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 249 is Coppin 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 Coppin State 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: 12.9
- Bids per season: 0.10
- AP Polls: 0
Player Quality & Talent
- All-Americans: 0
- NBA players drafted & played: 1
- Conference Players of the Year: 8
Conference & Other Success
- Conference regular season titles: 11
- Conference tournament titles: 4
- NIT titles: 0
- Other tournament titles: 0
Overall scoop on Coppin State basketball
Coppin State is a relatively new program to the MEAC, currently the second youngest team as far as membership years. Despite that, they’ve won 11 regular season titles in 41 years, which is about once every four years.
The majority of those came under their legendary head coach, Fang Mitchell, who went 429-417 in 28 years at Coppin State. Mitchell’s teams were crowned regular season MEAC champs in 1990, 1991, 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, and 2004. They won the MEAC Tournament in 1990, 1993, 1997, and 2008, producing four NCAA Tournament appearances.
The 1997 Coppin State basketball team pulled off one of the biggest upsets at the time. As a 15-seed, they knocked off 2-seed South Carolina, 78-65, falling in the second round to Texas by just one point. Five players on that Eagles team averaged at least 10 points per game, and they came together in March for one of the biggest pre-21st century upsets in NCAA Tournament history.
Unfortunately, Mitchell’s tenure didn’t end well, and in the 12 seasons without him, Coppin State has only had a winning record in MEAC play one time, in 2020-21. The conference as a whole is always near the bottom of DI, and unfortunately, Coppin State has been near the bottom of that. But the Mitchell era brought some great basketball to the program and will never be forgotten in Baltimore.