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 265 is Western Carolina 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 Western Carolina basketball!
NCAA Tournament Success
- Championships: 0
- Finals appearances: 0
- Final Fours: 0
- Elite Eights: 0
- Sweet 16s: 0
- NCAA wins: 0
- Bids: 1
Consistency Over Time
- Wins per season: 13.1
- Bids per season: 0.02
- AP Polls: 0
Player Quality & Talent
- All-Americans: 0
- NBA players drafted & played: 6
- Conference Players of the Year: 6
Conference & Other Success
- Conference regular season titles: 3
- Conference tournament titles: 1
- NIT titles: 0
- Other tournament titles: 0
Overall scoop on Western Carolina basketball
For having just one single appearance in March Madness, Western Carolina has had some interesting moments in its history. And they have one very notable name – Kevin Martin! Yes, the NBA 2K legend himself played for WCU and ranks fourth all-time in program history in points, even though he only played three seasons.
Martin was not named SoCon Player of the Year, but plenty of other former Catamounts were. Terry Boyd got the honor in 1992, Frankie King in 1994 and 1995, Anquel McCollum in 1996, Bobby Phillips in 1998, and Vonterius Woolbright in 2024.
Despite all of those POYs in the 90s, only ONE of those teams actually went .500 on the season and just two went over .500 on the season. Call it bad SoCon competition or great WCU talent, but that’s actually pretty wild.
WCU’s only tournament bid came in 1996, and it almost made some history. The 16-seed Catamounts lost by just 2 points to 1-seed Purdue, almost making history as the first 16 seed to ever upset a 1 seed. They came even closer to the upset than you might imagine, with multiple shots at the end that would have tied or won them the game. But alas, no history for Western Carolina there.
At No. 265, Western Carolina is seemingly a program of close calls and almost being good enough, but they’ve still had some underrated players and great moments to (sort of) brag about.