The college basketball offseason is here, and we decided to have some fun over the next few months, ranking ALL 364 teams in D1. Number 323 is North Dakota basketball.
Before you say we’re crazy – or that all of this is up for debate, let’s go over the very intricate process of how we came to this conclusion. We took a very statistical approach – with the help of Chat GPT – taking into consideration everything from March Madness wins and finishes, to AP Poll appearances, to conference players of the year. And then, a good friend of ours, Scott Blanchard, took our approach to the MAX.
Click here to visit the FIRST article, which explains how the formula works!
Here’s the breakdown of North Dakota basketball!
NCAA Tournament Success
- Championships: 0
- Finals appearances: 0
- Final Fours: 0
- Elite Eights: 0
- Sweet 16s: 0
- NCAA wins: 0
- Bids: 1
Consistency Over Time
- Wins per season: 11.4
- Bids per season: 0.03
- AP Polls: 0
Player Quality & Talent
- All-Americans: 0
- NBA players drafted & played: 2
- Conference Players of the Year: 0
Conference & Other Success
- Conference regular season titles: 1
- Conference tournament titles: 3
- NIT titles: 0
- Other tournament titles: 0
Overall scoop on North Dakota basketball
For the most part, North Dakota basketball’s success came in the early 1900s, when they were considered a major team. In fact, from 1904-21, the program had 15 winning seasons, just twice finishing below .500.
Of course, times have changed, and more games are now played per season, and North Dakota has been a little bit more inconsistent since their return to DI in 2009.
To be fair, the Fighting Hawks have still put together six winning seasons in 17 tries, but it’s only led to a single NCAA Tournament appearance in 2017. North Dakota won the Big Sky Tournament before losing to 2-seed Arizona, 100-82.
Now, ND plays in the Summit League, and lately, they’ve been all over the place. Things do seem to be on the rise, though, with a pair of 18-win seasons in the last three. Treysen Eaglestaff was a part of a couple of those seasons before he transferred out of the program.
If North Dakota had stayed DI, who knows how things would have turned out, but unfortunately, that’s not what their program did, and after the big gap, they’ve pretty much been your typical mid-major team.