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 299 is Portland 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 Portland basketball!
NCAA Tournament Success
- Championships: 0
- Finals appearances: 0
- Final Fours: 0
- Elite Eights: 0
- Sweet 16s: 0
- NCAA wins: 0
- Bids: 2
Consistency Over Time
- Wins per season: 12.0
- Bids per season: 0.03
- AP Polls: 4
Player Quality & Talent
- All-Americans: 0
- NBA players drafted & played: 5
- Conference Players of the Year: 0
Conference & Other Success
- Conference regular season titles: 0
- Conference tournament titles: 1
- NIT titles: 0
- Other tournament titles: 0
Overall scoop on Portland basketball
The history of Portland basketball picks up early in the 1950s, when the program had a stretch of winning right away. In four seasons from 1955-59, they went 75-39, making the NCAA Tournament as an auto bid in ’59. They would fall in the first round of the 23-team tournament to DePaul by one point.
Portland would see some sporadic success, especially once they joined the WCAC, which is now the WCC. Interestingly enough, no Pilots player has ever won the conference POY award, but since joining, a pair of players have been drafted, including Darwin Cook, who played in over 600 games in the NBA.
From 1977-82, head coach Jack Avina led the Pilots to five straight winning seasons. They wouldn’t see another until 1994-95, when Rob Chavez took over and led them to the NCAA Tournament the very next year, winning the WCC tourney.
However, that proved to be more of a one-hit wonder.
The Pilots have had some short stretches of good basketball since. They had three straight winning seasons from 2008-11, and in year one under Shantay Legans, went 19-15. But since then, it’s been four losing seasons in a row, as Portland basketball has had a tough time building consistent winning.
But as far as history goes, Portland has their fair share – you just have to go quite a ways back.