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 319 is Lehigh 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 Lehigh basketball!
NCAA Tournament Success
- Championships: 0
- Finals appearances: 0
- Final Fours: 0
- Elite Eights: 0
- Sweet 16s: 0
- NCAA wins: 1
- Bids: 6
Consistency Over Time
- Wins per season: 9.6
- Bids per season: 0.05
- AP Polls: 0
Player Quality & Talent
- All-Americans: 0
- NBA players drafted & played: 1
- Conference Players of the Year: 7
Conference & Other Success
- Conference regular season titles: 4
- Conference tournament titles: 6
- NIT titles: 0
- Other tournament titles: 0
Overall scoop on Lehigh basketball
Lehigh basketball is mostly known for one name – CJ McCollum. The current Atlanta Hawk has enjoyed a lengthy NBA career and has scored over 16,000 points and counting. At Lehigh, he put the Mountain Hawks on the map, leading them to an upset over 2-seed Duke in the 2012 NCAA Tournament. He was also a freshman star on the Lehigh team that made the big dance in 2010.
While McCollum is certainly the face of the program, there’s more to Lehigh than just him. The Mountain Hawks have won the Patriot League Tournament four times and the East Coast Conference tourney twice, resulting in six trips to the NCAA Tournament. They have four regular season conference titles to their name.
And as for players? SEVEN former conference POYs in Lehigh’s history. Bob Fortune won the Middle Atlantic Conference POY in 1970. Daren Queenan won the ECC POY in 1987. Since joining the Patriot League in 1990, Lehigh has had their name all over the awards’ history. Austen Rowland in 2004, McCollum in 2010 and 2012, and Tim Kempton Jr. in 2015 and 2016.
It’s unfortunate that Kempton was never able to lead the Mountain Hawks to the big dance. In 2015, 3-seed Lehigh got bounced in the first round of the Patriot League Tournament. In 2016, they fell in the title game by three points to Holy Cross.
Also, there are three 2,000-point scorers in Lehigh basketball history. Kempton had 2,043, McCollum had 2,361, and Queenan had 2,703, which ranks 31st all-time.
There’s also a pretty notable coach in Lehigh’s history. It was the very first head coaching job for Fran McCaffery, who has won over 500 career games at five schools, most notably at Iowa.
So, for Lehigh, what knocks them down in the rankings is a lack of consistency in terms of wins from season to season. But they’ve had a lot of great moments over the last few decades and counting.