The 2024-25 college basketball superlatives list
The 2024-25 college basketball superlatives list
Who I like, who I don't like, and who you should be devoting your time to watching in 2024-25
Every year, I do some sort of goofy “here’s some things I like” post because at the bottom of any sort of college basketball writing project is a serious love for college basketball. None of myself, Jim Root, Jon Fendler, Jordan Majewski (how do we have so many J names?), or others do this because we exclusively care about numbers or on-paper matchups. We do it because we love this sport and want the most for it. I like celebrating things while we’ve got them.
This year’s edition is no different. Because this is long, here’s the categories up front:
League Pass Teams, both MBB and WBB. These are the 12 teams in each side of the men’s/women’s game that I think are the most watchable for a variety of reasons. This is the only dual MBB/WBB category, as I don’t want to embarrass myself amongst the real journalists that know WBB far better than me. I’m workin’ on it.
The MUST-WIN TEAMS. The 10 teams that badly need to win this year at the following levels: Final Four or bust (two teams), Sweet Sixteen or bust (three teams), and Field of 68 or bust (five teams).
The Hipster Teams. Want to impress your friends? Bandwagon one of these six teams for the year, none of whom got even a single AP Poll vote.
Creators of Chaos. The five teams with the strongest all-around schedule, one for each high-major league, but with a qualifier: they cannot be a preseason top-30 team.
The Don’t Break Your Back Lifting That Grocery Bag Awards. The five teams, some of whom actually want to make the 2025 NCAA Tournament, with the most pathetic non-conference schedules.
The Preseason All-Fun Team. First and second. These are the ten players I think are the most purely entertaining for a neutral.
And, lastly, The 2024-25 Ins and Outs. I have ten teams for each category. I never do specific players because I think that’s a bit demeaning.
This is a free post, but if you’re new to this and want an idea of what the paid subscription gets you, here are pieces I’ve done on Houston’s defense, Iowa State’s defense, a Furman/Liberty offensive battle, and curious NCAA Tournament cases. Also: the equivalent of a 230+ page magazine just on 2024-25 conference previews.
On with the show.
The Men’s 2024-25 League Pass Teams
These are in alphabetical order. I don’t do rankings for these.
Alabama. I think this is the single most obvious selection, but last year’s Alabama had one of the five greatest offenses of the last 30 years, per KenPom. They proceeded to bring back the best player from that offense, who’s the preseason Player of the Year for some, and managed to add more talent to an already stuffed roster. The ninth man on Alabama’s roster would likely start for half the SEC’s teams, and it’s not like the SEC is bad this year. Any given night they can score 95+.
Arizona State. This is the first of a couple of teams here that can be quantified for some as a Hate Watch. Moreso this is how teams like the New York Jets are League Pass (or Sunday Ticket) teams: I want to see just how absurd the circus gets. Every single Arizona State team is talented and impressively undercoached, and instead of getting to out-talent half his schedule, Bobby Hurley gets to play in the Big 12 where he has one of the four or five worst opening night rosters. I cannot wait to see them play Houston.
Baylor. Scott Drew has posted four straight top-10 offenses and consistently plays a beautiful brand of basketball that results in a lot of Round of 32 exits but is extremely fun to follow from November through early March.
Bradley. This is for two players: Duke Deen and Darius Hannah. If you haven’t seen these two play, lock in this winter. Deen is charitably listed at 5’8” put plays a delightful brand of ball. Hannah is 6’9”, an absurd defender, and alongside Deen represents the top two returners in the MVC from last year.
Drake. Ben McCollum is here. That alone is worth your time; for the uninitiated he went 394-91 at D2 Northwest Missouri and 280-27 the last nine years. This includes four national championships. It’s functionally the FBS version of getting a peak North Dakota State coach.
Louisville. Louisville is listed in three separate categories here, which may be a record, but it’s for good reason. I think that Pat Kelsey’s teams play inherently very watchable styles of ball, and anything he does at Louisville is eye-catching.
Memphis. Literally anything this team does, good or bad, will be fascinating. In their scrimmage with Alabama you’d see possessions that looked like a top-20 team paired with possessions that looked like the entire team met each other for the first time an hour before. I cannot wait to watch them play.
Princeton. Simply one of the best-run offenses in the sport. This year’s bonus is Xaivian Lee, a legitimate NBA prospect who would be the second South Korean player ever to get there if he makes it. Caden Pierce is phenomenal, too.
