College basketball’s 8 most disappointing men’s teams this season, ranked

March 3, 2025

Expectations are the slippery slopes of this new era of college basketball. With all players in the country essentially on a one-year contract, coaches face the monumental task of keeping top players on campus, enclosing a proper fit in the transfer portal, adding young talents that will immediately be useful through traditional high school recruitment. To separate all three at the same time, you need one hell of a salesman and a huge nil bag.

Preseason rankings have felt more meaningless than ever these days, with few programs having real continuity compared to the previous year. He added that this is the final season of the extra “Covid Year.” Players registered in 2020 have earned a qualified bonus year.

This season, not all of this was a surprise. Alabama was expected to be a national championship competitor coming out of their final four runs, but they still look like one. Houston is always good, so I knew Houston was good. Iowa And while Duke was the top 10 teams in the preseason that he maintains, Tennessee remains one of the nation's most consistently good programs under Rick Burns.

The other teams weren't that lucky. Here is a list of the most disappointing teams in boys' college basketball, where the madness of March turns the corner.

8. Rutgers Scarlet Knights

How can a team with two top 5 NBA draft picks miss the NCAA tournament? The better question is what the heck did Rutgers Have you ever landed two top 5 picks? Scarlet Knights ranked 25th AP Preseason Voting After landing Dylan Harper and Ace Bailey, he was the best freshman in college basketball, not named Cooper Flag. Harper and Bailey have each lived up to the hype, but the rosters around were too young and flawed to make real noise.

Rutgers should have known it was in trouble after losing to Kennesaw State in his fifth game. Two other freshmen (Dylan Grant and Lathan Sommerville) were in the starting lineup, and this team looked inexperienced from the jump with a very realistic team building flaw. Rutgers doesn't have much shooting. Ranked third in terms of the percentage of field goal attempts. And they don't pass enough balls on the outside of Harper. The team supports only 48% of the baskets manufactured, ranking 277th in DI. Defense is a bigger problem than attack. Iowa is the only one in Kenpom's defensive efficiency rankings over the Scarlet Knights among the Big Ten teams. Rutgers as a program will almost certainly not have two talents on campus at once again like Harper and Bailey.

7. Indiana Hoosiers

Indiana spent the big on the transfer portal after failing to create the NCAA tournament last year, setting up another chance to make Mike Woodson successful. Instead, the Hoosiers built a roster that Woodson would have felt was more appropriate when he was coaching. Atlanta Hawks It's not how basketball today is played, but in the late 00's. After becoming a terrible shooting team last year, Indiana has become another terrible shooting team this year, ranking 322nd in the 3-point rating and 250th in the 3-point percentage. In this era, you have to be an elite defensive team with very few filming. The Hoosiers are also average at the edge of their floors, ranking 12th in the Big Ten for their defensive efficiency.

Indiana reportedly handed $1.2 million for a move from Arizona. He wasn't worth the money: Baro is a skilled interior scorer and may be a good rebounder, but he cannot defend in space, is a complete non-shooter, and gets sloppy with the ball too often. Miles Rice and Canan Carlisle looked like promising backcourt duo from the portal, but Khalil regressed as scorers, while Rice consistently failed to make three in a year. Indiana played many teams tough at the conference and was a bit short, but Bloomington isn't enough. Woodson's tenure is remembered as a disappointment, and Indiana is once again looking for another head coach.

6. Gonzaga Bulldog

Gonzaga appeared ready to return as a national championship competitor as he came in sixth in the preseason polls. The Mark Minor hasn't landed five-star studs like Jalen Suggs or Chet Holmgren, but he had an experienced team that returned much of the roster from last year's Sweet 16 team and added offensive firepower to the portal in the form of a sixth-year guard Khalif fight through Arkansas. Baylor's 38-point season-opening loss again cast Zags as a great power, but by the time the calendar turned over in 2025, Gonzaga was free to sink from the rankings.

For the second time since 2013, teams other than Gonzaga won the WCC regular season championship (both St. Mary). Zags lost four conference games for the first time in under a fewer few by dropping the game to Santa Clara Oregonand St. Mary's twice. Michael Ajay has had a big time as he moved from Pepazin, and star guard Ryan Nenbird is not as spectacular as expected. Still, despite not being ranked in the polls, Gonzaga's metrics are excellent as a top 10 team, according to Kenpom. With a veteran team led by Nembhard and Graham Ike, the Zags have a chance to run in March. This doesn't look like a candidate that should have been.

5. Arkansas Razorbacks

John Calipari, who travels from Kentucky to Arkansas, was the most explosive move in the coaching carousel. He brought in many of his former Wildcats players and recruited them along with him, then landed the top guard available on the transfer portal by undoubtedly signing Jonell Davis from the Florida Atlantic. Calipari had every opportunity to show Lexington fans that he would miss him if he were gone, but instead bubbled up for the Razorback steam in the danger of missing the tournament, while Kentucky spent most of the year in the top 15 of the vote.

