Navy hoops losing streak: By the numbers

Junior Navy guard Jordan Brickman dribbles during the Mids' season-opening win over Penn State-Altoona on Nov. 13 in Annapolis -- one of Navy's three wins on the season. (MC1 Chad Runge / Navy)

This is not the kind of record athletes want to be chasing.

A loss at Patriot League rival Lafayette on Saturday would be the 15th straight for the Navy Midshipmen — good enough, so to speak, to tie a team record for futility set during the 1988-89 season. A loss at home to Holy Cross on Feb. 8 would break the record, just in time to prepare for a Feb. 11 showdown at Army, which will air nationally on the CBS Sports Network.

The streak and the season so far, by the numbers, after the jump:

0 – The number of Patriot League wins the Mids (3-18) have in seven tries this season. Possible silver lining — the closest loss came against Lafayette, with the Mids falling 65-63 on Jan. 7 in Annapolis. Navy tied Colgate at 52 after regulation Jan. 21, then was outscored 13-2 in overtime.

1 – The number of games Navy has won on the road all season. The Mids began the year with a two-game win streak — a season-opening 78-70 win at Longwood, followed by an 88-54 demolition of Penn State-Altoona at Annapolis. Which leads us to …

2 – Navy’s longest win streak of the season. The Mids lost their next four games, then downed Mount St. Mary’s 64-56 on Nov. 27 in Annapolis, then started the current losing streak with a 59-46 loss Nov. 30 at Maryland-Eastern Shore.

3 – The number of teams in NCAA Division I basketball, according to the Navy media relations folks, with longer active losing streaks than the Midshipmen: South Carolina State (15 games), UC Davis (16) and Binghamton (22, dating back to last season). For much of the season, Navy didn’t even have the longest losing streak in the state — Towson racked up an NCAA-record 41 straight losses before a 66-61 win over UNC-Wilmington on Saturday.

16 – The number of points scored by freshman forward Worth Smith during Saturday’s loss to Bucknell — a career high. That performance, plus a seven-point effort in limited action against Lehigh earlier in the week, earned Smith the Patriot League’s rookie of the week honor. He leads the Mids with 13 blocked shots, and his points (9.0 per game) and rebounds (5.9 per game) are tops among freshman in Patriot League play.

27.7% – Navy’s 3-point shooting percentage — almost 10 percentage points lower than their opponents’ average — which helps explain …

319 – Navy’s rank among Division I teams in points per game (60.0), according to ESPN.com. Not a pleasant statistic, but it gets worse, because …

329 – Navy’s spot in the official NCAA Ratings Percentage Index, better known to hoops geeks (and everybody else, come March Madness time) as the RPI.

344 – The number of teams listed in the RPI. Nowhere to go but up, almost.