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 223 is Coastal 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 Coastal Carolina basketball!
NCAA Tournament Success
- Championships: 0
- Finals appearances: 0
- Final Fours: 0
- Elite Eights: 0
- Sweet 16s: 0
- NCAA wins: 0
- Bids: 0
Consistency Over Time
- Wins per season: 15.0
- Bids per season: 0.10
- AP Polls: 0
Player Quality & Talent
- All-Americans: 0
- NBA players drafted & played: 0
- Conference Players of the Year: 10
Conference & Other Success
- Conference regular season titles: 7
- Conference tournament titles: 5
- NIT titles: 0
- Other tournament titles: 0
Overall scoop on Coastal Carolina basketball
You may not think of Coastal Carolina as a basketball school, but the Chanticleers make the top 225 here, thanks to a great run under head coach Cliff Ellis from 2007 to 2023. Ellis, who coached 46 seasons in DI, won more games at Coastal (297) than at any other school he coached for, to make up over 800 career wins. He helped them win four regular season conference chips, NCAA Tournament bids in 2014 and 2015, and six 20-win seasons. In 17 seasons, his Coastal teams only had a losing record six losing seasons and retired after a 3-5 start in the 2023-24 campaign.
While Ellis was certainly a legend for the program, their other two trips to the big dance were under Russ Bergman, who wasn’t bad himself, winning Big South Coach of the Year honors three times.
In terms of Big South history, no program has EVER won more Players of the Year. At the DI, level, the following players were at the top of the conference:
- Derek Wilson (1988)
- Tony Dunkin (1990, 1991, 1992, 1993)
- Torrey Butler (2001, 2003)
- Pele Paelay (2005)
- Jack Leasure (2006)
However, Coastal joined the Sun Belt in 2016, so it’s amazing they still hold that record, yet haven’t played in the league in a decade. In the Sun Belt, it’s a bit more competitive, and the only POY was DeVante’ Jones in 2021.
Somehow, no Coastal player has ever been selected in the NBA Draft. But you can’t say enough about Dunkin, who averaged over 20 points per game and 7 rebounds for his four-year career. The first season he played, Coastal actually won the Big South Tournament, but didn’t get an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament.
While other programs from the Carolinas might have more respect, it almost seems like the Chanticleers haven’t gotten enough, despite some outstanding history.