Articles by Mike Rutherford

We’ve got exactly two weeks to go until underclassmen players who are currently going through the NBA Draft process are forced to make their final decision about whether they’re going to keep their name in the draft or return to college basketball.
Here are the 12 most crucial decisions that will be made between now and then:
1. Carter Bryant (Arizona)
Bryant averaged fewer than 20 minutes per game and just 6.5 points per game in his freshman season at Arizona, but his extremely high ceiling and explosive athleticism were on full display in the final weeks of the year. Should he return to a Wildcat team that will have far fewer proven veterans than it did last season, he should be an obvious breakout sophomore star in the Big 12.
With most NBA mock drafts having Bryant solidly in the middle of the first round, it’s understandable that Arizona fans aren’t exactly holding their collective breath. SB Nation’s Ricky O’Donnell has Bryant going to San Antonio with the 14th pick in his latest mock.
2. Yaxel Lendeborg (UAB/committed to Michigan)
One of college basketball’s ultimate do-it-all players, Lendeborg hit the portal and committed to Michigan back in early April, but is still firmly on the fence about whether or not he’ll ever actually ever suit up for the Wolverines. He recently told Andy Katz that he plans on waiting all the way until the May 28 deadline to make his final decision, and that he’s firmly 50/50 on the decision … or maybe 60/40 towards playing for Dusty May.

With Lendeborg — who averaged 17.7 points, 11.4 rebounds, 4.2 assists, 1.8 blocks and 1.7 steals per game last season at UAB — Michigan likely has the best transfer portal class in the country and should be a preseason top 15/10 team. Without him, the road to being a legitimate Final Four threat is much rockier.

3. RJ Luis (St. John’s/Transfer Portal)

The reigning Big East Player of the Year and a Second Team AP All-American, Luis is one of the few players on this list who hasn’t given any indication as to what he plans to do if he doesn’t keep his name in the draft. The schools involved figure to be high-profile and the dollar amount safely in the world of seven figures.
Don’t Luis’ poor performance in St. John’s second round loss to Arkansas or the drama surrounding him being benched for the last four minutes of said loss distract you from the fact that he is without question a college basketball star. At 6’7, Luis is a three-level scorer and a high energy defender. His decision making can be iffy and his three-point shot is streaky, but he’s still a player who instantly makes whichever team lands him (if a team lands him) much more of a threat to make a deep run next March than they were before his addition.

4. Tahaad Pettiford (Auburn)
Pettiford might have the toughest decision to make of anyone on this list.
Most mock drafts have Pettiford going somewhere in the first round — O’Donnell has him going 25th overall to the Magic — but if he returns to college basketball, there’s a real chance that he could be the most exciting player to watch in the country next season. Bruce Pearl will give him the keys to the Auburn offense as a sophomore, and we saw more than enough from Pettiford as the Tigers’ sixth man last season to know what that could look like. Few players in the country are more adept at putting the ball in the basket than Pettiford, and the style with which he does it would make him appointment viewing throughout the 2025-26 season.

5. Darrion Williams (Texas Tech/Transfer Portal)

Like Luis, If Williams ultimately chooses to return to school, he figures to demand one of the highest price tags of the college basketball offseason.
The 6’6 forward averaged 15.5 points and 5.5 rebounds per game last season for Texas Tech, second most on the team in both categories behind All-American J.T. Toppin (who has already announced a return to Lubbock). Williams was a breakout star in the NCAA Tournament, where he averaged 23.7 points, 6.7 rebounds, and 3.0 assists in three games.
Williams is a true two-way standout who will be one of the most difficult players in the country to defend next season, regardless of where he ends up … if he ends up back at the college level.
6. Cedric Coward (Washington State/Committed to Duke)
Injuries limited Coward’s 2024-25 season to just six games, but he was still one of the most coveted players in the portal because of the numbers he put up in those six games as well as the work he did the prior two seasons at Eastern Washington. An elite outside shooter, the 6’6 Coward figures to be one of the two or three leading scorers for Duke next season, assuming he suits up for Jon Scheyer. He’ll be the first transfer portal player that Scheyer has relied on that heavily for his team to be national championship good.
7. Alex Condon (Florida)
One of the biggest contributors to Florida’s national championship run in 2025, the Australian big man now has to decide whether he wants to run it back or roll the dice that he can be a first round pick in the draft. The 6’11 Condon averaged 10.6 points and 7.5 rebounds per game as a sophomore last season, but struggled at times in the NCAA Tournament because of an ankle injury. He still came up big in the national title game, scoring 12 points, grabbing 7 rebounds, and coming up with 4 steals.
If Condon comes back, Todd Golden and company have a realistic shot at taking the “most recent back-to-back champ” title back from UConn.
8. Otega Oweh (Kentucky)
After transferring in from Oklahoma, Oweh was a breakout star for Mark Pope in his first season at Kentucky. The 6’4 guard led the Wildcats in scoring at 16.1 ppg, and consistently showcased an explosive athleticism that the college basketball world had only caught glimpses of during his time in Norman.
Pope has once again loaded up in the portal, and Kentucky figures to be a preseason top 10 team with or without Oweh, but its national title hopes will receive a significant boost if they can get the elite slasher and on-ball defender back to Lexington for one more run.
9. Milos Uzan (Houston)
One of college basketball’s elite shooters, Uzan knocked down 42.8 percent of his attempts from beyond the arc as a junior last season at Houston, nearly helping the Cougars to the national championship. Uzan is currently projected by most to be a second round pick, and recently said that he will return to college if he doesn’t end up in a position where he’s guaranteed NBA money. With or without him, Houston figures to be a preseason top five team. With him, their likelihood of being able to get over that final hurdle and capture the program’s first national title rises exponentially.
10. Thomas Sorber (Georgetown)
One of the best freshmen in college basketball last season (before that season was cut a month short due to injury), Sorber is the 18th pick in O’Donnell’s latest mock draft. The 6’10 big man with one of the longest wingspans in the country nearly averaged a double-double (14.5 points/8.5 rebounds) last season. He seems like a safe bet to keep his name in the draft.
11. Jamir Watkins (Florida State/Transfer Portal)
Watkins is testing the NBA Draft waters for a second straight spring after a 2024-25 season where he evolved into one of the most dynamic offensive players in the ACC. The versatile 6’7 wing averaged 18.3 points and 5.2 rebounds per game while shooting 43 percent from the floor for Leonard Hamilton’s final FSU squad. There might not be a better player in college basketball when it comes to getting to the free-throw line.
Like Luis and Williams, if Watkins ultimately elects to return to college basketball, expect there to be an all-out bidding war among some of the biggest names in the sport looking to add the missing piece to their 2025-26 roster.
12. Drake Powell (North Carolina)
The 6’6 guard put up modest numbers as a freshman (7.4 ppg/3.4 rpg) on a so-so UNC team, but his out of this world athleticism still has drawn the attention of more than a few decision makers in the NBA. His top-tier testing so far at the Combine has many people now projecting that he could keep his name in the draft, which would be a huge blow to Hubert Davis in what feels like a make-or-break season for the fifth-year head coach. […]

The ACC announced Tuesday that its 18-team men’s basketball conference is going back to playing an 18-game league schedule.
The conference had played a 20-game league schedule since the 2019-20 season, a move that seemed destined to stick following last year’s additions of SMU, Stanford and California. And yet, here we are.
Where we are is uncharted territory for the ACC.
While the SEC and the Big Ten are enjoying record levels of success, the ACC hasn’t placed more than five teams in an NCAA Tournament since 2021. If not for North Carolina’s highly controversial inclusion in the First Four in this past tournament, the ACC would be coming off a year in which it sent just three teams to the Big Dance for the first time since 2000.
In a league where basketball has typically been king, lagging behind the other four power conferences for more than a one-off season is cause for sweeping change.
And so again, here we are.
The most surprising part of Tuesday’s announcement wasn’t the reversion, it was the structure of the reversion.
Instead of following the format most believed would be adopted — every team playing 16 opponents once and one opponent twice — the ACC announced that starting in 2025-26, every team will play 14 teams once, two teams twice, and one team not at all.
The home-and-home games will be of two different varieties. Each team will play two games against a “primary partner” every season, and two game against a “variable partner” that will change from one season to the next.
The “primary partners” list is as follows:
Boston College-Notre DameClemson-Georgia TechCalifornia-StanfordDuke-North CarolinaFlorida State-MiamiLouisville-SMUNC State-Wake ForestPitt-SyracuseVirginia Tech-Virginia
The rationale here is sound: It gives the league the opportunity to pit its projected strongest teams against one another for one extra quality matchup every season, while also preserving the sanctity of the conference’s strongest rivalries.
What the ACC hopes to avoid is a situation like last year where a Duke team that finished 19-1 in the league and a Louisville team that finished 18-2 played their only game on Dec. 8 to little fanfare. Having two teams — Clemson and Louisville — finish 18-2 in league play and earn just a No. 5 and a No. 8 seed, respectively, is another thing Jim Phillips and company would like to avoid moving forward.
Overall, the move sort of feels like treating a rapidly spreading virus with ibuprofen. Could there be some positive effects? Sure, but this isn’t a reaction that is addressing the root cause of the issue in any substantive way.
Every ACC team getting two additional non-conference games won’t matter much if the league doesn’t stop getting absolutely obliterated by the other power conferences in November and December.
The ACC’s 18 teams went a collective 331-270 in non-conference play last season, the seventh-best mark out of the 31 leagues in Division-I. The league also had a sub-.500 record against top 100 opponents for the fourth consecutive season. Perhaps most notably, the conference went just 4-30 in games against SEC opponents, including a humiliating 2-14 performance in the annual ACC-SEC Challenge.
The lack of quality wins combined with a multitude of embarrassing losses left Duke with almost no margin for error to be a No. 1 seed, and teams like Clemson and Louisville with almost no margin for error just to get into the NCAA Tournament.
A change in scheduling philosophy isn’t going to fix that.
In an era where finances matter even more than they ever have before, it should surprise no one that the two leagues with the most money are the two currently experiencing the most on-court success. The SEC in particular is on its best run in history thanks to being able to hire (and keep) some of the best coaches in the sport, and assemble the best rosters in the sport on an annual basis.
In an effort to try and make up ground, several ACC programs have brought in younger, more forward thinking head coaches this offseason. Will Wade will look to rejuvenate NC State, Jai Lucas is already bringing high-level talent back to Miami, Ryan Odom takes over at Virginia after years of being discusses as one of the “next big things” in coaching, and Luke Loucks is attempting to bring a fresh approach to roster assembly at Florida State.
With all due respect to Phillips and company, this is the only way back to the top of the mountain for the ACC. No scheduling rearrangement is going to hide another sub-par two months of performances before the calendar flips to 2026.
While the path to the recipe for conference success has changed significantly in recent years, the recipe itself is static: Great players, great coaches, stacking wins. Different than it’s ever been before. Same as it ever was. […]

