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 275 is San Diego 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 San Diego basketball!
NCAA Tournament Success
- Championships: 0
- Finals appearances: 0
- Final Fours: 0
- Elite Eights: 0
- Sweet 16s: 0
- NCAA wins: 1
- Bids: 4
Consistency Over Time
- Wins per season: 14.1
- Bids per season: 0.09
- AP Polls: 0
Player Quality & Talent
- All-Americans: 0
- NBA players drafted & played: 1
- Conference Players of the Year: 1
Conference & Other Success
- Conference regular season titles: 2
- Conference tournament titles: 2
- NIT titles: 0
- Other tournament titles: 0
Overall scoop on San Diego basketball
There’s San Diego State, UC San Diego, and the University of San Diego Toreros. And it’s those Toreros here at No. 275!
Coached by Steve Lavin for the past four seasons, they certainly haven’t been one of the better teams in the WCC, but they have enough history from past seasons to make up for it.
The Hank Egan era was the most notable early on, as he led the Toreros to a 9-seed in the 1987 NCAA Tournament. They would fall to Auburn by a point in the first round.
Brad Holland took over after Egan and took the Toreros back to the big dance in 2003. Holland won 200 games with San Diego, the all-time leader in wins in SD’s DI history.
But the most memorable year came in 2008 with Bill Grier as the head coach. The Toreros upset 4-seed UConn on a game-winner with 1.2 seconds left in overtime. They’d fall in the round of 32 to 12-seed Western Kentucky.
That would be Grier’s best season, fizzling out of town, and since then, it’s really been hit or miss with USD.
With Lavin out, JR Blount will take over and look to lead the Toreros in a good direction next season. He was previously an assistant at Iowa State, and now the 38-year-old gets his first head coaching job.
San Diego basketball is in a tough market with so much competition from other DI schools nearby. Unfortunately for them, San Diego State has dominated that rivalry, but USD has still had some moments here and there, most notably with that tourney win in ’08.