One last look at college basketball’s top 25 preseason rankings
Photo courtesy of Wikimedia Commons
The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) basketball season will begin on Monday, Nov. 4. The landscape of college basketball looks vastly different every year due to players going to the National Basketball Association (NBA) draft and transferring to different colleges. With the Associated Press (AP) top 25 preseason teams now being official, it is time to dissect teams to look out for: overrated teams, underrated teams, and March Madness tournament champion hopefuls.
At the top of the 25 team rankings is the Kansas Jayhawks. The Jayhawks absolutely deserve the top spot in all of college basketball. Kansas had somewhat of a down season last year when the team started to spiral out of control towards the end of the season; Kansas went into the March Madness tournament as a four-seed and outlasted 13-seeded Samford before losing to the five-seeded Gonzaga Bulldogs. Although Kansas showed no positives in their Big-12 tournament run and then had a disappointing March Madness run, they still had a fantastic roster. A few of the Jayhawks’ top players returned in players like center Hunter Dickinson and forward KJ Adams Jr., but the main talking point coming out of the Jayhawk's offseason was their transfers.
The Jayhawks acquired forward A.J Storr and guard Zeke Mayo, both top 25 ranked transfers, who averaged more than 15 points per game a piece. Combine those acquisitions with recruit Flory Bidunga, who ranks in the top 15 of 2024 recruits—and the Jayhawks are looking like a nightmare for the rest of the college basketball field.
The number three-ranked University of Connecticut (UConn) Huskies are not too far behind the Jayhawks. This is going to be a very unpopular opinion, but I just think UConn isn’t good enough to be in the top three-ranked teams in the country. This is not an attempt to diminish the Huskies’ recent success. UConn was by far the best team in college basketball last year and had an unbelievably dominant tournament run in 2023 for a four-seed.
With that being said, it’s a new year. UConn lost four of their five starters to either the draft or eligibility and didn’t necessarily look to advance their team in the offseason. UConn has one top-25 recruit coming in, as well as one top-25 transfer. That isn’t considered enough talent for a top-three team, and now, the Huskies are forced to rely on their returning talent—with only one of those returning players averaging more than seven points per game last season. Many of UConn's returning players were highly efficient last season, so they could possibly step into more opportunities this season. Still, I’ll have to see that happen before putting them over teams like the Houston Cougars, Iowa State Cyclones, or Gonzaga Bulldogs.
One of the more underrated teams in the preseason rankings is the Indiana Hoosiers. Indiana has been attempting to reignite all their sports programs, especially basketball. The Hoosiers brought in NBA coach Mike Woodson back in 2021; Woodson has been doing fine with what he has been given, however, Indiana upped their talent for the 2024 season by grabbing three top 25 transfers, one of those being the second-overall ranked transfer portal prospect in center, Oumar Ballo. Mike Woodson has already helped develop some of their returning talents in forward Malik Reneau, a 15-point-per-game scorer, and forward Mackenzie Mgbako, a 12-point-per-game scorer. Indiana is coming into this season with six players that averaged double-digit points last season. With their elite scores combined with their exceptional coaching—Indiana looks to be extremely dangerous this season.
It all comes down to March Madness now. Everyone adores college basketball because of the 64-team single-elimination tournament that determines the best college basketball team in the country. Mostly, the trend between the teams that have won March Madness is good defense combined with experience and chemistry. The team that best fits that description is the Houston Cougars. Houston has been one of the most dominant teams not to win a title in the last five years. Houston moved over to the most competitive college basketball conference last year in the Big 12 and immediately dominated. Houston had even won the regular season in the Big 12 before losing in the tournament championship to Iowa State. Houston was still a number one seed in the March Madness tournament and looked stellar before the loss to the Duke Blue Devils after their star player was injured. Houston is a gritty team that runs with the same team as last year, outside of a few non-returning players.
The college basketball season is an exciting prelude to the best playoff format in sports. Last year, many top teams made massive changes to their rosters or personnel, for better or worse. It will be a thrill to see how these programs deal with another cycle of returning, existing, and new players.