Given the current state of college basketball, phrases like “roster retention” and “culture continuity” being omnipresent for years to come seems to be about as safe a bet as there is.
For Duke, still the sport’s most ascendant brand, achieving both goals came fairly easily in Jon Scheyer’s first two offseasons at the helm.
Following a 2022-23 season that included an ACC Tournament championship, the Blue Devils were the only power conference team in the sport to not lose a single player to the transfer portal. A year later, following a run to the Elite Eight, Duke lost seven players to the portal, a fact fueled by an incoming top-rated recruiting class and the return of players like Tyrese Proctor and Caleb Foster who had already served as major contributors for Scheyer.
Scheyer was also able to avoid losing the core of his staff, with top confidantes Chris Carrawell and Jai Lucas sitting next to him on the bench for the first three years of the ride. That all changed when Lucas was hired to be the new head coach at Miami, and made the unusual decision to leave Duke following the end of the regular season.
Following Lucas’ departure, the Blue Devils rolled to an ACC Tournament title, rolled to an East Regional championship, and then appeared poised to roll to a spot in the national championship game. Instead, a team two wins away from cementing a place among the greatest in college basketball history will now forever be remembered, at least largely, for its end-of-game collapse against Houston.
At a place like Duke, this isn’t the type of poltergeist that can be jettisoned through lesser means. It’ll take the win on the first Monday night in April for the whispers about Scheyer not being a big game coach or being in over his head or not being the right choice to replace arguably the greatest sideline walker in college basketball history to disappear forever … at least to settle down for a few years.
Year four also feels like the most unique test for Scheyer yet in his ongoing quest to fill the largest of shoes.
On one hand, Scheyer once again did not lose a single scholarship player to the transfer portal. On the other, he’ll be asked to replace all five starters — NBA bound Cooper Flagg, Kon Knueppel, Khaman Maluach and Tyrese Proctor, as well as graduated Sion James — for the first time since taking over in Durham.
While Scheyer has cleared many bars in his first three seasons, this fresh situation will give the 37-year-old an opportunity to answer a pair of new questions.
Can he really develop?
If Duke is once again going to be in the national title mix in 2026, a handful of bit players from last season are going to have to develop into primary contributors. If players like Foster (5.1 ppg), Isaiah Evans (6.8 ppg) and Patrick Ngbonga II (3.9 ppg) don’t seem prepared to be at or near the core of a team poised to make another Final Four run by next March, people are going to justifiably ask why not.
Can he make it work with a transfer as a primary star?
There’s no reason to believe that incoming freshman Cameron Boozer will be anything less than sensational for Duke next season. But there’s a difference between “normal freshman sensational” and “Cooper Flagg sensational.” That means Boozer will need some backup in the star department.
The player best-equipped to handle that role is Cedric Coward, who — assuming he eventually puts off an early jump to the NBA — will arrive in Durham by way of Washington State. Coward only played six games for the Cougars last season, but averaged 17.7 points, 7.0 rebounds, 3.7 assists, and 1.7 blocks a game on 55.7 percent shooting from the floor. He’s a three-level scorer and a polished defender; precisely the type of player Duke needed to round out yet another youthful roster.
Coward could also wind up being one of the best stories of the 2025-26 college basketball season. A player who began his college career at Division III Willamette University ending it by helping the mighty Duke Blue Devils make a run at a national championship is an anecdote that doesn’t need a ton of additional details.
But can Scheyer make it work?
He’s had success with transfers before — Sion James started and was the team’s fourth-leading scorer last season after playing four years at Tulane — but Scheyer has never been as reliant on the production of a seasoned newcomer as it seems he’ll need to be with Coward this season. If it works, it could open the door for a new roster construction route for Scheyer to take moving forward.
After all, everyone in the sport is still in the “adjusting and trying to figure out the best way to go about this” phase.
“By far I feel my biggest job is roster construction,” Scheyer said back in March. “That’s always been a big thing in college basketball, but especially now. When we won (the national championship) in 2010, the starting five played in 100 games together. You’re not going to have that now. So for us, the right complimentary players with skillsets that balance each other out — but more importantly, their motivation and who they are as people.”
Of course, making all of these decisions and determinations isn’t a one man job.
Lucas was instrumental in helping Scheyer lure the best young talent in the sport to Durham over the past three years. While Scheyer was able to keep the Boozer twins in blue, Lucas flipped fellow five-star recruit Shelton Henderson who is coming with him to South Beach.
Tasked with making his first major assistant hiring at Duke in a couple of years, Scheyer took a bit of an unconventional route. To fill the role Lucas left behind, Scheyer hired Evan Bradds, who most recently served as the player development coach for the Utah Jazz. After a decorated playing career at Belmont, Bradds immediately jumped into the coaching world with a stint as an assistant with the Boston Celtics before making the move to Salt Lake City in 2022. He has never coached at the college level.
Unlike the past two seasons, Duke doesn’t figure to start the 2025-26 season at or near the top of the list of the teams most expected to cut down the nets in April. That fact, coupled with the other significant changes taking place in Durham, provide Scheyer with an opportunity.
Pass it with flying colors, and the talk surrounding the three straight disappointing NCAA Tournament exits will dissipate. Struggle, and … well, Scheyer and everyone else already knows the rest.
Is any of this fair for someone with an 89-22 overall record, four ACC championships and eight NCAA Tournament wins in three seasons? Of course not. But nothing about replacing Mike Krzyzewski was ever going to be fair. […]

