The Purdue Fort Wayne Mastodons men's basketball team is the intercollegiate men's basketball team that represents
Purdue University Fort Wayne
Purdue University Fort Wayne (PFW) is a public university in Fort Wayne, Indiana, United States. A campus of Purdue University, Purdue Fort Wayne was founded on July 1, 2018, when its predecessor university, Indiana University–Purdue Universit ...
(PFW). They have been a member of the
Horizon League
The Horizon League is an 11-school collegiate athletic conference in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I, whose members are located in and near the Great Lakes region.
The Horizon League founded in 1979 as the Midw ...
since 2020 (departing from the
Summit League
The Summit League, or The Summit, is an NCAA Division I intercollegiate athletic conference with its membership mostly located in the Midwestern United States from Illinois on the East of the Mississippi River to the Dakotas and Nebraska on the W ...
after thirteen years). Formerly, they represented the now defunct
Indiana University – Purdue University Fort Wayne
Indiana () is a U.S. state in the Midwestern United States. It is the 38th-largest by area and the 17th-most populous of the 50 States. Its capital and largest city is Indianapolis. Indiana was admitted to the United States as the 19th s ...
(IPFW). The team has yet to participate in the
NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament
The NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament, branded as NCAA March Madness and commonly called March Madness, is a single-elimination tournament played each spring in the United States, currently featuring 68 college basketball teams from ...
. The Mastodons are coached by
Jon Coffman
Jonathan Glenn Coffman (born July 28, 1973) is an American college basketball coach, currently men's head coach at Purdue University Fort Wayne. Coffman was hired as an assistant to head coach IPFW head coach Tony Jasick in 2011. When Jasick chose ...
and play their home games at the
Hilliard Gates Sports Center
Hilliard Gates Sports Center is a multi-purpose arena located in the northeast corner of the Purdue University Fort Wayne campus, in Fort Wayne, Indiana. It opened in 1981 and contains of space. It is home to the Purdue Fort Wayne Mastodons vo ...
and the
Allen County War Memorial Coliseum in
Fort Wayne, Indiana
Fort Wayne is a city in and the county seat of Allen County, Indiana, United States. Located in northeastern Indiana, the city is west of the Ohio border and south of the Michigan border. The city's population was 263,886 as of the 2020 Censu ...
.
History
The Mastodons' first season was 1973–74. Two-time All-American and conference player of the year
Sean Gibson (1993) is the current all-time leading rebounder and Hall of Fame member. In 2013,
Frank Gaines passed Gibson to be the Mastodons all-time leading scorer. Their first season in
Division I was
2001–02. In 2007, the Mastadons joined the
Summit League
The Summit League, or The Summit, is an NCAA Division I intercollegiate athletic conference with its membership mostly located in the Midwestern United States from Illinois on the East of the Mississippi River to the Dakotas and Nebraska on the W ...
. Before joining NCAA Division I athletics, IPFW competed in
NCAA Division II
NCAA Division II (D-II) is an intermediate-level division of competition in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). It offers an alternative to both the larger and better-funded Division I and to the scholarship-free environmen ...
's
Great Lakes Valley Conference
The Great Lakes Valley Conference (GLVC) is a college athletic conference affiliated with the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) at the Division II level. Its thirteen member institutions are located in the U.S. states of Illinois ...
.
In
2014,
IPFW reach their first
Summit League tournament championship before losing to
North Dakota State
North Dakota State University (NDSU, formally North Dakota State University of Agriculture and Applied Sciences) is a public land-grant research university in Fargo, North Dakota. It was founded as North Dakota Agricultural College in 1890 as t ...
.
Beginning in 2016, the school rebranded itself from IPFW to Fort Wayne to build a stronger tie to the Fort Wayne community. The transition only affected the athletic department's branding efforts. The university's IPFW academic brand remained unchanged.
On November 22, 2016, the
Mastodons
A mastodon ( 'breast' + 'tooth') is any proboscidean belonging to the extinct genus ''Mammut'' (family Mammutidae). Mastodons inhabited North and Central America during the late Miocene or late Pliocene up to their extinction at the end of th ...
defeated the then No. 3-ranked
Indiana Hoosiers
The Indiana Hoosiers are the intercollegiate sports teams and players of Indiana University Bloomington, named after the colloquial term for people from the state of Indiana. The Hoosiers participate in Division I of the National Collegiate Ath ...
71–68 in overtime in front of 11,076 in attendance at
Allen County War Memorial Coliseum. This defeat of Indiana was the Mastodons first victory over an
AP Top 25
The Associated Press poll (AP poll) provides weekly rankings of the top 25 NCAA teams in one of three Division I college sports: football, men's basketball and women's basketball. The rankings are compiled by polling 62 sportswriters and broadca ...
ranked team in program history.
Conference affiliation
Postseason
NCAA Division II Tournament results
The Mastodons have appeared in one
NCAA Division II tournament. Their record is 0–2.
NIT results
The Mastodons have appeared in one
National Invitation Tournament (NIT). Their record is 0–1.
CBI results
The Mastodons have appeared in one
College Basketball Invitational
The College Basketball Invitational (CBI) is a men's college basketball tournament created in 2007 by The Gazelle Group. The inaugural tournament occurred after the conclusion of the 2007–08 men's college basketball regular season. The CBI s ...
(CBI). Their combined record is 0–1.
CIT results
The Mastodons have appeared in four
CollegeInsider.com Postseason Tournament
The CollegeInsider.com Postseason Tournament (CIT) was an American men's college basketball postseason tournament founded by Collegeinsider.com. The tournament was oriented toward schools that did not get selected for the NCAA Division I men's ...
s (CIT). Their combined record is 2–4.
Division I season records
Source
References
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Fort Wayne Mastadons men's basketball
1973 establishments in Indiana
Basketball teams established in 1973