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 219 is Colgate 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 Colgate basketball!
NCAA Tournament Success
- Championships: 0
- Finals appearances: 0
- Final Fours: 0
- Elite Eights: 0
- Sweet 16s: 0
- NCAA wins: 0
- Bids: 7
Consistency Over Time
- Wins per season: 11.3
- Bids per season: 0.06
- AP Polls: 0
Player Quality & Talent
- All-Americans: 4
- NBA players drafted & played: 3
- Conference Players of the Year: 8
Conference & Other Success
- Conference regular season titles: 9
- Conference tournament titles: 7
- NIT titles: 0
- Other tournament titles: 0
Overall scoop on Colgate basketball
For Colgate basketball, it has been a tale of long ago and the current age under Matt Langel.
Early on, the program had some of the best players in the country. Walter Runge (1905), Leon Campbell (1910), and Emil Schradieck (1912) were all named Consensus All-Americans with the Raiders. All played under head coach Shy Huntington, who went 104-74 in 13 seasons, with just two losing records.
Colgate would continue to do well, with coach Walt Hammond going 65-42 in six seasons, Bill Reid going 133-55 in nine seasons, and Lloyd Jordan going 53-24 in four seasons. Then, in 1949, Ernie Vandeweghe became the fourth Colgate basketball player all-time to be named a Consensus AA.
As the Division I game grew, Colgate shrank. In fact, between 1981-82 and 1990-91 (10 seasons), the Raiders never had more than eight wins in a year.
But in 1994, Adonal Foyle came to Hamilton, N.Y., and gave Colgate basketball fans a fun stretch. Foyle went to high school in town, led the Raiders to NCAA Tournament bids in 1995 and 1996, and in three seasons with the school, tallied 1,776 points (3rd all-time), 1,103 rebounds (1st), and 492 blocks (1st). He was the eighth overall pick in the 1997 NBA Draft, and 13 seasons, 10 with the Golden State Warriors.
Colgate faded out of the picture for a while, until Matt Langel showed up as the head coach in 2011. After some early bumps in the road, Langel led Colgate to the big dance in 2019, 2021, 2022, 2023, and 2024. He has gone 259-218 in 15 seasons and is a 5x Patriot League Coach of the Year. His teams have never won a game in March Madness, but they have been a dynasty in the Patriot League.
With Langel as the head coach, Colgate should continue its run in the conference, though it has been a couple of seasons since they last went dancing. Who knows if they will get another Adonal Foyle, but Langel has brought the ‘toothpaste’ school a lot to root for.