Army Black Knights men's basketball

The Army Black Knights men's basketball team represents the United States Military Academy in National Collegiate Athletic Association Division I college basketball. Army currently competes as a member of the Patriot League and plays its home games at Christl Arena in West Point, New York. The Black Knights have never appeared in the Division I men's basketball tournament.

WWW goarmywestpoint.com/sport...

History

Bob Knight, the coach with the most wins in NCAA men's basketball history, began his head coaching career at Army from 1965 to 1971 before moving on to Indiana. One of Knight's players at Army was Mike Krzyzewski, who later was head coach at Army before moving on to Duke and becoming the winningest men's basketball coach in NCAA Division I history.
Since its inception in 1903, Army retrospectively has been awarded a national championship, has made eight NIT appearances, has refused two NCAA tournament invitations, in 1944 and 1968, and has an overall 49.7% winning percentage.
The Black Knights were retroactively ranked as the nation's top college team by Premo-Porretta for 1923 season and were retroactively listed by the Helms Athletic Foundation as the national champion for 1944, when they went undefeated, but declined an invitation to the NCAA tournament due to World War II. While the NCAA lists the historical Helms selections for reference, neither the Helms title nor the Premo-Porretta ranking are officially recognized as national championships. The 1944 squad was captained by Edward C. Christl, who earned a posthumous Distinguished Service Cross during World War II and for whom the Black Knights' home arena is named.
Head coach Bob Knight turned down the 1968 NCAA tournament invitation in favor of the NIT, because he believed the Black Knights had a better chance of winning the NIT with Lew Alcindor and UCLA playing in the NCAA tournament. Further, Madison Square Garden was close enough to West Point to allow the Corps of Cadets to attend the games, and Army had participated in the NIT seven times in 10 years, including four of Knight's five seasons as head coach. They would go on to lose their first game of the 1968 NIT to Notre Dame.
As of 2025, the Black Knights are one of only three original major programs that were playing college basketball in 1939, when the inaugural NCAA tournament was held, that are still active Division I programs and one of 38 eligible teams overall to have never participated in the NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament. Army shares this distinction with William & Mary and The Citadel
The Black Knights have played in the National Invitational Tournament eight times and also played in the 2016 edition of the CollegeInsider.com Postseason Tournament, their first appearance in a postseason tournament in 38 years, losing to NJIT in the first round.

Seasons

In 119 seasons, the Black Knights have a record of 1262–1276.

Postseason results

National Invitation Tournament

The Black Knights have appeared in the National Invitation Tournament eight times. Their combined record is 13–10.

1961	First Round	Temple	L 66–79
1964	First Round Quarterfinals Semifinals 3rd Place Game	St. Bonaventure Duquesne Bradley NYU	W 64–62 W 67–65 L 52–67 W 60–59
1965	First Round Quarterfinals Semifinals 3rd Place Game	St. Louis Western Kentucky St. John's NYU	W 70–66 W 58–54 L 60–67 W 75–74
1966	First Round Quarterfinals Semifinals 3rd Place Game	Manhattan San Francisco BYU Villanova	W 71–66 W 80–63 L 60–66 L 65–76
1968	First Round	Notre Dame	L 58–62
1969	First Round Quarterfinals Semifinals 3rd Place Game	Wyoming South Carolina Boston College Tennessee	W 51–49 W 59–45 L 61–73 L 52–64
1970	First Round Quarterfinals Semifinals 3rd Place Game	Cincinnati Manhattan St. John's LSU	W 72–67 W 77–72 L 59–60 W 75–68
1978	First Round	Rutgers	L 70–72