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 211 is NC Central 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 NC Central basketball!
NCAA Tournament Success
- Championships: 0
- Finals appearances: 0
- Final Fours: 0
- Elite Eights: 0
- Sweet 16s: 0
- NCAA wins: 0
- Bids: 4
Consistency Over Time
- Wins per season: 13.0
- Bids per season: 0.14
- AP Polls: 0
Player Quality & Talent
- All-Americans: 0
- NBA players drafted & played: 2
- Conference Players of the Year: 3
Conference & Other Success
- Conference regular season titles: 4
- Conference tournament titles: 4
- NIT titles: 0
- Other tournament titles: 0
Overall scoop on NC Central basketball
For NC Central basketball, I’m going to start long before they went DI, and highlight NBA legend Sam Jones. He was a star for the Eagles and was drafted eighth overall by the Boston Celtics in 1957. Jones would be on the Bill Russell teams, winning 10 NBA Championships, 1 shy of Russell’s record of 11.
But NC Central wouldn’t head turn DI officially until 2011, though playing as an Independent starting in 2007. Although we did count the years Sports Reference included from 1971-80. Classifications were weird back then, but for consistency purposes of these rankings, we used what Sports Reference had put.
Either way, the biggest reason NC Central made it this high is because of their consistency within the MEAC. The Eagles have won four regular season titles in 2014, 2015, 2017, and 2020, with four conference tournament titles coming in 2014, 2017, 2018, and 2019.
All of this success can be credited first to head coach LeVelle Moton, who took the job in 2010. He is a 2x Coach of the Year in the MEAC, with an overall record of 285-212, an incredible achievement for an HBCU school in the 21st century.
And of course, you still have to have some great players. Jeremy Ingram (2014), Patrick Cole (2017), and Jibri Blount (2020) have all won the MEAC POY award.
There is always going to be a debate on schools in these very low-major conferences and how they really stack up against some of the better mid-major leagues, but when it gets down to it, NC Central has practically dominated their own competition, and that always deserves some love.