By Sam Federman
80. Seton Hall Pirates (Big East)
Seton Hall had a very publicized struggle with NIL this offseason, marring their attempts to retain key pieces from last year.
Namely, Kadary Richmond and Dre Davis, the heart and soul of the 2024 team, are both gone, with Richmond sticking the dagger in by moving across the river to St. John’s. Later in the game, a bit of money came in, but the Pirates had already missed the chance to justly replace the lost stars.
Instead, Shaheen Holloway swung for upside on two freshmen who struggled last season. Scotty Middleton from Ohio State is a smooth operator at six-foot-seven and was projected to go in the lottery until the middle of last season. It became clear that Middleton was not going to get a ton of minutes on that OSU team, despite his excellent shooting numbers at that size, so he entered the portal and found a new home. He has the upside to be a terrific offensive piece with his fluidity, ball handling, and scoring ability from the three or four spots.
Providence transfer Garwey Dual also comes in, a physically gifted, yet gun-shy playmaking threat. Dual entered the season with a big role but became less playable as the year went on, finishing with just 22 combined minutes in the final two games of the Big East tournament.
Isaiah Coleman is the key returner. After a solid freshman season in which he averaged 5.4 points and 2.6 rebounds, Pirates fans are excited about his potential.
In betting on Chaunce Jenkins and Zion Harmon, Shaheen Holloway has an extremely fascinating backcourt with two players who shined, but at much lower levels.
Prince Aligbe and Yacine Toumi are physical four men who should bring a punch down low for a team that will struggle to get production out of the five spot. Gus Yalden didn’t play at all as a freshman, and is years behind in terms of speed and physicality, but possesses terrific footwork and touch down low. Freshman Godswill Erheriene and transfer Emmanuel Okarafor will also have to give production down low, filling up the forty required minutes.
79. Oklahoma State Cowboys (Big 12)
A similar theme for the first two teams is that I believe much more in the coaches than I do in the rosters. Steve Lutz is a tremendous ball coach and has made the NCAA Tournament three years in a row, but his roster isn’t quite good enough for the Big 12.
In the backcourt, Khalil Brantley is a great volume scorer at the high-mid-major level, but he has never played for a good team, shot higher than 39% from the field, or played without another star scoring guard, Jhamir Brickus, right next to him. I have serious doubts about Brantley’s ability to control a game or score efficiently in a bigger and more physical conference.
Arturo Dean is another player who is a tremendous mid-major guard, but many have expressed concerns about his ability to scale up.
Devo Davis is the guard with high-major experience, and plenty of it at that. He’s one of the top point-of-attack defenders in the conference, having shined in that particular skill at Arkansas. However, the way his Arkansas tenure ended leaves some question marks as to his future.
Bryce Thompson is using his COVID year after being the exact same player for the third consecutive season at Oklahoma State. The Cowboys can’t be expecting much of a step up, but he’s a very solid contributor at this level, at the worst. Additionally, UCF transfer Marchelus Avery will provide some beef on the wing.
Abou Ousmane struggled at Xavier last year but thrived as a two-way rim-protecting big for Grant McCasland at North Texas. Lutz is betting on getting the 22-23 version of Ousmane in Stillwater.
I truly believe that Lutz will be a successful coach at Oklahoma State, but I think it’ll take time, and success may be defined differently than OSU fans want it to. It’s one of the toughest jobs in the conference, as the days of Sutton are long gone. Travis Ford had a good tenure there, making five tournaments in eight years, despite just one tournament win. Obviously, it’s fair to expect more postseason success than that if you’re getting there consistently, but after just one NCAA bid in seven years under Mike Boynton, just getting back there consistently should be enough for Lutz to be successful.
78. Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets (ACC)
If you don’t know the names Naithan George and Baye Ndongo, you’re behind already.
The two freshmen starred for the Yellow Jackets last year, and being able to pull Ndongo, who could’ve been a second-round pick, out of the NBA Draft, is extremely impressive. Damon Stoudamire, banking on his years in the NBA, must feel that he can develop Ndongo to the point where he can be a first-round pick, and the star big man bought in.