The moving and shaking is far from finished, but the closing of the transfer portal leaves us with more clarity about the landscape of the 2025-26 men’s college basketball season than we had three weeks ago.
With that being the case, let’s take a look at the 25 best teams in the sport post-portal closing.
1. Houston Cougars
2024-25 Record: 36-4
2024-25 Finish: National Runners-Up
The Cougars came within one made shot (and one avoided late-game collapse) of winning the program’s first national title last season. Despite that disappointment, they aren’t going anywhere in 2025-26.
Kelvin Sampson brings back three key pieces from that squad — Emanuel Sharp, Milos Uzan and Joseph Tugler — adds Creighton point guard Pop Isaacs to run the show, and has a loaded incoming recruiting class highlighted by five-star freshman Chris Cenac Jr. The Cougars will still be terrorizing the Big 12 with their “monster” defense, but expect Sampson’s team to be even more capable on offense this coming season.
2. Purdue Boilermakers
2024-25 Record: 24-12
2024-25 Finish: Sweet 16
Expect “roster retention” to become one of the biggest buzz phrases in this new era of college basketball. No one did it better this offseason than Matt Painter, who returns five of his top six scorers from a second weekend team.
Braden Smith (15.8 ppg/8.7 apg), Trey Kaufman-Renn (20.1 ppg) and Fletcher Loyer (13.8 ppg) are the most proven returning trio in the sport.
3. Texas Tech Red Raiders
2024-25 Record: 28-9
2024-25 Finish: Elite Eight
No team in the country benefitted more from a “stay or go” decision over the last month than Texas Tech, which will return All-American JT Toppin for one more season. Grant McCasland also returns double figure scorer Christian Anderson, who seems poised for a breakout sophomore season. Toss in a highly-touted transfer portal class headlined by Washington State import JeJuan Watts, and there’s no reason for Red Raider fans to not be dreaming the biggest of dreams right now.
4. St. John’s Red Storm
2024-25 Record: 31-5
2024-25 Finish: Second Round
Rick Pitino loses Big East Player of the Year R.J. Luis as well as fellow starters Kadary Richmond, Aaron Scott and Simeon Wilcher, but hits back at those losses with the No. 1 transfer portal class in the country.
Big man Zuby Ejiofor returns to provide some culture continuity, and will join forces with Providence transfer Bryce Hopkins and Cincinnati transfer Dillon Mitchell to create arguably the formidable frontcourt in the country. There are some understandable questions about the backcourt, most notably North Carolina transfer Ian Jackson being brought in to run the point, but expect the Red Storm’s Hall of Fame head coach to figure out how all the pieces fit.
5. BYU Cougars
2024-25 Record: 26-10
2024-25 Finish: Sweet 16
Without question, BYU is going to be one of the more fascinating teams to watch this winter.
They return four key contributors from a Sweet 16 squad — Richie Saunders, Dawson Baker, Keba Keita and Mihailo Boskovic — they bring in one of the best players from the transfer portal in Baylor point guard Robert Wright, and oh yeah, they’ll also have the projected No. 1 pick in the 2026 NBA Draft in superstar freshman AJ Dybantsa.
The rumors about how much this roster cost the powers that be in Provo are all over the place, but make no mistake about it, Kevin Young’s squad is stacked.
6. UConn Huskies
2024-25 Record: 24-11
2024-25 Finish: Second Round
Expect last season’s “down year” to be a one-off for Dan Hurley and company.
Solo Ball is poised to become a star, but he’ll ha e Georgia transfer Silas Demary in the backcourt with him to help shoulder the load. Alex Karaban is still waiting to make a decision about the NBA Draft, but if the Huskies get him back (or replace him with a suitably impactful transfer), there’s no reason for them to be right back in the national title conversation for the third time in four years.
7. Louisville Cardinals
2024-25 Record: 27-8
2024-25 Finish: First Round
Pat Kelsey lost the three leading scorers from his overachieving first Cardinal squad, but instantly replaced them with three of the best players in the transfer portal in Ryan Conwell (Xavier), Isaac McKneely (Virginia) and Adrian Wooley (Kennesaw State). Those three also happen to be three of the best shooters in the country, a notable trait for a team that took the third most shots from beyond the arc of any team in the sport last season. They’ll pair in the backcourt with five-star freshman Mikel Brown Jr., the top-ranked floor general in the class of 2025.
Kelsey returns starting forward J’vonne Hadley as well as fellow forward Kasean Pryor, who was poised to be one of the team’s top performers before tearing his ACL in the championship game of the Battle 4 Atlantis. There are some questions on the inside, especially after the surprise defection of starting center James Scott earlier this week.
8. Kentucky Wildcats
2024-25 Record: 24-12
2024-25 Finish: Sweet 16
Kentucky is loaded with size, athleticism and quickness thanks to the portal additions of Jayden Quainance (Arizona State), Mouhamed Dioubate (Alabama), Jaland Lowe (Pitt), Kam Williams (Tulane) and Denzel Aberdeen (Florida). So long as Otega Oweh, last season’s leading scorer at 16.2 ppg, doesn’t bolt for the NBA, Mark Pope should also be able to boast a little bit of culture continuity as well.
While the pieces here all sparkle, some of them don’t necessarily fit perfectly with the system Pope has run effectively at Utah Valley, BYU and now Kentucky. If he can take all those pieces and turn them into a legitimate national title contender, Pope will make a large statement that he’s ready to be one of those faces poised to headline the sport as it makes the leap into this brave new era.
9. Michigan Wolverines
2024-25 Record: 27-10
2024-25 Finish: Sweet 16
Dusty May set the bar pretty high for himself after a debut season that saw Michigan win 27 games, a Big Ten Tournament championship, and two games in the NCAA Tournament. He’ll look to clear that bar in year two with a roster that includes three key returnees (Roddy Gayle Jr., Nimari Burnett and L.J. Cason) and an absolutely loaded group of imports headlined by Yaxel Lendeborg (UAB), Morez Johnson (Illinois) and Elliot Cadeau (North Carolina).
10. Auburn Tigers
2024-25 Record: 32-6
2024-25 Finish: Final Four
Yes, the core of last season’s Final Four team is either graduated or in the transfer portal, but Auburn is going to be just fine in 2025-26. Tahaad Pettiford is poised to become one of the biggest stars in the sport, and should be appointment viewing every time he steps on the court. The world will also get a chance to find out just how good UCF transfer Keyshawn Hall is.
11. Duke Blue Devils
2024-25 Record: 35-4
2024-25 Finish: Final Four
Jon Scheyer loses his entire starting five from a team seemed poised to be remembered as one of the best college basketball squads in recent memory before its Final Four collapse against Houston, but it’s Duke, they’re going to be fine.
Isaiah Evans, Caleb Foster and Patrick Ngongba all return ready to make larger impacts in 2025-26. They’ll join forced with a top-rated recruiting class headlines by five-star freshman Cameron Boozer.
12. Michigan State Spartans
2024-25 Record: 30-7
2024-25 Finish: Elite Eight
Tom Izzo seems to be at his best when he comes into a season flying a bit below the radar. That’s probably not going to be the case in 2025-26.
The Spartans return Coen Carr, Jaxon Kohler, Jeremy Fears and Carson Cooper from a regional finalist squad, and add in a couple of nice transfers in Trey Fort (Samford) and Kaleb Glenn (FAU). Expect this team to challenge for the title of best defensive squad in the sport next season.
13. UCLA Bruins
2024-25 Record: 23-11
2024-25 Finish: Second Round
Top transfers Donovan Dent (New Mexico) and Xavier Booker (Michigan State) join up with a returning core that features nearly every impactful player from last season’s 23-win squad. If Dent’s game can translate efficiently into Mick Cronin’s system, there shouldn’t be a team in the Big Ten that this squad won’t be able to play with.
14. Iowa State Cyclones
2024-25 Record: 25-10
2024-25 Finish: Second Round
Iowa State fizzled out a bit down the stretch, but they still return three of their top five scorers — Joshua Jefferson, Milan Momcilovic and Tamin Lipsey — from a team that earned a No. 3 seed in the Big Dance. T.J. Otzelberger’s teams have always been among the best in the country on defense, and having that core return for another season should all but guarantee that this is the case again in 2025-26.
15. Kansas Jayhawks
2024-25 Record: 21-13
2024-25 Finish: First Round
Perhaps starting the year off in the middle of a top 25 will be good for Bill Self, who has fielded two his worst teams in back-to-back seasons after starting each of those years ranked No. 1 in the preseason AP top 25 poll.
Big man Flory Bidunga returning to Lawrence was huge. He should create one of the top inside-outside combos in the sport with five-star freshman Darryn Peterson. Self is still active in the portal, which means the Jayhawks could still make the couple of additions necessary to move closer to the top 10 on this list.
16. Florida Gators
2024-25 Record: 36-4
2024-25 Finish: National Champions
The reigning national champions lost virtually everyone from their championship squad, but still have the pieces necessary to not fall too far a year later. Big man Alex Condon is still mulling over a jump to the NBA, but even if that happens, fellow forward Thomas Haugh is poised for a star turn. Princeton transfer point guard Xaivian Lee has been the biggest addition so far for head coach Todd Golden, who is still in on several of the top-rated players currently available in the transfer portal.
17. Tennessee Volunteers
2024-25 Record: 30-8
2024-25 Finish: Elite Eight
Still in search of that ever-elusive first trip to the Final Four, Tennessee should have a shot to be back in that conversation again next season thanks in large part to the additions of Maryland transfer Ja’Kobi Gillespie and incoming five-star freshman Nate Ament.
18. Arizona Wildcats
2024-25 Record: 24-13
2024-25 Finish: Sweet 16
Key contributors Jaden Bradley, Tobe Awaka, Motiejus Krivas and Anthony Dell’Orso all return from a second weekend team. Tommy Lloyd will likely rely heavily on a pair of five-star freshmen (Brayden Burries and Koa Peat) to take the Wildcats even farther next March.
19. Arkansas Razorbacks
2024-25 Record: 22-14
2024-25 Finish: Sweet 16
DJ Wagner, Karter Knox, Trevon Brazile and Billy Richmond III all return from an Arkansas team that got hot late and became the only double-digit seed to crash the Sweet 16. The additions of Florida State transfer Malique Ewin, South Carolina transfer Nick Pringle and five-star freshmen Darius Acuff Jr. will once again give John Calipari plenty of weapons at his disposal.
20. Oregon Ducks
2024-25 Record: 25-10
2024-25 Finish: Second Round
Nate Bittle, Jackson Shelstad, Kwame Evans Jr. and Jamari Phillips all return from a solid 2024-25 squad. If Dana Altman can land at least one more big piece from the portal, this should be a team with second weekend potential.
21. Vanderbilt Commodores
2024-25 Record: 20-13
2024-25 Finish: First Round
Mark Byington is one of the most exciting young coaches in college basketball, and he’s going to prove it again this season. The Commodores don’t have headline stars in their transfer portal, but it’s still loaded with value.
22. North Carolina Tar Heels
2024-25 Record: 23-14
2024-25 Finish: First Round
It certainly feels like a make or break season for Hubert Davis in Chapel Hill. The good news is that he has the players needed to restore the fan base’s faith in his ability to consistently position UNC as a national title threat. Seth Trimble returning is huge, as are the additions of Kyan Evans from Colorado State, Henri Veesar from Arizona, and five-star freshman Caleb Wilson.
23. Alabama Crimson Tide
2024-25 Record: 28-9
2024-25 Finish: Elite Eight
Nate Oats has once again been busy in the portal, landing Jalil Bethea (Miami), Taylor Bol Bowen (Florida State) and Patriot League Player of the Year Noah Williamson (Bucknell), among others. Don’t be surprised if another splashy name or two joins the fray in Tuscaloosa before all is said and done.
24. Illinois Fighting Illini
2024-25 Record: 22-13
2024-25 Finish: Second Round
No one is recruiting Europe right now like Brad Underwood, who just signed Mihailo Petrovic, one of the top professional point guards in Serbia. He also returns Tomislav Ivisic and added his brother, Zvonimir, from Arkansas, creating an exciting roster that will terrify play-by-play announcers all winter long.
25. Gonzaga Bulldogs
2024-25 Record: 26-9
2024-25 Finish: Second Round
Graham Ike and Braden Huff returning are reason enough to believe that Mark Few won’t let the Zags slip from being top 25 good in 2025-26. There are plenty of questions about the backcourt as it currently stands, but Few almost always figures these sort of things out.
The Next 10:
26. Creighton Bluejays27. Ole Miss Rebels28. Texas Longhorns29. Ohio State Buckeyes30. Wisconsin Badgers31. Miami Hurricanes32. Maryland Terrapins33. USC Trojans34. Mississippi State Bulldogs35. UNC Wilmington Seahawks […]

