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 304 is Army 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 Army basketball!
NCAA Tournament Success
- Championships: 0
- Finals appearances: 0
- Final Fours: 0
- Elite Eights: 0
- Sweet 16s: 0
- NCAA wins: 0
- Bids: 0
Consistency Over Time
- Wins per season: 10.7
- Bids per season: 0
- AP Polls: 1
Player Quality & Talent
- All-Americans: 7
- NBA players drafted & played: 0
- Conference Players of the Year: 2
Conference & Other Success
- Conference regular season titles: 0
- Conference tournament titles: 0
- NIT titles: 0
- Other tournament titles: 1
Overall scoop on Army basketball
We’ve had Air Force just a few spots ago, and now Army enters the rankings. Unlike the Falcons, the Black Knights have had zero NCAA Tournament bids – the longest streak in all of college basketball.
But despite that unforuntate fact, Army does claim a Pre-tournament Helms National Championship from 1944, a season where they went a perfect 15-0. Star player Dale Hall, who was a Consensus All-American that season and the next.
In fact, Hall is one of six Army players to make up seven AA nods. The other six were all from very early on, happening between 1910-1927.
The Army basketball program was one of the best teams early on, going 14-1 in 1910, 17-0 in 1923, and plenty of other examples of seasons with three losses or fewer.
Despite no NCAA Tournament appearances, they still saw success as late as the 1960s and 70s. Legendary Indiana head coach Bobby Knight coached Army from 1965-71, going 102-50 and coaching another future Hall of Fame coach in Mike Krzyzewski. Of course, Coach K would coach Army from 1975-80, going 73-59 in his time as the head coach at West Point.
Unfortunately, after Kryzewski left, things really went downhill. Army has played 46 seasons since, and have only seen five winning seasons since.
Things have seemed promising under current HC Kevin Kuwik. Despite an 11-21 record this past season, the Black Knights went 17-16 the year prior. But in the Patriot League, which is statistically one of the worst in DI, that record still doesn’t hold much weight.
For Army basketball, the past four + decades have been very rough. But the program has such a deep history it’s impossible to ignore.