Updated 02/13/2011, 02/15/2011, and 02/25/2011 for results.

Edit:  02/25/2011:  Congratulations Centenary on your first victory of the year, avoiding a winless record.  NJIT’s record is secure, for now.

At 0-28, and 0-16 in the Summit Conference, the Centenary Gentleman are three games (including the opening round of the Summit Conference tournament) shy of going winless for an entire season of college basketball.  They have just three more chances to avoid infamy, and a lasting record as one of the worst college basketball teams of all time.  Let us examine just how bad Centenary is in their profile as well as how they stack up against the worst teams in NCAA basketball history.  As someone who has played on a winless basketball team before [1], I have a lot of sympathy for the players and the fans of Centenary.  I know what it’s like.

First, Some Statistics

First, before we look at the colossal failure of the Centenary Gentleman this year on the basketball court, let us examine how their statistics stack up with the rest of NCAA Division I, both as a team and as part of the Summit Conference.

Centenary (0-28 overall, 0-16 Summit Conference)
RPI:  342 (of 345)
Strength of Schedule: 252 (of 345)
Summit Conference Record:  110-133 (22 of 33)

According to the RPI [2], Centenary, despite its atrocious record, is only the fourth worst team in college basketball this year, largely because it has played a schedule that includes Memphis, LSU and Marquette, but also a home and away series in which it got swept home and away by Division II University of Arkansas-Monticello.  The three teams ranked lower in the RPI are 2-18 South Carolina State, 2-22 Pan-American and 3-19 Houston Baptist.  Go Texas!  Go South Carolina!

Centenary’s Schedule

Now let us examine the schedule of Centenary, where they have the chance to go 0-31 if they lose their remaining four games in the regular season as well as their opener in the Summit Conference Tournament (at least they’re invited to that) [3]:

Previous Games

Upcoming Schedule:

Assessing Centenary’s Place In History

So, assuming that Centenary fails to win a game in its next five chances, where will it stand in the history of the worst college teams of all time? Here are the teams that have gone winless over an entire basketball season in the NCAA [4]:

Prairie View:  0-28 (1991-1992)
Savannah State:  0-28 (2004-2005)
New Jersey Institute of Technology:  0-29 (2007-2008)

Since N.J.I.T. holds the record for the worst season at 0-29, if Centenary loses its last 5 games, at 0-31 it would have the worst basketball season of all time.  Chances to make history like that simply do not come around every day–though one prefers better opportunities to make history than by losing day in, day out for an entire season.  Only time will tell if the Centenary Gentlemen truly have what it takes to make history.

[1] https://edgeinducedcohesion.wordpress.com/2011/02/01/everyone-smiles-when-youre-winning-a-musing-on-sports-psychology/

[2] http://www.rpiratings.com/mensrpi.html

[3] http://rivals.yahoo.com/ncaa/basketball/teams/can

[4] http://www.usatoday.com/sports/college/mensbasketball/2008-02-23-njit-winless_N.htm