Note: These rankings do not currently include players who exhausted their collegiate eligibility, but have entered the transfer portal with the hope that the NCAA will tweak its current eligibility rules.
1. RJ Luis, SR, G (St. John’s)
The reigning Big East Player of the Year and a Second Team AP All-American, Luis is one of a handful of players who is in the transfer portal while also going through the NBA Draft process. Don’t let his poor performance in St. John’s second round loss to Arkansas or the drama surrounding him being benched for the last four minutes of said loss distract you from the fact that this is the best available player in the transfer portal.
At 6’7, Luis is a three-level scorer and a high energy defender. His decision making can be iffy and his three-point shot is streaky, but he’s still a player who instantly makes whichever team lands him (if a team lands him) much more of a threat to make a deep run next March than they were before his addition.
2. Darrion Williams, SR, F (Texas Tech)
Like Luis, Williams has until May 28 to decide whether or not he wants to stay in the NBA Draft. If he chooses to return to school, Williams figures to demand one of the highest price tags of the college basketball offseason.
The 6’6 forward averaged 15.5 points and 5.5 rebounds per game last season for Texas Tech, second most on the team in both categories behind All-American J.T. Toppin (who has already announced a return to Lubbock). Williams was a breakout star in the NCAA Tournament, where he averaged 23.7 points, 6.7 rebounds, and 3.0 assists in three games.
Williams is a true two-way standout who will be one of the most difficult players in the country to defend next season, regardless of where he ends up.
3. Jamir Watkins, SR, G/F (Florida State)
Watkins is testing the NBA Draft waters for a second straight spring after a 2024-25 season where he evolved into one of the most dynamic offensive players in the ACC. The versatile 6’7 wing averaged 18.3 points and 5.2 rebounds per game while shooting 43 percent from the floor for Leonard Hamilton’s final FSU squad. There might not be a better player in college basketball when it comes to getting to the free-throw line.
After transferring in from VCU, Watkins led Florida State in scoring in each of the past two seasons. The All-ACC Second Team selection entered the portal with a “do not contact” tag.
4. Cedric Coward, SR, F (Washington State)
Injuries limited Coward’s 2024-25 season to just six games, but he’s still one of the most coveted players in the portal because of the numbers he put up in those six games as well as the work he did the prior two seasons at Eastern Washington. An elite outside shooter, the 6’6 Coward is currently going through the pre-NBA Draft process, but is expected by most to return school.
The biggest giveaway that he’e returning to school? Coward recently announced that Alabama, Duke, Florida, Kansas, and Washington are the five finalists for his services.
5. Ian Jackson, SO, G (North Carolina)
A former five-star recruit from the Bronx, Jackson earned All-ACC Freshman honors in 2024-25 after averaging 11.9 points, the second most on the team. Jackson is an explosive athlete who is particularly lethal in transition, but he struggled at times with consistency in his first collegiate campaign. St. John’s and NC State are considered by many to be the two schools at the forefront of Jackson’s recruitment, though USC and others have also been involved.
6. Rodney Rice, JR, G (Maryland)
While he was at times overshadowed by backcourt mate Ja’Kobi Gillespie, Rice was still one of the biggest reasons why Maryland is fresh off its first run to the Sweet 16 in nearly a decade. The Clinton (MD) product averaged 13.8 points, 2.2 rebounds and 2.1 assists per game as a sophomore last season. He got better as the year went on, and ascension highlighted by a 7-for-9 three-point performance in a Big Ten Tournament win over Illinois.
7. Xzayvier Brown, JR, G (Saint Joseph’s)
Brown led St. Joe’s in scoring this past season at 17.6 points, while also adding 5.2 rebounds and 4.3 assists per game. He entered the transfer portal this week with a “do not contact” tag, leading more than a few people to believe that he’ll be following his stepfather and former St. Joe’s associate head coach Justin Scott to Oklahoma. Scott was hired as an assistant on Porter Moser’s staff on Monday.
8. Malik Thomas, SR, G (San Francisco)
The West Coast Conference’s reigning scoring champ, Thomas is in the portal after a dynamite 2024-25 campaign that saw him average 19.9 points while shooting 44.4 percent from the field and 39.4 percent from beyond the arc. Thomas is a terrific scorer off the bounce and has an overall game which should translate to immediate success at the power conference level.
9. Derrion Reid, SO, F (Alabama)
A former 5-star recruit, Reid’s freshman season in Tuscaloosa was largely hampered by a recurring ankle injury. He averaged 6.0 points and 3.8 rebounds per contest, but was sidelined for 13 of the Tide’s 37 games. Reid is a better shooter than he showed last season, and will be an effective downhill offensive player and overall defensive stud wherever he lands.
10. Xaivian Lee, SR, G (Princeton)
Without doubt one of the most talked about players in the portal, Lee averaged 16.9 points, 6.1 rebounds, 5.5 assists, and 1.2 steals per game last season for Princeton. The 6’4 native of Canada shot 43.9 percent from the floor and 36.6 percent from three. Kansas, Florida and St. John’s are among the schools most involved with the two-time First Team All-Ivy League selection.
11. Alvaro Folgueiras, JR, F (Robert Morris)
The 2024-25 Horizon League Player of the Year, Folgueiras averaged 14.1 points, 9.1 rebounds and 3.2 assists per game last season while shooting 41.3 percent from three. The 6’9 native of Spain appears to be coming into his own after seeing marked increases across the board in his production from year one to year two at Robert Morris, and still has two seasons of eligibility remaining.
After moving on from Kentucky, Villanova, Iowa and Providence are the schools currently most tied to Folgueiras.
12. Blake Harper, SO, F (Howard)
The 6’9 Harper was the most productive freshman in mid-major basketball this past season, averaging 19.5 points and 6.2 rebounds per game. The lefty is a fearless driver with a very smooth outside shot. He’ll likely take some lumps moving from the MEAC to power conference basketball, but he has the potential to be a big time contributor over multiple seasons at the sport’s highest level.
13. Tayton Conerway, SR, G (Troy)
One of the best defensive guards in all of college basketball last season, Conerway led the Sun Belt in steals per game (3.0) and ranked third in assists (5.1 per game) while also averaging a team-best 13.7 points and 4.3 rebounds (tied for second on the team) for league champion Troy. He became the first Trojan to be named Sun Belt Player of the Year, and was the first conference player of the year period for Troy since 2004, when the program was a member of the Atlantic Sun.
14. Mackenzie Mgbako, JR, F (Indiana)
The highest-rated signing of the Mike Woodson era, Mgbako is in the transfer portal after two good, but perhaps not great seasons in Bloomington. The former 5-star recruit earned Big Ten Freshman of the Year honors in 2023-24, and then put up nearly identical stats (12.2 points in both seasons) as a sophomore on an Indiana team that narrowly missed the NCAA Tournament last season. At 6’9, Mgbako combines size, solid shooting ability and offensive versatility to make him an enviable option for any head coach who hopes to space the floor in the halfcourt.
15. Rylan Griffen, SR, G (Kansas)
Things didn’t work out for Griffen in Lawrence, but don’t be surprised if he bounces back in a big way somewhere else in 2025-26. He’s a 6’6 highly capable outside shooter who should thrive if he can find his way back to a pace and space system with adequate talent around him.
16. Dillon Mitchell, SR, F (Cincinnati)
Perhaps the best defensive player in the portal, Mitchell is a 6’8 forward with a ridiculous combination of strength and athleticism. That combination also allows him to be a terrific finisher around the rim, which keeps him a threat on offense despite not possessing a reliable jump shot. His numbers at Cincinnati this past season (9.9 points/6.9 rebounds) were very similar to the ones he posted in the second of his two seasons at Texas.
17. Jacob Ognacevic, SR, F (Lipscomb)
The Atlantic Sun Player of the Year, Ognacevic is coming off a season where he averaged 20.0 points and 8.1 rebounds per game while leading Lipscomb to the NCAA Tournament. He shot 40.2 percent from three last season, while converting on nearly 73 percent of his shots at the rim. Ognacevic held his own in games against Arkansas, Kentucky and Iowa State last season, scoring 16 or more in all three contests.
18. Tyon Grant-Foster, SR, G (Grand Canyon)
The 6’7 guard is searching for his fourth and final college home after stints at Kansas, DePaul, and a pair of seasons at Grand Canyon. After averaging 20.1 points and being named WAC Player of the Year in 2023-24, Grant-Foster was hampered by injuries throughout last season. He is a tough shot taker and tough shot maker, which could scare off coaches who prioritize efficiency numbers. Still, there are few players currently available in the portal with a lengthier track record of being able to consistently put the ball in the basket.
19. Kennard Davis Jr., JR, F (Southern Illinois)
A versatile 6’6 wing, Davis is coming off a breakout sophomore season that saw him average 16.3 points, 4.9 rebounds and 2.6 assists per game for Southern Illinois. A three-level scorer who can create his own shot in a variety of different ways, Ohio State, Miami, DePaul and Ole Miss are among the schools most hotly in pursuit of Davis.
20. Duke Miles, SR, G (Oklahoma)
After initially committing to Virginia in early April, Miles is back on the market. The well-traveled point guard started all 34 games for Oklahoma last season, averaging 9.4 points, 2.5 rebounds, 2.0 assists and 1.4 steals per game.
21. Terrance Arceneaux, JR, G (Houston)
At 6’6, 205-pounds, Arcenaux is capable of playing either forward position on offense and guarding up to four positions on defense. He is a solid scorer at all three levels who should benefit from being further removed from an ACL tear recovery that seemed to affect the early part of his sophomore season.
22. Barrington Hargress, JR, G (UC Riverside)
One of the West Coast’s most dynamic pure scorers, “B-Sheisty” led the Big West in scoring last season at 20.2 points. He dropped 40 in Riverside’s upset of league champion UC San Diego and also scored 31 and hit a halfcourt overtime-forcer in a victory over a Colorado State team that would go on to win a game in the NCAA Tournament.
Hargress recently visited Colorado, and has future visits planned to Seton Hall and Georgia Tech.
23. Dylan Darling, JR, G (Idaho State)
After hardly seeing the court over two seasons at Washington State, Darling earned Big Sky Player of the Year honors last season in his first year at Idaho State. The 6’1 guard averaged 19.8 points, 5.7 rebounds and 1.7 steals for the Bengals in 2024-25. Defense and size are question marks for Darling, who has two seasons of eligibility after getting a medical redshirt for his second season at Wazzu. Still, his outside shot and pure scoring ability should allow him to carve a nice at any of the major programs pursuing him.
24. Nick Dorn, JR, G (Elon)
The 6’7 Dorn turned heads with strong performances against both North Carolina and Notre Dame in the non-conference portion of the season. He shot over 35 percent from three in both of his seasons at Elon, despite always being one of the primary focuses of the other team’s defensive scouting report.
25. Josh Ojianwuna, SR, C (Baylor)
Big men are at a premium in the portal, which is why the 6’10 Ojianwuna, who entered the portal on Tuesday, figures to be in such high demand. The native of Nigeria played in 87 games for Baylor over three seasons, and is a career 70.7 percent shooter from the field. Ojianwuna was averaging 7.4 points and 6.4 rebounds per game before suffering a season-ending knee injury on Feb. 8. […]