Purdue. Sounds like an insane choice at first glance. But: I think that the immediate post-Edey era is inherently really interesting to watch on a nightly basis as they figure it out game-by-game. Plus, not like Painter’s missing elite offenses in his career pre-Edey, so they have a baseline of excellence here that should be met.
Saint Louis. Josh Schertz coaches one of the best brands of basketball in America and I’ll be tuned in as often as I can be.
Texas Tech. I’m always a sucker for anything Grant McCasland does; this team is no exception. If things come together appropriately they could be really good offensively.
Vanderbilt. Sue me, another portal makeover team is on here. Mark Byington was a really good hire for a VU program that sorely needed one and the way he’s built his roster should be very offense-friendly. This is the pick that might age the worst but I’ll own it if so.
The Women’s 2024-25 League Pass Teams
Creighton. Last three years offensively: 13th, 14th, 10th, always ranking top-40 in both 2PT% and 3PT%. That’s pretty hard to do. Jim Flanery has four starters back from a 7 seed that pushed UCLA to the brink in the Round of 32 last year.
Drake. This is the only program to get both men’s and women’s teams on the respective lists, which should tell you how hot Drake is right now. Katie Dinnibier is one of the most purely watchable players in WBB on her own time, but Allison Pohlman’s three Drake teams have gone 7th-3rd-1st in 2PT%.
Florida Gulf Coast. If you like threes, this is the team for you. Karl Smesko is an elite offensive coach that simply knows how to get buckets.
George Mason. This is year 44 of GMU at D1 for women’s hoops. They’ve never made the NCAA Tournament. This year’s team is preseason #54 at Torvik, which puts them squarely on the bubble. Vanessa Blair-Lewis has done an unbelievable job, taking GMU from 3-19 before she began to 23-8 in year 3. I hope they get it done.
Iowa. God, women’s basketball in the Midwest is so good right now. Caitlin Clark and Lisa Bluder are gone. Where does Iowa turn now? Jan Jensen is known as the post whisperer but I’m really intrigued to see what happens this season.
Iowa State. Audi Crooks. By the way, this somehow makes four total appearances for the state of Iowa on this list with 23 unique programs. Iowa: center of basketball. Also: Audi Crooks.
Norfolk State. Two things: Norfolk State plays one of the nastiest versions of defense out there and has forced a 30%+ TO% three consecutive seasons, which is bonkers. The other aspect is that this is a very rare thing: a preseason top-100 team in either MBB or WBB from the MEAC. There’s a real chance Norfolk has the best MBB or WBB team the MEAC has produced in over a decade, which is fun.
Oklahoma. If you want at least some sort of version of WBB Alabama, it’s Oklahoma, who has ranked top-10 nationally in tempo every year under Jennie Baranczyk, took the second-most threes in the Big 12 last year, and consistently puts an entertaining product on the court that wins.
Sacred Heart. This is one here because of one player: Ny’Ceara Pryor. Pryor is 5’3” with an attitude. Among players returning to college basketball this year, she ranks 6th in Steal% and top-20 in BPM. Last year, she posted averages of 18.7 PPG, 4.5 APG, and most improbably 7.1 RPG. Imagine if a 5’9” point guard on the men’s side was threatening a double-double in rebounds with decent frequency. No one else like Pryor out there, and she still has another year after this one.
Tennessee. For one, I’m biased. Obviously. For two, this is the single most interesting coaching change on either side of the divide for me. Tennessee has gone outside the Tennessee ‘family’ for the first time in school history. Kim Caldwell has one (1) year of Division I experience. While it was extremely successful and got Marshall to the Dance, her style of play is a total 180 from what Tennessee has run for most of the last 50+ years. Caldwell’s Marshall team averaged almost 78 possessions a game last year and scored 95+ points in nine games; Tennessee had seven 95+ point games in the entire five-year Kellie Harper era. This is going to be a sea change.
Troy. Easy sell here: Chandra Rigby’s Trojans have ranked #1 or #2 nationally in tempo four straight seasons and got an astonishing 33 of their 81 points per game last year either on the fastbreak or putbacks. No one else really plays that extreme, so I’m into it.
