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 123 is South Alabama 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 South Alabama basketball!
NCAA Tournament Success
- Championships: 0
- Finals appearances: 0
- Final Fours: 0
- Elite Eights: 0
- Sweet 16s: 0
- NCAA wins: 1
- Bids: 8
Consistency Over Time
- Wins per season: 16.8
- Bids per season: 0.15
- AP Polls: 8
Player Quality & Talent
- All-Americans: 0
- NBA players drafted & played: 4
- Conference Players of the Year: 7
Conference & Other Success
- Conference regular season titles: 13
- Conference tournament titles: 5
- NIT titles: 0
- Other tournament titles: 0
Overall scoop on South Alabama basketball
Lately, South Alabama has been one of the best teams in the Sun Belt. They’ve rattled off eight straight seasons of .500 overall records or better and won a regular season conference title in 2025. But the recent run hasn’t been close to what they once were.
Nearly right after going Division I, the Jaguars saw success. In year three at the highest level, they went 22-6. But when Cliff Ellis got to town in 1975, South Alabama started to turn good seasons into NCAA Tournament seasons. Ellis went 171-84 in nine seasons, taking them to the big dance in 1979 and 1980 and winning Sun Belt regular season titles in ’79, ’80, and ’81. In the 1979 tournament.
While Ellis did a great job, head coach Ronnie Arrow did even better. He coached the Jaguars from 1987 to 1995, winning the Sun Belt regular season and tournament chips in 1989 and 1991. But the ’89 season was extra special, as they took down 6-seed Alabama for their first and only win in March Madness history. His teams were some of the highest scoring teams in the nation, making USA a very fun team to watch. While Arrow was let go after a 1-3 start in 1994-95, he returned in 2007, bringing them back to the big dance in his first season, a 26-7 campaign. However, he was once again let go after a 5-5 start in 2012-13, making for a very weird history as the head coach of the program.
Despite not making the tournament since then, Richie Riley has done an outstanding job keeping the Jaguars competitive in the Sun Belt. And being competitive has always been what the Jaguars have been about. Only three times in 55 seasons have they had fewer than 10 wins. It’s a program that is virtually always at least somewhat competitive, if not competing near the top of the conference. In fact, with the 13 regular season titles, no Sun Belt program has more, with second place being Western Kentucky, with nine. That’s the mark of a program with great culture.