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 281 is Fairfield 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 Fairfield basketball!
NCAA Tournament Success
- Championships: 0
- Finals appearances: 0
- Final Fours: 0
- Elite Eights: 0
- Sweet 16s: 0
- NCAA wins: 0
- Bids: 3
Consistency Over Time
- Wins per season: 14.1
- Bids per season: 0.05
- AP Polls: 0
Player Quality & Talent
- All-Americans: 0
- NBA players drafted & played: 0
- Conference Players of the Year: 1
Conference & Other Success
- Conference regular season titles: 3
- Conference tournament titles: 3
- NIT titles: 0
- Other tournament titles: 0
Overall scoop on Fairfield basketball
Two programs for the Nutmeg state in one day? A great day of college basketball, that’s what I have to say!
Fairfield’s been on the DI scene for 62 seasons, making the NCAA Tournament three times in 1986, 1987, and 1997.
The program actually saw some instant success under head coach George Bisacca in the mid-1960s, and some more good years under Fred Barakat, who spent 11 seasons in charge. But things really picked up with the back-to-back tourney bids under Mitch Buonaguro. Funny enough, after two straight March Madness bids to start things off, he never led Fairfield to 10+ wins over the next four seasons.
The next coach, Paul Cormier, made some history, guiding the 11-win Stags to the NCAA Tournament. In fact, two of their three bids came with under .500 records.
Since the turn of the 21st century, Fairfield has still had some competitive years, but it hasn’t led to March Madness appearances. Ed Cooley did so great that it earned him the Providence job. But even though his Stags won 25 games and a MAAC regular season championship in 2011, they didn’t win the conference tourney for the auto bid.
Since Cooley left, Sydney Johnson and Jay Young have both kept Fairfield basketball somewhat competitive, continuing the success of a program that hasn’t really had a head coach do nothing. In fact, the last five head coaches for the program have all had at least two winning seasons.
Fairfield’s random pair of tourney berths definitely helped its case in these rankings, but it’s still been a MAAC program that’s played some great basketball here and there pretty much since they became DI in the 60s.