UCLA. I watched Full Court Press on ESPN+ this summer, a series chronicling the 2023-24 seasons for Caitlin Clark, Kamilla Cardoso, and Kiki Rice. I thought it was the rare genuinely good contemporary sports documentary but mostly because you can see how each dealt with unprecedented fame at the WBB level. Clark embraced it; Cardoso became much more conscious of her personal actions and anger levels; Rice almost shrunk from the spotlight and comes off as a quieter, less extroverted kid. That’s a fascinating dynamic for a UCLA team bringing back four starters where she really needs to be the leader among an unbelievable junior class.
The Must-Win Teams of 2024-25
Final Four or bust: Houston, Arizona. It’s unfair to hold anyone to a “you MUST make the Final Four NOW” expectation in October, but both are frankly pretty simple cases. Houston, for the fifth season in a row, will have one of the five best teams in America. They’ve made just one Final Four in that span and have crashed out in the Sweet Sixteen in consecutive years. Kelvin won’t be around forever; I think you really need to get it done this year, especially with J’Wan Roberts and LJ Cryer graduating. Arizona is even simpler: it’s year four of Tommy Lloyd, and three 1 or 2 seeds have resulted in a total of four NCAA Tournament wins. Gotta get moving.
Sweet Sixteen or bust: Cincinnati, Indiana, Tennessee. First two first. Cincinnati could reasonably land in the ‘get in’ category, but I think it calms the waters for Wes Miller way more if, in year four, he delivers Cincinnati’s first Sweet Sixteen since 2012 and just their second of the last 23 years. Indiana is in the exact same boat: last made a Sweet Sixteen in 2016, and Mike Woodson has shown much more as a talent accumulator than a talent developer thus far. Roster construction isn’t ideal, but it’s kinda now or never for me with him.
Tennessee is more complicated. This is the same team that’s made back-to-back second weekends and equaled their best result ever last year with an Elite Eight. They’re also missing one of the great players in school history. But: Rick Barnes isn’t a young man anymore. He’s now 70. If he can make three straight Sweet Sixteens, he’ll be the first Tennessee coach to ever do that, and as many a Tennessee fan has said: just make the second weekend and you’ll roll the dice from there.
Just get in: Villanova, Oklahoma, St. John’s, Louisville, Memphis. These are five teams who all missed last year’s Tournament, and all of them really need to make it this year for numerous reasons. Three of these have coaches on a serious hot seat (Villanova, Oklahoma, Memphis), and the only way to cool it down would be to make the Tournament. Two of these have coaches in either Year One or Year Two (St. John’s, Louisville), but both fanbases are beyond desperate to be nationally relevant again. A Tournament bid of any kind will go a long way towards reassuring each fanbase of the respective projects at hand.
The 2024-25 Hipster Teams
Again, alphabetical order.
Bradley and Drake. Already covered above, but admittedly, problematic that both are in the MVC. Hipsters generally have to pick a favorite, or at least they used to back when it mattered if you were Team Animal Collective or Team Grizzly Bear. They play each other on January 8 and February 16.
Chattanooga. Really simple thought process here: if you would like to be in on a 14 seed in March well before anyone else is because you knew they had a backcourt pairing that combines for almost 35 points a game and has multiple elite shooters on the roster, these are your guys. The SoCon as a whole is a great hipster conference to get into. If I’m really stretching my comparisons thin, Chattanooga is the Parquet Courts of the available Wire copies out there.
Iowa. Every year, these guys are extremely entertaining to watch. The best-case scenario is watching them as a neutral and just enjoying the chaos. Even an NIT Iowa last year managed to beat Wisconsin and Nebraska in back-to-back games while losing to Penn State and Maryland beforehand. Plus I think people should be way more into Owen Freeman than they are?
Lipscomb. Two elite shooters? Try three: Jacob Ognacevic (40.6% 3PT career), Will Pruitt (41.4%), and Joe Anderson (41.1%). Does Lipscomb do such things as, uh, “play defense"? No, not at all. Will they score a lot of points and be very pleasant to watch? Yes. Early season recommendation: their November 14 tangle with Belmont.
UC Irvine. Same case as Chattanooga, but weirder: do you want to be a fan of the next big 12 or 13 seed to make it in March? These guys, who are elite on the defensive end seemingly every year, are a great pick to get behind in November.
The 2024-25 Creators of Chaos
These are the five teams - one in each Power Five league - who rank outside the top 30 nationally, but have the strongest Strength of Schedule. AKA: these are good, not great teams that could really cause a lot of chaotic events this year thanks to loaded schedules and lots of marquee opponents.