Of the 10-15 programs that had the greatest impact on men’s college basketball over the past couple of decades, perhaps none entered the post-COVID world with a more uncertain long-term future than Florida.
In between 2014 and the season that wrapped up Monday night in San Antonio, Florida participated in a total of just five NCAA Tournaments. It was never seeded better than fourth, and it made the tournament’s second weekend just one time.
There was a general belief that UF was a program that had experienced a few nice moments over the years, caught lightning in a bottle for a brief stretch in the mid-2000s, and now was poised to live out the remainder of its basketball existence as a notable also-ran.
Such an existence would not have been atypical for Florida.
On a football-crazy campus, Gator basketball was always fighting an uphill battle when it came to trying to capture the complete attention of its fan base before late December. Before Billy Donovan arrived in Gainesville in 1996, the sport wasn’t even a post-holiday hobby.
Despite playing in a power conference since the inception of the SEC in 1932, Florida had played in just five NCAA Tournaments in its history. It had advanced past the opening weekend just twice before Donovan was hired.
The hiring of Donovan, who was just 31-years-old and (despite his slicked back hair) looked like he could have passed for 21, didn’t make much of an impact in the college basketball world initially. Donovan was a name, sure, but that was more from his playing days at Providence and his tight-knit relationship with his college coach, Rick Pitino. After spending five seasons as an assistant at Kentucky under Pitino, Donovan was hired as the head coach at Marshall where he went 35-20 over two seasons and never flirted with an NCAA Tournament appearance.
Despite the lack of anything resembling an initial splash, the hiring of Donovan ushered in an era of success in Gainesville that no one saw coming.
Under the direction of “Billy the Kid,” Florida made 14 trips to the Big Dance, won six SEC championships, advanced to the Final Four four times, and until 12 months ago, was the most recent program to win back-to-back national championships (2006-07).
As it tends to do, all that success came hand-in-hand with rumors of bigger and better things for the man responsible. Openings at programs like Kentucky and UCLA and a brief commitment by Donovan to become the new head coach of the Orlando Magic forced Florida fans to come face-to-face with the question of what their national powerhouse of a basketball program would look like without the man receiving the lion’s share of the credit for its rapid ascension.
They got to face that world head on when Donovan was finally lured away by the Oklahoma City Thunder in 2015. The departure came after a woeful 16-17 campaign, Donovan’s first losing season as a head coach since his second year in Gainesville.
Florida handed the keys to its car to Mike White. Like Donovan before him, White had been a head coach at just one stop prior to UF (Louisiana Tech), and had never coached a game in the NCAA Tournament. That was just about where the similarities ended.
The program didn’t fall off a cliff in the years immediately following Donovan’s departure, but it didn’t soar either. White took Florida to the NCAA Tournament in four straight years from 2017-2021, winning at least one game in the Big Dance each time. But there was just one trip past the second round, the team was never a serious contender for an SEC championship, and the Gators were just 10-15 in the month of March between 2017 and 2022. That’s when White pulled a “you can’t fire me, I quit” and bolted for Georgia.
Florida athletic director Scott Stricklin quickly turned his attention to Todd Golden, a head coach with a familiar profile.
Golden was 36, looked significantly younger, and had a forward-thinking approach to the game at basketball. At San Francisco, Golden had preached “Nerd Ball,” a term coined by previous USF head coach Kyle Smith, whom Golden worked under for three seasons. Emphasizing analytics and internal “hustle stats” specific to the program, Golden won 57 games in three seasons with the Dons, leading them to the NCAA Tournament as an at-large selection in 2022.
Questions from Gator fans about whether or not the approach could work at the power conference level were not initially met with a comforting answer. Florida went 16-17 in year one, losing in the first round of the NIT. They made the NCAA Tournament as a 7-seed a year later, losing to Colorado in the first round.
The 2024-25 season was supposed to be another small step forward for Golden and company. The Gators were No. 21 in the preseason AP top 25 poll, and picked to finish sixth in the SEC.
In an era of unprecedented roster turnover, Golden banked on roster retention being the key to a season of overachievement. He had been able to convince the five-player nucleus of his 2023-24 team, including All-American Walter Clayton Jr., to return to Gainesville for at least one more season.
“For us going from years two to three, one of the advantages that we thought we had going into the off-season was that we had some good young guys in our program,” Golden said at SEC Media Day last October. “But it all starts with the retention, and it all starts with that continuity, and any team that’s able to build continuity within their program I think is going to be a better chance of being successful.”
Golden added that if his team could advance in the NCAA Tournament and finish the season ranked higher than its preseason ranking of 21, it would be a nice way to show the fans that the program is back on the right track.
The program isn’t just back on the right track, it’s in position to be stronger than it’s ever been before.
Before this year, Florida’s most recent Final Four appearance had come back in 2014, the penultimate season of the Donovan era. When the No. 1 overall seed Gators were stunned by eventual national champion Connecticut in the semifinals, Golden was serving as the director of basketball operations — a staff position, but a non-coaching staff position — at Auburn. He was 28-years-old.
On Monday night, Golden became the youngest head coach to win a national championship since 37-year-old Jim Valvano and NC State shocked the world by stunning Houston at the buzzer. He put the ultimate bow on a season where Florida won 36 games, dominated the SEC tournament in the league’s strongest year ever, and then went on an unforgettable three-week run where it had to come from behind to win four of its six NCAA Tournament games.
It’s not an overstatement to say that the season, and the run, have changed everything about the profile and the reputation of Florida men’s basketball.

