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 151 is Morehead 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 Morehead State basketball!
NCAA Tournament Success
- Championships: 0
- Finals appearances: 0
- Final Fours: 0
- Elite Eights: 0
- Sweet 16s: 2
- NCAA wins: 6
- Bids: 9
Consistency Over Time
- Wins per season: 14.3
- Bids per season: 0.12
- AP Polls: 0
Player Quality & Talent
- All-Americans: 1
- NBA players drafted & played: 6
- Conference Players of the Year: 8
Conference & Other Success
- Conference regular season titles: 12
- Conference tournament titles: 6
- NIT titles: 0
- Other tournament titles: 0
Overall scoop on Morehead State basketball
You can’t start anywhere besides the Eagles’ upset of Louisville in the 2011 NCAA Tournament. Led by Consensus All-American and future pro Kenneth Faried, Morehead State knocked off the 4-seed Cardinals. That might forever be what Morehead State is known for by my generation, but for the older crowd, there’s a lot more to talk about.
Starting in the 1950s and on, head coach Bobby Laughlin took them dancing in 1956, 1957, and 1961. All three of the seasons, plus 1962-63, they were OVC regular season champs. And they did well in March. In ’56, Morehead State took down Marshall for a Sweet 16 appearance. In ’61, they defeated Xavier to get back there. It might be a while back, but it still counts as a pair of Sweet 16 bids for a mid-major program.
Morehead State wouldn’t get back for a couple of decades, but they would go in back-to-back seasons in 1983 and 1984. Both were first-round exits, but it was a welcome return to mid-major hoops glory.
But really, since the 2000s, the Eagles have been at their most consistent. They’ve gone dancing in 2009, 2011, 2021, and 2024. In the past 20 seasons, they’ve had a winning record 11 times, and 10 of those were 20-win campaigns. It’s a remarkable run of consistency, considering four coaches have chipped in, with Jonathan Mattox as the current guy in charge.
Among current OVC programs, Morehead State has the most Players of the Year. Harold Sergent (1963), Bob McCann (1987), Brett Roberts (1992), Ricky Minard (2003), Faried (2010 & 2011), Mark Freeman (2023), and Riley Minix (2024) have helped make up that history.
As Morehead State comes off a 20-win season under Mattox, all you can really expect is more winning seasons to come, because that is exactly what they do.