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Butler (Big East). God bless the Big East, because Butler - a team that will be on or near the bubble basically all season long - gets all of Marquette, UConn, St. John’s, Creighton, and Xavier at home. They should be able to pick off at least one of those if not two, and any marquee win at Hinkle is a delight for all to watch unfold.
Mississippi State (SEC). State’s loss in the SEC Schedule Wars is our collective gain. It’s always a weirdly hard place to play at, and this year they get all of Kentucky, Alabama, Texas A&M, and Texas there in SEC play. Plus: Auburn, Tennessee, Alabama all on the road.
Ohio State (Big Ten). I’m highly, highly skeptical of the Jake Diebler hire, but I’m pretty into the idea of Underdog OSU, which goes completely against what every single OSU fan on planet Earth thinks they are in their day-to-day lives. Starts off hot in non-con - all of Texas, Texas A&M, Auburn, and Kentucky! - and gets hotter in B10 play: Rutgers, MSU, Indiana all at home. Also, their final game of the regular season is on the road at Indiana…which could be pretty darn huge for both teams!
West Virginia (Big 12). #1 in these fake rankings, for what it’s worth. Even with an awful 2023-24, WVU still ranks #2 in KenPom’s home court advantage rankings over their last 60 conference games. It is a hard, hard place to play…possibly because of some weird sight lines not replicated elsewhere. A Year One Darian DeVries team with a top-5 player in the conference gets all of Arizona, Iowa State, Houston, BYU, and Cincinnati at home. They’re going to leave at least two of those pretty broken-hearted on the country roads home.
The 2024-25 Don’t Break Your Back Lifting That Grocery Bag Awards
The five most embarrassing non-conference schedules from teams supposedly trying to make the 2025 NCAA Tournament.
Maryland. Kevin Willard enters a Year Three where he really, really needs to win games to quiet a pretty annoyed fanbase. What he’s given them: three (3) games against top-250 opponents in the non-conference against Marquette, Villanova, and Syracuse. Those are good games, but this scheduling strategy gives you zero wiggle room. If you go 1-2 against those three, no one on the committee will care about or be impressed by you going 8-0 against a slate where the best opponents are Bucknell or Mount St. Mary’s. We’re not asking for a Houston on here; I’m just asking where a Towson or UMass might be. Try a little!
Minnesota. Somewhat more explicable, as this is a really hard place to win games at for Ben Johnson and he just needs as many wins as he can find. But my God, dude, a slate where the best opponents are North Texas or Wichita State? That’s the best you could come up with? Seven of the ten scheduled opponents are 248th or worse, per Torvik. Pathetic.
Oklahoma. Maryland part two. At least here, Oklahoma is part of the Battle 4 Atlantis, where they have the chance to play some number of Providence, Arizona, Gonzaga, Indiana, Louisville, or West Virginia. But outside of that: zero wiggle room. An astounding seven games here against teams ranked 322nd or worse. Seven! Porter Moser, come on, man. I know you’re above this.
Penn State. Minnesota part two but somehow worse? The best possible opponent here is Clemson, who isn’t a lock for the NCAA Tournament and isn’t even a lock to play Penn State in the four-team tournament they’re a part of. If that game doesn’t happen this is an NCAA Tournament hopeful with two games in its non-conference slate against preseason top-150 teams.
Utah. Hard team to get games for. I get that. But…well…you convinced Iowa and Saint Mary’s. Those are good teams! Why did you spend the rest of your schedule getting eight different teams rated somewhere between 281st-363rd?
The 2024-25 Preseason All-Fun Teams
Extremely simple and will have zero explanation to go with it: these are the ten players in college basketball I’m looking forward to watching the most. Presume your own reasons for why I picked someone or didn’t pick your favorite player.
First Team: Chaz Lanier (Tennessee), Mark Sears (Alabama), Kam Jones (Marquette), Caleb Love (Arizona), Johni Broome (Auburn)
Second Team: Cooper Flagg (Duke), Yaxel Lendeborg (UAB), Robbie Avila (Saint Louis), RJ Davis (North Carolina), Tucker DeVries (West Virginia)
The 2024-25 Ins and Outs Teams
And finally, my yearly magnum opus. I would roughly define these as “teams I like more or less than the general consensus,” and while there’s no perfect way to determine that, a combination of the Burner Ball consensus poll and the KenPom ratings give me the best place to start.