Photo by Brett Wilhelm/NCAA Photos via Getty Images

Forget about the “football school” connotation or the lack of any major history before the mid-1990s, the Gators are now one of the 10 college basketball programs with three or more national titles. Furthermore, Florida and UConn are the only two programs in the sport with three or more national championships over the last 20 years. And if you want to bring gridiron talk into the mix, UF is also the only school in Division-I with at least three football and three men’s basketball championships.
Golden’s most recent victory may be the one that should provide the most comfort to Gator fans already looking to the future, and not just because it secured the statuses mentioned above.
Everyone already knew Golden was an offensive wunderkind. Florida finished last season 12th in the country in adjusted offensive efficiency and scored at least 90 points in a game 12 times this season. But in the most important game of his young career, Golden found a way to win by beating a fellow heavyweight at their own game.
No team loves dragging its opponents into the mud more than Houston. Kelvin Sampson’s Cougars have become the embodiment of culture and consistency at the college level. No future NBA stars, no five-star freshmen, not as much roster turnover as the average power conference program; Just a connected group of absolute dogs that have to be killed if they’re going to lose a fight.
On a night where its star was held mostly in check and the team shot just 6-of-24 and committed 13 turnovers, Florida still found a way. And it found a way against the one team that wins this type of game 98 times out of 100.

After seeming to be playing from 7-10 points behind for virtually the entire game, Florida strung together nine consecutive defensive stops at one point in the second half. After Houston answered UF’s haymakers with three consecutive makes to seemingly regain control, the Gators finished the game with five consecutive stops. None was more memorable or impressive than the last one.

Florida led the game for a grand total of 60 seconds. Their largest lead was the same as their final margin of victory: 2 points. They became just the second team in history to win a national championship game where they never held a two possession lead.
“This was an incredibly difficult team to come back against,” Golden said afterward. “A great team, a great program, a Hall of Fame coach. But our guys are resilient. We started getting some stops. I think we got nine in a row. We flipped the script of the game.”
Flipped the script of the game. Flipped the script of the program.
There’s no debate about it anymore: Florida has a seat at the table of the college basketball elite. So long as Golden stays in Gainesville, there doesn’t seem to be any reason why the Gators can’t inch closer to the head of that table in the years to come. […]

One of the most anticipated Final Fours in some time will top-off Saturday night in San Antonio with an SEC battle between Florida and Auburn followed up by the nightcap between Duke and Houston.
Before the action gets going inside the Alamodome, here are 10 things you need to know about this year’s semifinals and the four teams left standing.
1. For just the second time in Final Four history, the quartet of teams remaining are all No. 1 seeds.
The only other time in tournament history that all four No. 1 seeds have survived regional play was back in 2008. In that season, No. 1 overall seed Kansas hammered North Carolina in the semifinals before toppling Memphis in overtime in one of the most memorable national title games in tournament history.
Perhaps a good omen for this year’s No. 1 overall seed, Auburn.
2. Duke’s overall Net Efficiency Rating in Ken Pomeroy’s model (the Bible of college basketball) is 39.63. That’s the second-best rating of any team since the inception of KenPom, which goes back to the 1996-97 season.
The only team with a better overall ranking? The 1998-99 Blue Devils. That team was stunned by UConn in the national championship game.
3. This year’s Final Four will feature three of the five Associated Press First Team All-Americans.
National Player of the Year front-runners Cooper Flagg (Duke) and Johni Broome (Auburn) were both consensus first teamers, while Florida’s Walter Clayton Jr. — perhaps the most exciting player of the NCAA tournament thus far — was the third leading vote getter.
There hasn’t been a Final Four in some time with this level of star power.
4. The SEC was 30-4 against the ACC this season, a number which became notable again if Duke is able to topple Houston and advance to face the winner of Auburn-Florida.
Equally notable: One of those four ACC victories was Duke toppling Auburn back on Dec. 4.
5. Houston is the best defensive team in the country, and they’re especially dominant in the game’s opening half.
The Cougars allow an average of under 26 points a game in the first half, and held Tennessee to just 15 in their Elite Eight victory. If Duke is scoring at its typical rate after 20 minutes, it’ll likely be a good sign that the Blue Devils will be playing on Monday night.
6. Saturday’s game will mark the first Final Four contest between the nation’s best offensive team (Duke) and the nation’s best defensive team (Houston) since Wisconsin spoiled Kentucky’s perfect season 10 years ago. In that game, it was the more offensive-minded squad that prevailed.
7. Houston has lost a grand total of one game in regulation this season.
The team that pulled off the feat? Auburn, which toppled the Cougars, 74-69, on the first Saturday of the season back on Nov. 9.
Houston would go on to lose overtime games against Alabama, San Diego State and Texas Tech before starting its current 17-game winning streak, the longest in the country.
8. This season, Florida became just the fifth team in college basketball history to beat two different AP No. 1 teams in the same season (Tennessee and Auburn).
The Gators can become the first to defeat three if they knock off Duke for the national title on Monday night.
9. Houston has been a member of the Big 12 for just two years, and the Cougars already have three conference championships (two regular season, one tournament). The Cougars are the first Division-I team since 1922 to join a major conference and win its first two regular season titles.
10. Two of the last five national champions have been programs that had previously never cut down the nets before (Baylor in 2021 and Virginia in 2019).
That number could go to three if Auburn or Houston win two more games. Auburn is playing in just its second Final Four, while Houston is in its seventh Final Four and has twice previously lost in the national championship game.
Duke is search for its sixth national championship, while Florida is two wins away from its third. […]

In the last four years, college basketball has seen six national championship-winning head coaches announce their retirement from the sport.
The number of active head coaches with at least one national championship on their resume? Six.
The slew of recent retirements has left college basketball — a sport where the head coaches are typically the defining stars — without a defined set of names to lead the game into the first stage of its next era.
Bill Self is still trucking along at Kansas. Same for Tom Izzo at Michigan State. Rick Pitino is doing Rick Pitino things at St. John’s. Dan Hurley has evolved to become not just a two-time national champion, but the sport’s most oft-discussed figure.
But there’s room at the top now that wasn’t there five years ago, and whichever coach goes 2-0 in San Antonio over the coming days will have both a national title to their name and access to the sport’s top-tier of notoriety.
If the coach who gets the job done is Auburn’s Bruce Pearl, that ascension to college basketball’s apex will have felt like a long time coming.
For multiple decades now, Pearl has been one of the sport’s most notable supporting characters. He’s bubbly, he’s energetic, he’s a great interview, he’s controversial, and he wins.
The explanation for why Pearl, now 65-years-old, has never been able to make the leap from bit player to main cast is complicated and requires some backstory.
First, there was a highly-publicized and controversial incident during Pearl’s time as an assistant coach at Iowa in the late ‘80s (Google “Deon Thomas incident” for the full story) that torpedoed any chance he had of becoming a Division-I head coach early in his career. Instead, he spent a highly successful decade at Division-II Southern Indiana, where he won four Great Lakes Valley Conference regular-season titles and led the Screamin’ Eagles to the 1995 Division II national championship.
Pearl finally got his shot in the big leagues when he was hired by Wisconsin-Milwaukee in 2001. After four seasons that featured two trips to the NCAA tournament and a Cinderella run to the Sweet 16 in 2005, Pearl was offered the head coaching job at Tennessee.
In Knoxville, Pearl’s national profile skyrocketed almost immediately. His postgame interviews were regularly highlighted on ESPN’s SportsCenter, and his move to show up to a Tennessee women’s game with a Power V painted on his bare chest further endeared him to the sporting public.
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In 2007-08, he led the Vols to the SEC regular-season title and the program’s first ever No. 1 ranking in an AP top 25 poll. They would finish that season in the Sweet 16, a feat they would repeat a year later. In 2010, Pearl guided the Volunteers to the program’s first ever regional final appearance.
Everything at that moment in time pointed towards Pearl’s name eventually being mentioned in the same breath as Coach K, Bill Self, Rick Pitino and John Calipari.
And then things came to a screeching halt.
Following the 2009-10 season, multiple reports surfaced alleging that Pearl had invited a handful of top junior recruits to his Knoxville home during the fall of 2008. Pearl vehemently denied these reports. When a picture surfaced of junior recruit Aaron Craft attending a barbecue at Pearl’s home, that denial became impossible to believe. Even so, Pearl initially told NCAA investigators that Craft had never been to his home, this despite being presented with the photographic evidence to the contrary. He subsequently requested a second interview with the NCAA in August, 2010 where he admitted wrongdoing.
Pearl held a tearful press conference that September where he admitted publicly for the first time that he had committed NCAA violations and then lied to the NCAA about those violations. Tennessee responded by docking $1.5 million from Pearl’s salary and taking him and his assistant coaches off the road in recruiting in staggered amounts.
UT didn’t make those punishments effective immediately, however, which would turn out to be a crucial error in judgment.
Four days after the press conference, Pearl and assistant coach Tony James committed a secondary violation when they “bumped “ into recruit Jordan Adams. Adams initially told the NCAA that he and Pearl had a three-minute conversation where Pearl told him about what was going on with the NCAA, downplayed it, and then pointed to his Elite Eight ring and told Adams that he “can get one of these.” Pearl ultimately described the conversation differently, but his major error came in once again not self-reporting the violation immediately.
Then-SEC commissioner Mike Slive suspended Pearl for the first eight conference games of the 2010-11 season. Following the report of another minor violation in early March 2011, Tennessee fired Pearl on March 22. He had coached the entirety of the 2010-11 season without a contract.
On Aug. 25, 2011, the NCAA hit Pearl with a three-year show-cause penalty. Former Tennessee assistants Tony Jones, Steve Forbes, and Jason Shay all received one-year show-cause penalties. In its punishment, the NCAA made it a point to note that it was Pearl’s dishonesty which turned what would have been a minor violation into a major one.
After spending a couple of years maintaining his national profile by taking a job as an ESPN analyst, Pearl was thrown a lifeline by another SEC program in desperate need of a jolt of life.
Four months before the end of his three-year show-cause penalty, Auburn signed Pearl to a six-year deal worth $14.7 million. In doing so, Pearl became the first coach in college basketball history to be hired by another school while saddled with an active show-cause penalty. When the show-cause penalty officially ended at midnight on Aug. 24, 2014, Pearl celebrated by dancing and posing for pictures with about 50 fans outside Auburn Arena.
Despite the program being tied up in the FBI’s investigation into college basketball in late 2017, Auburn made the then-highly controversial decision to stand by their man (the NCAA would ultimately ban the program from postseason play in 2021). Pearl rewarded the loyalty by taking the Tigers to the program’s first NCAA Tournament in 15 years in 2018, and then guiding them to their first ever Final Four a year later.
Pearl’s rocky rise to the top of the sport came just about as close to happening as possible. It took a missed double-dribble call, a controversial last second foul call, and three made free-throws with 0.6 seconds left to keep Auburn from upsetting top-seeded Virginia and playing Texas Tech for the national championship two nights later.
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Post-COVID Pearl retained his status as one of college basketball’s most recognizable second-tier coaches.
After serving out their NCAA-mandated punishment in 2020-21 (including a two-game suspension for Pearl), Auburn returned to the NCAA Tournament as a single-digit seed in 2022, 2023 and 2024. The Tigers failed to make it to the tournament’s second weekend in all three years, twice being upset by double-digit seeded mid-majors.
This season has seen Pearl knock harder on the gates to coaching superstardom than any other.
Winners of 21 of their first 22 games, the 2024-25 Auburn Tigers have spent more time at the top of the AP top 25 poll than any other team this season. Pearl’s brash group of seasoned veterans overcame some early season infamy after a pilot was forced to turn the team plane around because of a mid-flight brawl, and ultimately became the first team in program history to be named the NCAA Tournament’s overall No. 1 seed.
While Pearl has a few years of distance between himself and his most recent spat with the NCAA, he’s generated off-the-court headlines in other ways.
Before last November’s presidential election, Pearl tweeted about his fear of Democratic nominee Kamala Harris’ “socialist, woke progressive beliefs.” A devout member of the Jewish faith, Pearl has also been outspoken throughout the season about the war in Gaza. He showed up to Friday’s Final Four press conference wearing a dog tag, and explained that he does so as a reminder of the Israeli hostages in Gaza.
“If the hostages are released, the death and the dying will stop,” Pearl said.
Pearl has also consistently voiced his support for President Donald Trump throughout the season, and offered up headline-grabbing thoughts on Russian President Vladimir Putin and the war in Ukraine.
Predictably, the comments have been received differently by the public. The only certainty about them is that making them in concert with Auburn’s “dream season” have only made Pearl even more visible than he already was.
On Friday, Pearl was named the co-National Coach of the Year by the Associated Press, an award he’ll share with Hall of Famer Rick Pitino. It’s the first time an Auburn head coach has received such an award, and the first time Pearl has been acknowledged in this manner by the AP.
In a career with an unrivaled amount of twists and turns, there’s only one bar remaining for Pearl to clear.
Two wins in San Antonio will vault one of college basketball’s most controversial figures to the status he’s long seemed destined for. […]