The Arkansas attack has been terrible this year, ranking 94th in efficiency. Davis was not in high expectations for a stronger SEC competition. The era when DJ Wagner is considered a top prospect has long gone, and his sophomore season was just as overwhelming as his freshman year. Especially not after Boogie Fland's season-ending injury, but the very famous freshman class really doesn't move the needle. Adou Thiero was healthy and great when Zvonimir Ivisic was good, but Calipari never thought of a way to reach his guards and doomed the Arkansas season.

4. Baylor Bears

Scott Drew turned down Kentucky in the offseason and soon began working with the Baylor team. The Bears have lost four of the top five leaders in a total of minutes since last season, but they still landed in the top ten of preseason polls thanks to Drew's work on recruiting trails and transfer portals. Baylor landed Jeremy Roach, Miami's Norchad Omier and Cal's Jalen Celestine from Duke. Meanwhile, future top five NBA draft picks VJ Edge.com and four-star point guard Robert Wright also solidified their freshman class. Though a talented group on paper, the season revealed its real shortcomings on this roster.

Baylor is not in size. After returner Josh Ozianuuna fell with a season-ending injury, the Bears don't have players in the lineup larger than 6'7. Roach was a major disappointment, chucking the bad shots that appear in his 49% true shooting, which fell 10 points last year with his 49% true shooting. Edgecombe endured the hype, but that doesn't matter as Baylor can't defend the 3-point line and doesn't have a size to hold up inside against the Big 12 vest. Drew never imagined riding the bubble when he turned down Kentucky, but this Baylor team is too flawed.

3. UCONN Husky

There was no three-peat team in men's college basketball, as John Wooden did it at UCLA in the early '70s. Winning the third straight nutty would always be a monumental job for Danny Harley after Danny Harley lost two top 10 NBA draft picks and The last four best players over the offseason, but few would have expected it uconn It is not ranked in the first poll in March. rear His team stinks that it should have ranked number one in the preseason polls (They were still in the top 10), the Huskies have finally proven vulnerable this year, and now they look more like 8 or 9 seeds than the Juggernaut a year ago.

UCONN is currently ranked outside the top 100 in defensive efficiency due to poor ball pressure at the time of attack. Harley thought he could lean heavily towards his only return starter, Alex Caravan, since last year, but when you're the top guy in scouting reports, he learned life is much more difficult. Returning security guard Hassan Diala was injured all year round and could not be seen as an athletic. Husky can carry out a beautiful attack full of off-ball movements when the shot is falling, but their three-peat dreams don't look like reality as March approaches.

2. North Carolina tar heels

North Carolina has always had a hard time replacing program legends like Armando Bacotte, but there were still plenty of reasons for optimism as the Tar Heels headed for the season as the top 10 teams in the polls. Returning to his super senior season, which ended his electric campaign, RJ Davis marked him as one of America's best security guards, Ian Jackson and Drake Powell offered two five-star freshmen, while Belmont Transfer Cade Tyson promised to become an elite shooter. Somehow, UNC is still fighting for tournament life at the end of the regular season, and Still projected on the wrong side of the bubble. How did you get here?

Davis has regressed significantly, with scoring efficiency plunging without having to keep a Bacott to attract defensive attention. Tyson somehow skated from 46% shooter from Deep in Belmont to 29% shooter this year. Defense was a disaster as there were no reliable big names on this roster. Credit Carolina entered this week with a five-game winning streak, but there's still more to do to get on the field. Hubert Davis may have a contract extension, but unless UNC is somehow running in ACC tournaments or something, his seats will be very hot next season.

1. Kansas J Hawks

I've been to Kansas for a long time last week, so I'll keep this short. The Jayhawks came in first place in the preseason poll after returning the core of last year's 32 teams' overwhelming rounds and augmenting it by spending a lot of time on the portal. The pieces never fit. The Kansas spacing was clunky to be kind all year round to prevent Hunter Dickinson and KJ Adams from offering gunfires on the frontcourt. AJ Storr has played horrible basketball after his move from Wisconsin and looks like one of the most selfish chuckers in the country. Rylan Griffen never found a consistent role, and Zeke Mayo was unable to carry the offensive himself against the tough competition. Programs like Kansas should not struggle so aggressively (currently in efficiency no. 59). How did this team beat Duke early in the season? Don't worry about Jayhawks fans: Darryn Peterson will come next season and Dickinson will finally be gone. Next year, I bet that I will bounce back on the Jayhawks, but no one should trust this group to run the march.