chase Center. The basketball team claims three national titles: the 1949 NIT under Pete Newell, and the 1955 and 1956 NCAA Division I championships. The latter two were under Phil Woolpert, and led by player and National Collegiate Basketball Hall of Famer Bill Russell. USF retained its status as a basketball powerhouse into the 1970s and early 1980s, holding the distinction of being a "major" program in a "mid-major" conference (the WCC having declined somewhat in stature since the 1960s). It held the number one spot in the polls on numerous occasions. In 1977, led by All-American center Bill Cartwright, the Dons went 29–0 and were regarded as the #1 team in the nation in both major polls before dropping their last two games. The San Francisco Dons men's basketball program has been rated the 29th "Greatest College Basketball Program of All-Time" by Street & Smith's magazine, 49th by NBC Sports "Greatest Programs of All-Time", and 75th by the ESPN/Sagarin All-Time College Basketball Rankings, higher in all three rankings than any other West Coast Conference school and many schools from BCS Conferences (Pac-12, Big Ten, Big 12, Big East, Southeastern Conference). (en)
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