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 138 is Niagara 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 Niagara basketball!
NCAA Tournament Success
- Championships: 0
- Finals appearances: 0
- Final Fours: 0
- Elite Eights: 0
- Sweet 16s: 1
- NCAA wins: 2
- Bids: 3
Consistency Over Time
- Wins per season: 13.0
- Bids per season: 0.03
- AP Polls: 20
Player Quality & Talent
- All-Americans: 3
- NBA players drafted & played: 11
- Conference Players of the Year: 4
Conference & Other Success
- Conference regular season titles: 10
- Conference tournament titles: 2
- NIT titles: 0
- Other tournament titles: 0
Overall scoop on Niagara basketball
Back-to-back teams from New York state join the party as Niagara follows up Columbia at No. 138!
We can’t go any further without mentioning the LEGEND for the Purple Eagles – Calvin Murphy.
All three of Niagara’s Consensus AA nods were Murphy, coming in 1968, 1969, and 1970. The 5-foot-9 guard averaged 33.1 points per game in college, with his averages actually going down year to year. In 1967-68, Murphy put up 38.2 PPG. He would be the 18th overall pick in the 1970 NBA Draft and is the shortest player to ever be inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame.
Murphy’s senior season was a special one, as he guided Niagara basketball to the Sweet 16. The Purple Eagles took down Penn in the first round, losing to Villanova in the next. Niagara was ranked as high as 12th in the nation that season.
The program’s other two tourney bids came in 2005 and 2007 with Joe Mihalich as the head coach. In 2007, they won a play-in game over Florida A&M before losing to 1-seed Kansas.
Mihalich was arguably Niagara’s best coach, posting a record of 265-203 in 15 seasons. He was a 3x MAAC Coach of the Year and led them to four regular season titles. Impressively, his teams only had three losing seasons.
However, Niagara also had a legendary coach back in the day. From 1931 until 1965, Taps Gallagher was in charge, going 465-261. He led them to six regular season conference titles, all in the Western New York Little Three, which only included Niagara, Canisius, and St. Bonaventure. Still, Niagara also found itself ranked in the AP Poll under Gallagher in the 50s. They were definitely one of the top mid-major programs in that decade. Stars Larry Costello and Ed Fleming turned into solid pros (among other players in that time frame), with Costello being inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame as a contributor in 2022. He coached the Bucks and Bulls in the 1960s and 1970s and was a 6x All-Star in his playing days.
Niagara might not be close to where they once were, but they are a cool example of a program with so much history to share.