By Conner Farrell–

Last week, the Associated Press released an article ranking their top 100 college basketball programs of all time. The men’s basketball program was ranked number seven overall, totaling 627 points.

U of L has been ranked in the AP poll 54.41 percent of the time since its conception in 1949. Louisville’s first appearance in the polls came on Jan. 17, 1950.

The university’s best decade in terms of being ranked in the poll was in the 1970s, where they appeared 75.6 percent of the time. However, the program is currently on pace to beat that mark with their play in the 2010s.

The Cards have the lowest number of number one appearances with teams in the top 10. The program has been ranked at number one twice, once in 2009 and again in 2013. Louisville holds the record for the most appearances in the poll without being ranked number one, which was a drought that lasted 520 polls until the program found their way to number one.

To determine the all-time top 100, AP gave one point for each week a program appeared in the AP poll and two points for each time a program was ranked number one.

The rest of the top ten features teams that the program is quite familiar with. Some of the teams included in-state rival Kentucky, current ACC foes North Carolina, Duke and Syracuse, as well as Cincinnati.

Here is the top 10:

  1. Kentucky (1,111 points)
  2. North Carolina (1,098 points)
  3. Duke (1,032 points)
  4. UCLA (957 points)
  5. Kansas (857 points)
  6. Indiana (662 points)
  7. Louisville (627 points)
  8. Arizona (594 points)
  9. Syracuse (581 points)
  10. Cincinnati (500 points)

File photo / The Louisville Cardinal