Last year’s ins were Houston, Baylor, Colorado, Illinois, California, Syracuse, Duquesne, UC Santa Barbara, Arkansas State, and South Dakota State. I think this was a success: seven of those ten beat their preseason KenPom projection, six made the Tournament, and only UC Santa Barbara was a clear and obvious whiff.
Last year’s outs were Florida Atlantic, Miami, Wisconsin, Xavier, Missouri, Boise State (oof), Rutgers, West Virginia, Arizona State, and Morehead State (OOF). Again, this was largely a success: seven of the ten underperformed their KenPom projection, and it was nearly eight of ten had Wisconsin not beaten their preseason number by all of +0.05 points. The only huge whiffs were Boise and Morehead.
So, with that in mind, I do think I’ve gotten to a spot where I can generally find teams I like or dislike more than the average media member. Unfortunately, as the media gets more stats-wise, it gets harder to find those who stand out notably one way or the other. (A 2024-25 example: Houston, who I like more than the AP Poll does but precisely as much as KenPom and more stats-aware people do.) On with the show.
THE 2024-25 INS…
Gonzaga. I usually like to pick one team inside my personal top 5 that’s still inside a general person’s top 10-15. I have Gonzaga third overall; I think that they’re a legitimate national title contender, and bringing back 81% of scoring from a 5 seed that made the Sweet Sixteen is…scary. I’m surprised to only see them 9th at KenPom.
Texas Tech. Grant McCasland is 8-for-8 in beating his KenPom preseason projection as a head coach. This will be his toughest test yet as he opens 14th nationally at KenPom - actually one spot ahead from my personal rankings - but confusingly, an excellent offensive roster with an elite defensive coach got a 29th-place ranking and fewer AP Poll votes than an Ole Miss team that might rank 140th again defensively. You tell me.
Michigan State. I understand how dangerous this all is, as this isn’t a very good offensive roster on its face and Tom Izzo feels a little past his prime. But in an average season, this is going to be a top-10 defense. If that’s the case, all they have to be to be a top-25 team nationally is, like, 60th-best offensively. That’s nothing. I think this is a 5 or 6 seed at season’s end, while KenPom and the Burner have them near the bubble.
Mississippi State. A theme here: teams with ugly offenses and great defensive coaches that get a high floor out of underpowered rosters. In terms of a KenPom beater Chris Jans isn’t usually one, but at 32nd nationally I’m buying the upside here. I have them top 20.
Michigan. I’m a huge believer in Dusty May in general, but also, this Michigan roster carries two potential huge hits in its favor: it’s very experienced (collective average of 2.35 years of college experience) and very talented (60.9 Torvik Talent Rating, or top-40 nationally). Another team generally languishing somewhere in the 30s nationally I’d have at the back end of a top 25.
Saint Mary’s. Guys, it’s Randy Bennett. I’ll believe a team of his stinks when I see it. SMC got one more Top 25 vote than UAB and two more than Little Rock. Bennett’s beaten his preseason number four straight years.
Louisville. Did you know Pat Kelsey has beaten his KenPom preseason number seven straight seasons? And all he has to do this year to make that happen is finish in the top 60 with a very old roster that all fits together quite well, one that would be inside a top 40 for me. I’m in.
Saint Louis. This is a very popular one that’s playing to the crowd a bit, but I think these guys might win the Atlantic 10 in year one under Josh Schertz, and I really, really love the makeup of their roster. Rare one where the public seems higher than the metrics do.
Liberty. NOT ON THE SCHOOL! DO NOT TELL PEOPLE IT’S THE SCHOOL. Just the basketball team, which somehow came in at fifth in the C-USA media poll despite having the second-best roster in the league for me. I think they legitimately threaten for a top-100 finish, which is where KenPom has them. I’ll own the small Net Rating loss here if it happens.
Grambling State. Fun with numbers: in his seven years as a head coach, Donte Jackson is 6-for-7 in beating his preseason KenPom ranking. The one time they didn’t (2019-20), he underachieved by a whole 0.73 points and still went 11-7 in conference play. Trusting anyone in the SWAC is a fool’s errand, but Jackson-era Grambling is as trustworthy as it can get.
