The Official Site of the Fighting Saints

Dr. Carson Cunningham, who earned a PhD in history from Purdue University and an MBA from DePaul University, enters his fifth season as head coach of the Carroll College Men's Basketball program. Having taken over a Carroll program that won just two games in 2012-13, the Saints are coming off two of the best seasons in program history.

In 2016-17, the Carroll College men's basketball team finished 29-6 en route to winning the outright Frontier Conference Championship, the Frontier Conference Tournament Championship, and earning a #1 seed at the NAIA D-1 National Tournament, where it made it to the Final Eight for the second year in a row before succumbing to national runner-up, Life University, by a bucket. The 2016-17 Fighting Saints finished with the best team FG% (53.4%) and team FT% (82.0%) in the entire NAIA. In fact, its team FT% was higher than any NCAA college team (any division)--and even better than all NBA teams. Carroll's team FG% would have led all of NCAA D-1 men's hoops and would have led the NBA. Carroll also had the 2nd best 3-pt % in NAIA D-1 and the 6th best assist-to-turnover ratio. The Carroll players' unselfish, fun brand of ball helped deliver these results.

Zach Taylor, Carroll's lone senior in 2016-17, won Frontier Conference Player of the Year honors and made first team All-American. Ryan Imhoff was one of seven juniors to make the top 30 list of NAIA All-Americans and also received recognition as an academic All-American, as did fellow junior Oliver Carr.

Off the court, in 2016-17 the Carroll Cagers have posted an impressive 3.2 Team GPA. The team finished in the top 10 in the NAIA's D-1 final coaches' poll (6th in nation) and in team GPA (3rd). The Fighting Saints men's hoops program performed over 300 hours of community service throughout the year.

In 2015-16, the Fighting Saints also made it to the Final Eight of the NAIA D-1 National Tournament--only the third Final Eight appearance at the time in the 101-year history of Fighting Saints basketball. Carroll went 23-10 with a 13-5 Frontier Conference record.

Off the court, in 2015-16 the Carroll cagers put up an impressive 3.35 Team GPA, the third year in a row the team showed improvement. They were the only team to finsih in the top 10 in the NAIA's D-1 final coaches' poll (9th in nation) and in team GPA (2nd in the nation). They also performed 288 hours of community service throughout the year.

Carroll was 13-1 at home during the 2015-16 season and finished second in the Frontier Conference Standings. After defeating Rocky Mountain 84-81 in the Frontier tourney semifinals the squad fell to Lewis-Clark State 79-70 in the conference championship game. At the NAIA Championship in Kansas City the Fighting Saints beat top-20 opponent Peru State (Kan.) 99-82 in the first round and Louisiana State-Alexandria 66-60, the No. 2 overall seed, in the second round. In the quarterfinals they met a veteran squad, Campbellsville, and fell 83-67.

Zach Taylor was named the winner of the NAIA Tournament Charles S. Stevenson Hustle Award. Taylor was also named to the NAIA All-America Second-Team and Ryan Imhoff and Match Burnham were honored with NAIA All-American Honorable Mention honors. Imhoff was one of just three sophomores on the list and Burnham was the lone freshman to receive the honor.

The Saints ranked No. 1 in NAIA DI in shooting percentage (.507) and free throw percentage (.781), more than four percentage points better than the second-ranked team.

In 2014-15, the Saints doubled their win total from nine to eighteen. In addition to finishing the season with an 18-11 record, Carroll was the NAIA’s second-best free-throw shooting team and ranked in the top twenty in points allowed. In his first campaign at Carroll, Coach Cunningham took the Fighting Saints from two wins the prior year to nine and helped the squad lower its points allowed from 78.8 to 70.5.
 
Prior to coming to Carroll College, Dr. Cunningham, a former standout player at both Oregon State and Purdue, spent five years coaching at Andrean High School (his alma mater) in Merrillville, Indiana, where his teams won 43 of their last 50 games. In conjunction with his coaching duties, Dr. Cunningham was an instructor in the history department and the department of cinema and digital media at DePaul University in Chicago from 2006-2013.
 
Dr. Cunningham’s basketball resume as a player is also remarkably impressive. After winning back-to-back high school player of the year awards in Northwest Indiana and earning first team Indiana All-State recognition, he went to Oregon State University, where he was the starting point guard as a true freshman, earning freshman All-America honors and breaking Gary Payton’s freshman scoring record for Oregon State. Following his freshman season, Dr. Cunningham transferred back to his home state of Indiana, joining Coach Gene Keady’s Purdue Boilermakers.  He became a three-year starter and helped lead Purdue to a pair of “Sweet 16” appearances and one spot in the “Elite Eight.”  In his three seasons, Dr. Cunningham scored nearly 1,000 points, handed out near 400 assists and had 163 rebounds. Upon finishing at Purdue, he was also one of only three two-time Academic All-America selections in the history of the university--the late legendary Coach John Wooden would likely have been another had the award been formally recognized then. 
 
Dr. Cunningham spent three seasons playing professional basketball.  He was with the CBA's Gary Steelheads (2001-2002) and the Rockford Lightning (2002-2003 and 2004-2005). He played in the Estonian Basketball Association and in Australia as well. 

Dr. Cunningham is the author of five books: Fallen Stars (Texas A&M Univ. Press, October 2017), 21^st Century Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, American Hoops, Underbelly Hoops, and Before the Curse, a collection of vintage stories about the Chicago Cubs during the team's early glory years.

Dr. Cunningham and his wife, Christy, a former volleyball standout at Purdue and current assistant at Carroll College, have five children – daughters Caroline (12), Catie Joy (7), and Mabeline Lucille (1 year), and sons Case (10) and Indiana (5).