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The Army basketball program will continue an unfortunate postseason trend this year with their 2023-24 campaign coming to an official end. The Black Knights will miss the Big Dance for an 86th straight season.
Army finished the year at 10-22 following a Patriot League Tournament loss to Holy Cross on Tuesday. That losing mark solidifies the squad’s March Madness fate.
Our 2023-24 season has come to a close. pic.twitter.com/Q7WpIMyrVj
— Army Men’s Basketball (@ArmyWP_MBB) March 6, 2024
No dancing for the Knights, an outcome that’s become all too familiar for a program that’s seen some college basketball legends roam the sidelines. Those include Bob Knight and Mike Krzyzewski, who combined to coach at the academy for 11 seasons.
Army holds the lowly honor of being one of three Division I programs never to have participated in the NCAA Tournament, joining The Citadel and William & Mary.
Far from a basketball powerhouse, the program boasts an all-time win rate below .500 and has only been ranked in the AP Poll one time.
The tournament, which began back in 1939, is currently viewed as the top NCAA basketball event with each and every team battling for one of those 68 bids come March.
It hasn’t always been that way, though.
In the past, the NIT was considered the most prestigious tournament in the sport and was often used to determine the national champion. In fact, many top teams would turn down the Big Dance to accept an NIT invite, though that started to change in the 1950s and ’60s.
Army once turned down an NCAA Tournament invite under Bob Knight.
The program had the chance to remove this label 56 years ago!
In the 1967-68 season, with Knight on the sidelines and Krzyzewski running the point, the Black Knights posted an impressive 20-5 record.
Army was invited to play in the Big Dance, but turned it down with Knight supposedly believing his team had a better chance of winning the NIT.
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In his book, Last Dance: Behind the Scenes at the Final Four, John Feinstein wrote that [Bob] Knight refused the NCAA invitation because he felt the Black Knights had a better chance of winning the NIT, as Lew Alcindor (aka Kareem Abdul-Jabbar) and UCLA were playing in the NCAAs… Plus, Madison Square Garden was closer to West Point (about 60 minutes away) than wherever the NCAA would have shipped the Cadets and the team wanted its Corps of Cadets to be part of the action. And the NIT had been something of a boon to Army in the 1960s, with the team making the tournament seven times in 10 years, including four of Knight’s five seasons at the helm.
Knight was right about UCLA taking the NCAA Tournament title, one of 10 times they’d cut down the nets over a 12-year stretch. He was wrong about the Black Knights’ chances, though.
Army dropped its first game of the NIT to Notre Dame.
Since, they’ve had no shot of getting back to March Madness, a streak that won’t end in 2024. Luckily, they shouldn’t be the lone record holder for much longer.
Barring incredible runs in their respective conference tournaments, both The Citadel and William & Mary will miss out on the NCAAs for an 86th season with each boasting losing records.