…AND THE 2024-25 OUTS
Kansas. LISTEN. Please stop throwing garbage at me. I’m only human. Instead of having KU #1 or #2 like everyone else in the world, I have them #5. But that honestly might be the peak of what I think they can do this year, anyway. With largely the same core group a year ago, Kansas posted their worst-ever finish under Bill Self (#27) and struggled to an R32 exit. This year’s group should be much better offensively, but I still have serious concerns about Dickinson and Adams together spacing-wise, and honestly, I remain a bit fearful of some of the shooting options here. I like all of Dajuan Harris, Zeke Mayo, Rylan Griffen, and A.J. Storr but I think I love none of them. Compounding this issue is Dickinson’s tendency to vibe in and out of interest defensively, along with Kansas’s general lack of interest in Q3/Q4 opponents, and I think their record is going to look better than the efficiency will. Sue me.
Texas A&M. Weird to do this, because I have A&M probably at the back-end of a top 25, but ranking them 13th is baffling for me. I covered in the SEC preview how you functionally don’t have to and shouldn’t pay attention to this team before conference play begins because for five straight years under Buzz, they’ve performed around six points worse per 100 possessions in non-conference versus conference play. We also have three full years of data on the A&M core, which has finished 33rd, 33rd, and 35th in KenPom. I’ll pass on much more than that.
Arkansas. I don’t have Arkansas as a top-25 team. I’m aware they beat Kansas in an exhibition that Hunter Dickinson didn’t play in; I am also aware that 1-2 injuries for them could spell disaster. I am also aware that John Calipari, who is 3 for his last 10 in beating preseason projections, is the new head coach. I just don’t buy this! Sorry!
Texas. I didn’t intend to have three straight SEC teams, but such is life. I am confused by the love for Texas, who hasn’t been openly bad by any means under Rodney Terry but is now 0-for-2 in meeting preseason metrics expectations. AP #19 and KP #18 seems nuts to me for a team I’d have, like, 36th.
Ole Miss. Four SEC teams in a row! Again, not the plan; I just think the AP voters seem to have placed at least three SEC teams I likely wouldn’t have placed in a top 25 in there? Who knows. This is the most baffling of all of them to me. Ole Miss had an awful defense last year, proceeded to lose its two best defensive players, loaded up on a lot of guards and wings in the portal, and has exactly zero in the way of rim protection available at hand. They will score a lot of points, sure. But they are going to be very reliant on a coach whose reputation might be outkicking his on-court work at this point. He hasn’t beaten his KenPom preseason ranking since 2018-19, which is 46th this year.
Villanova. Weird one to me; I can’t explain why they would be #20 in KenPom, and true to form they got zero AP Poll votes. But this is a team that has, to my eyes, a six-man rotation when the going gets tough. Is that really survivable, especially if so much is dependent on one guy in Eric Dixon? It actually feels like a worse version of last year’s team, which had a more experienced roster with similar shooting and finished 37th in KenPom.
San Diego State. I’m heartbroken to put one of my favorite programs on here, but I’m afraid they’re overvalued based on past work. KenPom has these guys top-50, they received some AP Poll votes, and it seems like the average human has these guys borderline top-40. I think they might miss the Tournament entirely. Nick Boyd from FAU is the only plus shooter on the roster, and there isn’t a clear and obvious plus offensive piece. As usual, Dutcher should create an excellent and tough defense, but this could look a lot like a latter Steve Fisher team: top 15 defense, ranked 170th offensively. Maybe that buys you 62nd nationally or so.
Arizona State. I’m afraid this might be the last year I get to bet against Bobby Hurley. What a wonderful ride it’s been. Among active P5 coaches with 7+ years of experience, only Rodney Terry, John freakin’ Calipari, Andy Enfield, and Mike White have been worse versus their preseason metrics expectations. This year, ASU goes from getting to out-talent bad Pac-12 teams to having to play, at worst, West Virginia and Oklahoma State. Best of luck, Bobby. You’ll need it.
Florida State. FSU is confusingly being priced as somewhere around the 12th-15th best ACC team despite having a clear bottom-two roster, if not the worst roster. I put them above Boston College by a hair, but they put together the single worst portal class of any P5 who tried to put together one this offseason. Might be Leonard’s final year if that’s the case.
Rhode Island. I have a list of about 250 coaches with 5+ seasons of data over the last seven years that I look to for the purposes of this post and others. Archie ranks fourth from the bottom (Mike White, Mikey Brey, and Steve Prohm) in terms of worst KenPom underachievers. Of a list of 335 coaches with at least four years, Archie ranks 271st in value above expectation over the last three seasons, one spot ahead of Jeremy Ballard at FIU and two spots behind Brian Gregory. I think URI’s a lock to finish 12th or lower.