While Mike Krzyzewski gets the hagiographic treatment and John Calipari makes the most headlines, it may be Rick Pitino who’s been the best NCAA tournament coach over the past decade.

With Friday night’s win over N.C. State, Pitino took a team that had no business still playing in the NCAA tournament to yet another Elite Eight appearance. He moves to No. 2 all time on a list of most regional finals made, one behind Krzyzewski (though Coach K could move to two ahead if his Duke team beats Utah later on).

Pitino has been coaching at Louisville for 14 years (can you believe that?) and after some early struggles while he was getting his own players into town, he’s now led the Cardinals to the Elite Eight in six of the past 11 years. That’s the same as Roy Williams at UNC and more than John Calipari has at Kentucky — though Calipari had appearances at Memphis over the same stretch. It’s especially impressive given that Louisville’s average seed since 2005 has been 3.9, with the team having more No. 4 seeds (five times) than Nos. 1, 2 and 3 seeds combined (three). And, most surprisingly, Rick and Roy’s six appearances since 2005 are three times as many as Krzyzewski’s Duke teams. Think on this: In the past decade, Mike Krzyzewski may be the third best coach currently in the ACC.

The Cardinals have made the Final Four in two of the past three seasons and will have a chance to make it three-for-four this weekend. Louisville lost to Kentucky in the 2012 semis and then won it all one year later. And while Louisville gets plenty of fine recruits, Pitino is doing this with teams that have far less firepower than Krzyzewski’s McDonald’s All-American team and Calipari’s steady rotation of one-and-dones. Coaching is recruiting and Coach K and Calipari do better on that end, but once the rosters are set, Pitino is as good as they come.

This year, Louisville flew under the radar for good reason. The team started 11-0 against a schedule of inferior teams, was drubbed by Kentucky, then went through a stretch in the ACC where they went 6-4. But other than a loss to Syracuse, all of Louisville’s eight defeats came to NCAA tournament teams. However, because few of their wins were against top teams (their only win over a kenpom.com top 12 team was a meaningless final-game win over Virginia), Louisville was overlooked entering the tournament, especially with the the dismissal of star Chris Jones. The Cardinals earned a deserved No. 4 seed, but it had to be insulting that it was the same rank as as a mediocre Georgetown team.

Now, they’re 40 minutes from a third Final Four and should be the favorite on Sunday regardless of who wins later between Oklahoma and Michigan State. The lesson should have been learned long ago: Never sleep on Rick Pitino and Louisville.