The easy way to frame the coaching situation at this year’s Final Four is the new guard versus the old guard.
Florida head coach Todd Golden is 39-years-old. Duke head coach Jon Scheyer is 37. Both will be coaching in a national semifinal for the first time in their young careers.
Auburn’s Bruce Pearl is 65-years-old. When Scheyer was born, Pearl was in his second year as an assistant coach at Iowa, that stint coming after a four-year run as an assistant at Stanford. This is the 14th Division-I NCAA Tournament that he’s coached in, and the second time that he’s made the Final Four.
Houston’s Kelvin Sampson is 69. His first season in coaching started eight years before Scheyer was born. Sampson’s 30 NCAA Tournament wins are the sixth-most of any active Division-I head coach. Saturday he’ll be walking the sidelines at the Final Four for the third time in his career.
The dichotomy is pretty straightforward. However, given the unprecedented sweeping changes in college basketball over the last three years, it’s also not difficult to argue that all coaches thriving in today’s climate are more alike than they are different.
The NIL/transfer portal/whatever else takeover has resulted in a multitude of the biggest names in the sport to decide that this isn’t for them anymore.
Names that have headlined the sport for decades — Mike Krzyzewski, Roy Williams, Jim Boeheim, Jay Wright, Tony Bennett, Jim Larranaga, Leonard Hamilton — have all decided in recent years that it’s time for them to get out of the game.
With so many Hall of Famers and national championship winners now serving as commentators or social media experts, it feels like any coach at the forefront of college basketball’s brave new world is part of a “new guard” or “next wave.”
There might be three decades between Scheyer/Golden and Pearl/Sampson, but each member of the quartet seems poised to play a major role for years to come in this era of college hoops where everyone is trying to build the plane while it’s already flying.
While arguments abound about the “right way” to build a roster in the NIL era, the ironic thing is that all four of the teams in San Antonio have gotten there in very different ways. And yet, they’ve been almost equally dominant this season.
Duke and Scheyer are “old fashioned” — at least if you’re willing to consider 2007-2020 “old.” The Blue Devils start three freshmen, including the potential national Player of the Year, who are widely projected to be lottery picks in the 2025 NBA Draft. Those three are surrounded by a combination of players who have been in the program for multiple seasons, additions from the transfer portal, and other freshmen who aren’t expected to make an immediate jump to the league.
“I’ve learned a lot in three years,” Scheyer said on Thursday. “I think year one, we kind of felt like we could just keep this thing going like it had been going and recruit a lot of freshmen, retain. But the reality is the college basketball landscape just blew up at the same time where that became harder to do. But for us, I think it’s foolish to say you have one way of recruiting and always doing that. I think there needs to be some agility, also understanding we’re relying heavily on freshmen players. They better be ready to go right away.
“For this year we felt very confident that this class we had coming in could impact winning right away. Next year I feel we have a group that can do the same. I think it’s going to vary year to year. I think it’s based on the freshman class and the readiness, who we can have returning. Last year was less. Next year may be a little bit more. Then you supplement in the portal based on readiness and the things I just talked about.”
Pearl and Auburn have taken the polar opposite route. The Tigers subscribe to the age old belief that grown men are typically way better at basketball than 18-year-old kids. The average age of Auburn’s starting five — which includes a 25-year-old and a 24-year-old — is over 23-years-old. That’s less than a year younger than the average age of the Oklahoma City Thunder’s starting five.
Like Duke, Auburn has a front-runner for national Player of the Year. While Cooper Flagg had to reclassify to avoid being a high school player right now, Johni Broome is wrapping up his fifth-season as a high-production college basketball center. He dominated the Ohio Valley for two seasons at Morehead State (the first of those coming while Flagg was in 8th grade), before spending the last three years with Pearl at Auburn.
Sampson and Houston have carved their own unique path forward as well. The Cougars returned four starters from last year’s team and are the only team in the Final Four that start multiple non-freshmen who began their college careers at the school they currently represent.
“I think the reason why we have been so good over the years is we’ve developed a great culture that our seniors adopt and make sure that our young kids and new kids buy into it,” Sampson said following Houston’s Elite Eight win over Tennessee. “We’re kind of a home-grown program. We bring kids in as freshmen. It’s been a secret sauce of ours and we have had two kids the last two years in the portal, L.J. who came from Baylor and Milos who came from Oklahoma, but their character and willingness to be coached the way we do it and their maturity, I think, has really helped.”
Golden has taken sort of a hybrid of all three approaches with his Florida team. Yes, they’re transfer heavy, but two of the most important imports — leading scorer Walter Clayton Jr. and third-leading scorer Will Richard — have both played multiple seasons in Gainesville (Clayton two, Richard three). The team’s best frontcourt players, Alex Condon and Thomas Haugh, are both players who Golden recruited to Florida and who stepped into larger roles in their sophomore seasons. Golden also has four freshmen on his roster who he hopes make similar leaps in the years ahead.
There is no playbook for surviving a period of revolutionary change, but the ones that find a way, typically keep finding a way.
Four dominant teams. Four tremendous coaches. Four vastly different methods to arrive at the same destination. This is the new guard. […]

