Say Hi to Coppin State. Now Say Bye.
A short introduction to a team you probably won’t see in March Madness again for 10 more years…
MITCHELL BLATT
20 is the benchmark for college basketball in terms of making March Madness. Get it, and you will probably make the tournament. Coppin State got to 20. 20 losses.
At 16-20, Coppin State is the team with the worst record ever to make March Madness. They made it by accidently upsetting Morgan State for the MEAC title.
They better be treasuring this. They’ve already been in the tournament for two days, and these last few hours before they get dismissed by Mount St. Mary’s in the play-in-game at 7:30 tonight, are something they haven’t experienced since 1997.
What really did it for them this season, besides winning the MEAC title, was their impressive non-conference record. This year, they went 5-11 in non-conference games. Prior to this season, they hadn’t won a single game non-conference since the 2003-04 season.
Coppin State celebrating MEAC title; Morgan State player obviously embarrassed.
They compensated for their outstanding non-conference record by going 7-9 in conference play. That put them at #7 in the MEAC, which was the #28 conference, out of 31, for RPI. The boys of Harvard and Cornell happened to have their Ivy League ranked #24, by comparison.
Here’s a little about their players you’ve never heard of. Their leading scorers and all. Their PTP-ers.
Mike Miller has a familiar name. He scores 4.3 a game and rebounds 2 a game. Their leading rebounder, however, is Robert Pressey, who averages 5.5 a game. Tywain McKee puts fear into their opponents (possibly the only player on the team who solicits even agitation) with his 16.6 points a game. No other players are in double digits, though Antwan Harrison comes close with 9.0.
Well, Coppin State, congrats. Can’t wait to see you back in 2019.
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Haha, brilliant piece Mitch! Coppin State though could win tonight AND then get slaughtered by 207 to North Carolina…
First, Coppin isn’t the worst team ever to make the field. Florida International, Central Florida and Fairfield all posted 11-18 records, worse than Coppin State. Coppin only has the most losses of any of them, which is because Coppin played 36 games this year, two more than any other team with a losing record has ever played. Coppin is actually tied with Siena for the most wins by a team with a losing record to make the field.
Second, if history means anything, Coppin is about a stone-cold lock against Mount St. Mary’s. In the history of the play-in game, four teams with losing record have played in Dayton. They are a combined 4-0 in the play-in game.
hMMM… Interesting
I was specifically talking about their number of loses when I said “worst record.” “Worst record” can mean either worst winning percentage or most losses or least wins, but it usually doesn’t matter because most sports have each team playing the same number of games.
You read my mind, Mitchell. I bet most people don’t even know that there was an Opening Round game on tonight. People are probably looking at their bracket wondering why UNC received a bye into the second round.
[…] I wrote about the tragic appearance of Coppin State in March Madness with a 16-20 record (Post here.) Today, we have Coppin State to bemoan no more. They lost their play-in game 69-60 to Mount St. […]