He’ll be the star of this team, and George the maestro at point guard, but reinforcements came for the lost pieces in the portal. Luke O’Brien is an excellent role player, and Javian McCollum can provide the scoring punch lost from losing Miles Kelly.
Now a senior, Kowacie Reeves has finally settled into a role that suits him and developed into a deadeye three-point shooter last year.
Lance Terry returns as well, as a second-year transfer coming off of a season in which he averaged double figures.
Georgia Tech also brought in a recruiting class that has fans excited. Jaeden Mustaf, Darrion Sutton, Doryan Onwuchekwa, and Cole Kirouac make up the highest-ranked incoming group in Atlanta in years. It doesn’t stop there either, as 2025 commits Akai Fleming and Brandon Stores continue Stoudamire’s recruiting success.
77. Florida Atlantic Owls (AAC)
However, note that AJ Staton-McCray has since de-committed, and Jackson State transfer, and 2023-24 SWAC Player of the Year, Ken Evans will take his place. Baba Miller from Florida State and Nico Moretti from Illinois have also officially committed. Lithuanian big man Matas Vokietaitis has also joined the fray.
76. Colorado State Rams (Mountain West)
It’s always difficult to lose a program’s all-time leader in games played, minutes played, points, assists, steals, field goals, and three-point field goals, but being able to retain Isaiah Stevens for as long as Niko Medved did was already a miracle in itself.
For the second straight offseason, Medved has persuaded a future NBA player to return to Fort Collins. Nique Clifford was buzzing as a name that could shoot up big boards, but he decided instead to play a fifth college season, and a second at Colorado State, immediately making the Rams significantly better.
In addition to providing elite offensive value next to Stevens, shooting 38% from three, averaging 3 assists per game, and converting nearly 60% of his attempts inside the arc, Clifford is a defensive menace. I feel bad for any team that has to get off a flight, step into Moby Arena, and try to score against the extremely long and athletic wing duo of Clifford and Little Rock transfer Jaylen Crocker-Johnson.
Jalen Lake returns, but he’ll likely back up Keshawn Williams, a Northern Illinois transfer. When healthy, Williams was a reliable scorer, averaging 16.9 points per game for NIU over two seasons. He’ll pair in the backcourt with Northern Iowa transfer Bowen Born, looking for a bounce-back season. Coming into the season with MVC Player of the Year hype, Born’s scoring average dropped nearly five points, his field goal percentage dropped three points, and he averaged nearly a full assist fewer per game. Whether junior season or senior season Born shows up for CSU is a huge modifier to the Rams’ ceiling.
In the frontcourt, Ethan Morton comes in from Purdue, and sophomore Rashaan Mbemba will man the five spot.
75. Virginia Cavaliers (ACC)
Virginia finished 68th in KenPom last year and lost four of five leading scorers. It’s hard to write off Tony Bennett without thinking that you’ve done something crazy, but until the offense modernizes, I’ll hold off on hyping up this Hoos team.
Isaac McKneely is the most important returning piece. And I will give Bennett credit that he is good at getting him shots from beyond the arc. He’s a career 42% three-point shooter, and there’s no reason why that should change this year. However, it felt at times as though Virginia’s offense was heavily reliant on his shotmaking to open up for the rest of the team.
The first remedy to that is adding a dynamic point guard. While Reece Beekman was a tremendous player and it’ll be impossible to replace his incredible defensive impact, his offensive game, while strong and sturdy, was mechanical at times. Bennett is betting on K-State transfer Dai Dai Ames to take a major stride and add a new element to the offense.
The second remedy is adding other shooters, and for UVA, that comes in the form of TJ Power. A former highly touted recruit, Power didn’t play much for Duke last year and is known to be a strong shooter. However, I believe that San Diego State transfer Elijah Saunders will win most of the minutes due to his ability to impact the game on both ends. He’s not quite the shooter that Power is, but he is far from a bad one, and he’s a much better defender.
Jalen Warley and Andrew Rohde will combine to play minutes at the three, as both can be secondary ball handlers, but neither are great scorers.
He showed some promise as a freshman, but Blake Buchanan must mature a ton over the offseason, or else Virginia will have major problems at the center position.
