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 141 is New Orleans 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 New Orleans basketball!
NCAA Tournament Success
- Championships: 0
- Finals appearances: 0
- Final Fours: 0
- Elite Eights: 0
- Sweet 16s: 0
- NCAA wins: 1
- Bids: 5
Consistency Over Time
- Wins per season: 15.4
- Bids per season: 0.10
- AP Polls: 12
Player Quality & Talent
- All-Americans: 0
- NBA players drafted & played: 6
- Conference Players of the Year: 8
Conference & Other Success
- Conference regular season titles: 8
- Conference tournament titles: 4
- NIT titles: 0
- Other tournament titles: 0
Overall scoop on New Orleans basketball
Next up is a program that had one of the biggest upsets of this past season. Early on in November, New Orleans took down TCU, despite finishing 15-18 overall. I spoke with head coach Stacy Hollowell after the upset.
But this was not the first great moment in program history. New Orleans had a whole era during the 1980s and 1990s where they were on top of the mid-major world. From 1987 to 1996, they made the NCAA Tournament four times, and in the ’87 tourney, they went to the round of 32.
The 1986-87 team was one to remember. Ranked as high as 16th in the country, New Orleans qualified for the big dance as an independent. Led by Ledell Eackles and Ronnie Grandison, the Privateers got a 7-seed, took down 10-seed BYU, and lost to 2-seed Alabama in just their 12th Division I season. Previously, they had only had two other 20-win seasons and had never made it to March Madness.
That had a bit of a domino effect, as the Privateers would make some more AP Polls over the next handful of seasons and continue to put together some very strong teams. In 1992-93, Ervin Johnson averaged a double-double and led them to a perfect 18-0 record in Sun Belt play. They went 26-4 again, falling to Xavier in the round of 64. But Johnson would turn it into a pro career where he became a veteran role player.
However, the most notable pro Privateers player is probably Wayne Cooper, who played 14 seasons in the NBA, scoring 7,777 career points on the dot. He also grabbed over 6,000 rebounds and was a pretty solid role player during the 1980s, especially.
Since the turn of the century, New Orleans has lost a lot of their dominance, and instead has become a place where some coaches have gone on to better jobs. Buzz Williams spent one year in town, going 14-17, but moved on to an assistant coaching position with Marquette before becoming their head coach the following season. Current UCSB head coach Joe Pasternack went 38-54 with the Privateers, and years later, is now one of the top mid-major coaches in the country. Neither coach really did well with New Orleans, but it’s wild to think they both got their starts there.
But right now, a lot of cool things are happening for them. Hollowell seems to have gotten them to a bit of a better and more consistent place, and rapper Master P was named the President of Basketball Operations in 2025. It is a program with a pretty proud history, with a winning record all-time in DI and eight regular season conference titles to its name. And now, they’re trying to use some connections in the age of NIL to really up the ante.