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 171 is Liberty 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 Liberty basketball!
NCAA Tournament Success
- Championships: 0
- Finals appearances: 0
- Final Fours: 0
- Elite Eights: 0
- Sweet 16s: 0
- NCAA wins: 1
- Bids: 6
Consistency Over Time
- Wins per season: 16.5
- Bids per season: 0.16
- AP Polls: 0
Player Quality & Talent
- All-Americans: 0
- NBA players drafted & played: 1
- Conference Players of the Year: 6
Conference & Other Success
- Conference regular season titles: 9
- Conference tournament titles: 7
- NIT titles: 0
- Other tournament titles: 0
Overall scoop on Liberty basketball
With current head coach Ritchie McKay, the Flames have been a true model program for mid-major basketball. McKay has led them to a trio of NCAA Tournaments in the past 11 seasons. But even more impressive is a 298-142 record with seven regular season conference titles. And all of those titles and tourney bids have come since moving to the A-Sun in 2018-19. The success continued with the move to Conference USA in 2023-24. It’s also worth noting that McKay’s first stint was from 2007-09, before briefly leaving to join the Virginia coaching staff.
The program has had many standouts, but Darius McGhee comes to mind first. With 528 career threes, he ranks second all-time in college hoops history. He’s 34th with 2,685 career points.
But the most impressive stat? Over the last decade, Liberty has had fewer than 21 wins in a season just once, with an 18-14 showing in 2023-24. They don’t just put forth winning seasons. They win big.
While Liberty under McKay has been at another level, the program wasn’t immune to success prior to him. It wasn’t as consistent or as good, but they went dancing in 1994, 2004, and 2013. About every ten years, they were good for a March Madness appearance.
Overall, Liberty is another great example of a mid-major program that gets the job done year in and year out. They don’t have a March Madness run to brag about, but Power 5 teams certainly don’t want to see them on the other side of the court on any given day.
As a Christian man, I’d also like to give props for Liberty’s mission as a University, and it’s awesome to see the hoops program thriving!