Best college run (post-UCLA era)

Duke, easily. Not just five consecutive Final Fours, but seven of nine including 1986 and 1994. The only early exit was to Cal in 1993, in the second round. They lost in the sweet 16 to Indiana in 1987.

An amazing decade.

 

UNLV didn't exactly play a weak out of conference schedule though.

 

No doubt Duke.
But the Indiana teams might have had two straight undefeated seasons had Scottt May not broken his arm in the Sweet 16 of the '75 tournament. If May is playing, they beat Kentucky in the Elite 8 and probably go all the way.

 

And had Scott May -- IU's best player -- not broken his arm in 1975, IU likely would have won 67 consecutive games, two national championships and three consecutive postseason titles. Still, IU got to the Elite Eight without May.

Also part of that run -- Indiana went to the Final Four in 1973 (some veteran IU folks are still wretching about a key block/charge call that benefited Bill Walton and spoiled an IU run) and tied Michigan for the Big Ten title in '74. That was the last year that each conference could only send one team. UMich won a playoff game over IU, while IU went on to win the title in the short-lived CCA tournament (an "alternative" to the NIT for second-place teams that nobody wanted to be a part of and only lasted two years). Bob Knight hated the CCA tournament so much that IU never displayed a banner for winning it (although it did display a banner for its NIT title in '79).