Alcorn State Still Winless

It's a mark nobody desires to attain, but it's happening all the same for Alcorn State's 2009-10 basketball team. The team lost to Grambling State 73-58 on Feb. 8 to fall to 0-24, and it might have been the team's greatest hope for victory. After all, Alcorn hung with Grambling for most of the night on Jan. 11, an 82-74 overtime loss for the Braves. Alcorn State also has lost games by 9, 7 and 4 points. The last of the three came in a 68-64 loss to Central Michigan back on Dec. 30.

The significance of a winless season for an NCAA Division I university cannot be denied. In fact, more teams have gone undefeated than have finished winless. Of teams that have played 10 or more games, only seven have finished without a win. It happened last when the New Jersey Institute of Technology went 0-29 during the 2007-08 season under coach Jim Casciano, who resigned before the team's final game of the season. Since 1950, four teams have gone winless. Savannah State was 0-28 during the 2004-05 season, Prairie View was 0-28 during the 1991-92 season, The Citadel was 0-17 in 1954-55, Baylor was 0-17 in 1944-45, William & Mary was 0-18 in 1936-37 and Dartmouth was 0-26 in 1917-18.

It's the sort of season that often ends with coaches departing. Ed Daniels was fired at Savannah State in 2005 after his Tigers went winless. That doesn't bode well for Braves' coach Larry Smith, whose team has seven more chances to break the string. Mind you, Smith's team was just 6-25 during the 2008-09 season, his first at the school. The season before he arrived, Alcorn State was 7-24.

So maybe it's not the coach. But why are they losing so many games? For one, Alcorn State commits an average of 21 turnovers per game. Plus, the Braves have shot just 37 percent from the field and only 31 percent from three-point range. Plus, the team returned only one starter from last year's team.

Alcorn State, though, still has a few chances to rid itself of the dreaded goose egg. On Saturday, the team hosts a 6-18 Mississippi Valley State squad and hosts Southern University, currently 4-19, on Feb. 22.

Plus, there's a chance that all of the focus might not be on Alcorn State. After all, Bryant University in Rhode Island lost to Central Connecticut State on Feb. 6 to fall to 0-24. The team has six games remaining, and all of its opponents are favored to win.