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 231 is Alcorn 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 Alcorn State basketball!
NCAA Tournament Success
- Championships: 0
- Finals appearances: 0
- Final Fours: 0
- Elite Eights: 0
- Sweet 16s: 0
- NCAA wins: 3
- Bids: 6
Consistency Over Time
- Wins per season: 12.8
- Bids per season: 0.12
- AP Polls: 0
Player Quality & Talent
- All-Americans: 0
- NBA players drafted & played: 4
- Conference Players of the Year: 3
Conference & Other Success
- Conference regular season titles: 12
- Conference tournament titles: 6
- NIT titles: 0
- Other tournament titles: 0
Overall scoop on Alcorn State basketball
We’ve had a bunch of SWAC programs already, but Alcorn State definitely has one of the better overall resumes in conference history.
The Braves have won 12 regular season SWAC titles and 6 SWAC tourney titles, with most of them coming in the late 1970s to early 2000s. Here’s how dominant they were in that time period under head coach Davey Whitney:
- 1978-79: SWAC regular season champs
- 1979-80: SWAC regular season champs, SWAC Tournament champs
- 1980-81: SWAC regular season champs
- 1981-82: SWAC regular season champs, SWAC Tournament champs
- 1982-83: SWAC Tournament champs
- 1983-84: SWAC regular season champs, SWAC Tournament champs
- 1984-85: SWAC regular season champs
- 1985-86: SWAC regular season champs
- 1998-99: SWAC regular season champs, SWAC Tournament champs
- 1999-00: SWAC regular season champs
- 2001-02: SWAC regular season champs, SWAC Tournament champs
Whitney compiled a 332-230 record with the Braves and also had a seven-year break between 1989 and 1996, due to Alcorn State firing him after a stretch of some bad seasons, but hiring him back due to even worse seasons in his absence.
During that run, Alcorn State picked up some NCAA Tournament wins. In 1980, the Braves were an 8-seed and took down 9-seed South Alabama before falling to 1-seed LSU by 10. They finished with a 28-2 overall record. In 1983, as a 12-seed, they beat fellow 12-seed Xavier in a play-in game, losing to 5-seed Georgetown by just 5 points. The following year, they had a similar path, beating 12-seed Houston Christian before losing to 5-seed Kansas by just a single point.
After Whitney retired for good in 2003, the program suffered for about two decades, with their next winning season coming in 2016-17. But under Landon Bussie, Alcorn State returned to the top of the SWAC, winning regular season titles in 2022 and 2023.
Despite some great coaches and tourney wins, only three Alcorn State basketball players have ever won the SWAC Player of the Year in DI. Larry Smith did it in back-to-back seasons in 1979 and 1980, with Michael Phelps (sick name, not the same person) doing it in 1985.
Overall, Alcorn State has really struggled with pretty much any other coach other than Whitney, besides a short run with Bussie before he went to Chicago State. Jake Morton had a rough first season, so we’ll see if year two is kinder to him as the program hopes to revisit the days of old.