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 293 is Mississippi Valley State 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 Mississippi Valley State basketball!
NCAA Tournament Success
- Championships: 0
- Finals appearances: 0
- Final Fours: 0
- Elite Eights: 0
- Sweet 16s: 0
- NCAA wins: 0
- Bids: 5
Consistency Over Time
- Wins per season: 10.7
- Bids per season: 0.10
- AP Polls: 0
Player Quality & Talent
- All-Americans: 0
- NBA players drafted & played: 1
- Conference Players of the Year: 5
Conference & Other Success
- Conference regular season titles: 7
- Conference tournament titles: 5
- NIT titles: 0
- Other tournament titles: 0
Overall scoop on Mississippi Valley State basketball
This is the team EVERYONE was waiting for. Mississippi Valley State basketball has garnered lots of attention lately thanks to some terrible play on the court, but an awesome Twitter account and sicko college basketball fans uniting around them.
The Delta Devils haven’t won at least 10 games in a single season since 2011-12, a year where they actually won 21 games, won the SWAC regular season and conference tournament titles, and played in March Madness.
But since then, the Delta Devils have combined for 64 wins in 14 seasons, good for fewer than five wins per season over a very extended period of time.
But believe it or not, Mississippi Valley State basketball used to be a good program!
Under longtime head coach Lafayette Stribling, the program went dancing in 1986, 1992, and 1996. James Green took them there in 2008, and of course, Sean Woods led them to the tourney in 2012.
Stribling’s success with the program was unmatched, winning 306 games in 22 years. No other head coach has won more than 50 games in a tenure at the DI level.
There is also a long list of former MVSU greats, including SWAC POYs George Ivory (1987), Marcus Mann (1996), Dewayne Jefferson (2001), Attarius Norwood (2004), and Paul Crosby (2012). Plus, Alphonso Ford was drafted from the program in 1993, but had a very short 11-game career in the NBA.
So, before you make fun of MVSU hoops and ask why they’re in the top 300 of these rankings, they once had a great stretch of success and a legendary head coach. Maybe they’ll get there someday again.