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 77 is College of Charleston 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 College of Charleston basketball!
NCAA Tournament Success
- Championships: 0
- Finals appearances: 0
- Final Fours: 0
- Elite Eights: 0
- Sweet 16s: 0
- NCAA wins: 1
- Bids: 7
Consistency Over Time
- Wins per season: 21.6
- Bids per season: 0.20
- AP Polls: 16
Player Quality & Talent
- All-Americans: 0
- NBA players drafted & played: 4
- Conference Players of the Year: 8
Conference & Other Success
- Conference regular season titles: 15
- Conference tournament titles: 6
- NIT titles: 0
- Other tournament titles: 0
Overall scoop on College of Charleston basketball
Throughout our series, we realized the consistency part of our formula definitely helped programs that are a bit newer to Division I and have been great since they started. College of Charleston definitely falls under that category, coming in at No. 77, but it shouldn’t take away from how dominant the program has been.
In 35 seasons, the Cougars have averaged over 20 wins per season and have gone to the NCAA Tournament seven times, good for once every five years. At a .690 winning percentage, the only active schools with a higher one are Duke (.717), Kansas (.727), North Carolina (.733), and Kentucky (.757). Is Charleston a Blue Blood? Not even close, obviously, but they do hold a pretty crazy distinction with some all-time great programs with that statistic.
Another crazy fact is the 15 regular season conference championships they’ve won. Quite a few came in the Trans America Athletic Conference, but they’ve also had 10 since joining the SoCon in 1998-99, and the CAA in 2013.
The biggest reason CofC found success right away was thanks to John Kresse sticking with the program throughout their NAIA years and into the DI transition. He took over in 1979 and coached until 2002, winning 560 games in total and losing just 143. He led the College of Charleston to the NCAA Tournament in just their second DI season in 1994 and again in 1997, 1998, and 1999. Their only win in March Madness came as a 12-seed over Maryland in 1997, falling in a close battle to 4-seed Arizona. They finished that season ranked 16th in the AP Poll.
Charleston would continue to be a top mid-major for years, starting out with 16 straight winning seasons. In fact, they’ve only had four losing records ever. All seven of their DI head coaches went above .500 with the program, with Chris Mack and Pat Kelsey serving as the most recent and most notable. John Groce now comes in from Akron, where he worked wonders with the Zips, and hopes to do the same thing at a new place.
At this point, the only thing the Cougars are missing is a run in March Madness. They’ve been one of the most consistent mid-major programs for over three decades and have played in the NCAA Tournament plenty of times. Groce is no stranger to March Madness himself, so it could be the perfect pairing to get the Cougars over the hump and build even more history.