There has been no college basketball season in recent memory where it felt like the gap between the sport’s four or five best teams and the rest of the country was as wide as the one we’ve seen over the past five months.
With that being the case, it seems beyond fitting that the 2024-25 campaign will end with all four No. 1 seeds heading to the Final Four for just the second time in NCAA tournament history.
It always felt like it was going to be one of these four, but which member of the quartet will be the final one standing? Let’s make the case for each one.
Duke
The case for the Blue Devils is pretty much as straightforward as an argument can be.
They have the most talented roster of the four teams remaining, they have the most talented overall player in the sport, and the numbers say they aren’t just the best team in the country, they say they’re one of the best teams in the history of college basketball.
Oh, and they seem to be playing better right now than they have at any other point in the season.
Duke’s overall Net Efficiency Rating in Ken Pomeroy’s model (the Bible of college basketball) is 39.63. That’s the second-best rating of any team since the inception of KenPom, which goes back to the 1996-97 season. The only team with a better overall ranking is the 1998-99 Blue Devils.
The only real criticism of Duke coming into the NCAA tournament was that the Blue Devils had feasted on a down ACC over the preceding couple of months. Any concerns that facing a lack of top-tier competition since the calendar turned to 2025 may have adversely affected Duke’s chances of winning six straight against the best from the rest of college basketball have been quickly put to bed.
The Blue Devils, the nation’s best offensive team according to every metric in existence, have scored 85 or more points in all four of their NCAA tournament contests. They’ve won those four contests by an average of 23.5 points. Even if you take the round one blowout of Mount St. Mary’s out of the equation, Duke has smashed a trio of opponents from the Big 12 and the SEC — Baylor, Arizona and Alabama — by a combined 50 points.
Cooper Flagg is a unicorn and the No. 1 pick in the 2025 NBA Draft. You know this. The play of his supporting cast — starting with their run to an ACC tournament championship with Flagg sidelined — is what has the Blue Devils situated as the betting favorites heading to San Antonio.
Fellow freshmen future lottery picks Kon Knueppel and Khaman Maluach have taken their games to another level in March. Maluach was the best big man in the East Region, averaging 11.5 points, 6.5 rebounds and blocking eight total shots in Duke’s four wins. Knueppel is the elite secondary scorer that crushes the souls of opponents who focus the entirety of their defensive energy on slowing down Flagg. Knueppel dropped 20 in the regional semifinal win over Arizona, and then led the Devils with 21 in their triumph over Alabama two days later.

The veterans on Jon Scheyer’s roster are also producing at an absurd pace. Most notably, junior guard Tyrese Proctor has been out of his mind from beyond the arc. In four tournament games, Proctor is a scorching 16-of-25 from three. He also has 12 assists against just four turnovers.
There are no glaring weaknesses with this Duke team at the moment. Despite the ACC’s inability to provide the Devils with adequate competition during the heart of the winter, Scheyer’s squad is two wins away from being remembered as one of the best college basketball teams in recent memory.
Florida
After successfully running the gauntlet in Nashville to win the SEC Tournament, Florida entered the Big Dance widely regarded as the hottest team in the country and perhaps the trendiest pick to cut down the nets.
None of the four teams left standing have stared the death of their season more directly in the face than the Gators.
First, there was a second round showdown with back-to-back reigning national champion UConn where the Huskies appeared to be in complete control for the game’s first 30 minutes. Two rounds later, Florida trailed third-seeded Texas Tech 75-66 with less than three minutes to play before staging a furious rally to secure their first trip to the Final Four since 2014.
In both of these instances, there was one major reason why Todd Golden’s team survived and advanced: Walter Clayton Jr.

The shotmaking from Walter Clayton Jr vs. UConn today was absurd. 23 PTS (6-14 FG, 5-8 3PT) & 3 REBHigh-level movement/relocation shooting & self-creation skill on display. NBA level guard that is one of the best shotmaking talents in the country.4th straight 20 PT game. https://t.co/TPXd8tcgYr pic.twitter.com/1ymfIpKbl1— Mohamed (@mcfdraft) March 23, 2025

Walter Clayton Jr. delivered a signature March performance to send Florida to the Final Four. The 6-3 senior poured in 30 points, drilling a barrage of clutch triples late to get past Texas Tech. Puts immense pressure on defenses with his deep pull-up range, burst, and vision. pic.twitter.com/Ay3h6Y6I4r— League Him (@League_Him) March 30, 2025

Star guards tend to shine the brightest in March, and Clayton Jr.’s play over the past few weeks has more than a few people uttering his name in the same breath as Kemba Walker.
Clayton Jr. and backcourt mates Alijah Martin and Will Richard get the lion’s share of the credit for Florida being the second-best offensive team in the country, but the Gators have had one of the best backcourt/frontcourt blends all season.
The emergence of Alex Condon and his ability to control paint on both ends of the floor has been the biggest difference between this year’s Gators and last year’s team. Fellow sophomore big Thomas Haugh is coming off the best game of his college career to date, scoring 20 points and grabbing 11 boards in the win over Texas Tech. Florida’s bigs are also tremendous passers, which makes UF’s lethal outside shooters all the more dangerous.
In its win over Michigan State, Auburn allowed the Spartans to corral 13 offensive rebounds. That type of effort on the defensive glass won’t fly against Florida, which is the 5th-best offensive rebounding team in the country.
The most self-explanatory reason to believe Florida can topple Auburn on Saturday? They’ve already done it. The Gators pulled off an incredibly impressive 90-81 road win over the Tigers back on Feb. 8.
That win seemed to serve as the catalyst for Golden’s team to take its play to another level and position itself for a national championship run.
Houston
Have you seen these dudes play defense?
Trying to score on these Cougars seems like just about the worst possible time you could have playing the game of basketball.

The nation’s best defensive team has held its opponents to fewer than 60 points in 22 of their 38 games so far this season. Only five teams have managed to score 70 points or more against the Cougars in regulation.
Watching them this March, it’s almost shocking that the number is that high.

A lot of posts are about the best offensive plays of the Tournament. But what about some of the best defensive plays. Here are some of the best defensive plays from Houston vs Gonzaga. One of the best and most gritty defenses to watch… pic.twitter.com/1jMmtZgfJf— Michael Jagacki (@Mike_Jagacki) March 24, 2025

Ok, but what about the offense?
Well, Houston shoots the three at a collective 39.7 percent clip. That’s the best average of any of the teams heading to San Antonio and the third best average of any team in the country. Leading scorers L.J. Cryer, Emmanuel Sharp and Milos Uzan all are shooting better than 41 percent from beyond the arc, and all have the ability to get quality shots either through the team’s halfcourt offense or in iso situations.
A historically chalky tournament means that none of the No. 1 seeds have gotten a cakewalk to the Final Four, but none of them have been quite as battle-tested as Houston.
The Cougars faced a 16-seed an 8-seed a 4-seed and a 2-seed to punch their ticket to San Antonio, making them the first No. 1 seed since North Carolina in 2017 to take the hardest path possible to the Final Four.
Just seeing the seeds doesn’t really do the road justice.
In the second round Houston had to face perhaps the toughest 8-seed in the history of the tournament, a Gonzaga team that not only ranked in the top 10 of virtually ever college basketball metric on the planet, but which was looking to make the Sweet 16 for a record-breaking 10th consecutive year. After surviving that test, they had the reigning national runners-up from Purdue — a program which had been a No. 1 seed in each of the past two years — waiting in the Sweet 16. Standing between the Cougars and the Final Four was a team in Tennessee that was ranked by the Committee as the best 2-seed, and was also a team that had spent a chunk of the 2024-25 season ranked No. 1 in the country.
Despite all of this, UH controlled the lion’s share of the action in all but one of those four games, a back-and-forth 62-60 win over the Boilermakers in the Sweet 16.
Saturday’s nightcap will feature the No. 1 team in the country in adjusted defensive efficiency (Houston) facing the No. 1 team in the country in adjusted offensive efficiency (Duke). The last time we got that matchup in a national semifinal was 2015, when undefeated Kentucky squared off against Wisconsin.
That matchup saw a “potential greatest college team of all-time” come up short two wins shy of a national title. Could history be on the verge of repeating itself?
Houston might be the “Cinderella” of this Final Four — which feels ridiculous to type because it is — but they have the nation’s longest winning streak at 17 games, they have a head coach in Kelvin Sampson who may have done the most unbelievable job of any coach in the country over the past decade, and they have a remarkable combination of veteran offensive talent and the most suffocating team defense in the country.
There’s a lot to like here.
Auburn
It’s been true for the last five months and it’s true today: When everything is clicking, there isn’t a more dominant or fun team to watch in college basketball than the Auburn Tigers.
No coach in the country has a deeper array of lethal weapons at his disposal than Bruce Pearl does.
National Player of the Year candidate Johni Broome is the rock and the conversation starter, as he should be. But around Broome, you’ve got a Swiss Army Knife in Chad Baker-Mazara, rock solid performers in Miles Kelly and Denver Jones, and — when he gets going — one of the best pure scorers in the sport in Tahaad Pettiford.
The tournament’s No. 1 overall seed, Auburn played one of the most ridiculous regular season schedules the sport has ever seen. Over their 33 regular season games, the Tigers played 24 contests against teams that would eventually make the NCAA tournament. Their 16 Quadrant-I victories were easily the most of any team in the country, and the most of any team since the advent of the NET Rankings.
Also, they’re old. Like, super, super old.

Its combination of experience, depth and versatility make Auburn the most “ready for any type of situation” team of the four left standing. They’ve showcased that strength throughout March already.
After trailing at halftime, the Tigers ran away from offensive-minded Creighton in an up-tempo second round game. They won by 13 thanks to their defense (and Pettiford and Jones going nuts) in a Sweet 16 game against Michigan that got a little sloppy. And then they took an early lead and kept Michigan State at arm’s length for the duration of a more of a grind-it-out, halfcourt contest in the Elite Eight.
They have a tendency to burn a little hot, but as long as they’re channeling all that energy in a positive way, there’s zero reason to think Auburn isn’t capable of winning its final two games of the season.
No team has spent a larger chunk of this season looking like the sport’s most dominant force than Auburn has. Sometimes the simplest conclusion is the correct one. […]