Losing Beekman and Ryan Dunn, two of college basketball’s best defenders, along with Jacob Groves and Jordan Minor, will likely impact Virginia’s defensive level this year. While they will still be a great defensive team as long as Bennett is there, I don’t believe that this will be one of his best defensive groups.
It’s hard for the offense to get worse from last year, but only time will tell how much better it needs to get.
74. Wisconsin Badgers (Big Ten)
Wisconsin actually had the 17th-ranked offense in all of college basketball last year, the highest of Greg Gard’s tenure. However, losing Chucky Hepburn and AJ Storr to the transfer portal, as well as Tyler Wahl to graduation, means the identity of the offense has to shift multiple dimensions.
Two starters, Max Klesmit and Steven Crowl, each sporting offensive ratings above 117 last year, return, as well as John Blackwell who starred off the bench as a freshman. The pick-and-roll combination of Klesmit and Crowl should be solid, but without the defensive attention that Storr attracted, it may be harder to create space. I’m not certain that the three returners will be able to match the efficiency numbers from last year stepping into larger roles, attracting more attention, and needing to facilitate more.
The transfer adds of Xavier Amos and Camren Hunter aren’t bad by any means, but are in some ways underwhelming. Amos is a solid stretch four, and Hunter was a big scorer at Central Arkansas, but he hasn’t played in a year. John Tonje has the potential to be a difference-maker, but he also missed much of last season. However, all three of those players played for teams that were heavily offensive-slanted, and I expect Wisconsin to still have defensive issues.
Amos should aid the interior defense, but Crowl’s poor rim protection and movement in space are still going to limit the ceiling of that part of the game.
Freshman guard Daniel Freitag will be a great piece for the Badgers down the road, and depending on how well Hunter shakes off his rust and injury, might need to step in and play a big role right away.
Wisconsin’s floor depends on the play of the returners, while the ceiling rests on the shoulders of the newcomers.
73. UAB Blazers (AAC)
It’s hard to imagine many mid-major teams having more athleticism than UAB this season. Both Christian Coleman and Yaxel Lendborg return in the frontcourt, with the latter arguably being the favorite for AAC Player of the Year. Lendeborg’s incredible physicality and motor make him one of the most dominant two-way post players in the sport. He racked up 13 KenPom Game MVP awards, averaged a double-double, made 80% of his 195 free throws, and swatted over two shots per game.
Coleman found his way into the starting lineup by the end of the season and continued to grow more comfortable offensively. His year culminated with six straight double-digit scoring performances leading into the NCAA Tournament.
They’ll be backed up by Saint Louis transfer Bradley Ezewiro, a 265-pounder who is a load to stop down low.
The wing duo of Alejandro Vasquez and Efrem Johnson, each double-digit scorers last year at six-foot-four, return. They’re joined by Iona transfer Greg Gordon, an industrious athletic freak who rebounds and gets to the rim at a level that few at his size match.
Georgia Southern transfer Tyren Moore scored 17 points per game last season while shooting 40% from beyond the arc. He won’t quite need to do that for this UAB team, but there’s a world where the 5-foot-11 guard becomes Andy Kennedy’s next Jelly Walker, and takes the AAC by storm. Moore is an elite off-the-dribble scorer and will kickstart the offense, creating space and leverage for the wings and bigs. He’s not the playmaker or athlete that Eric Gaines was, but
This team probably finds its way into the top 100 with an average AAC point guard, but having legitimate lightning (in Moore) to all of the thunder makes the Blazers very scary. While Memphis is the clear favorite in the conference, UAB’s ceiling is extremely high, and I wouldn’t be shocked to see the Blazers win the league.
72. Dayton Flyers (Atlantic 10)
You cannot replace DaRon Holmes. You can’t really even re-create him in the aggregate. A consensus All-American in a mid-major league, a six-foot-ten physically dominant big man with the ability to handle the ball, shoot the three, and pass out of the post doesn’t come around very often.
But Dayton needs to figure out life without DaRon, and Nate Santos will be a key part of it. Maybe one of the most underappreciated players in the country last season, Santos was an extremely efficient all-around forward who made the game much easier for all around him. He’ll see an uptick in usage this year, as will almost all returners, as Holmes’ usage rate of 31.2 doesn’t replace itself.
The Flyers have three starting-caliber point guards in Javon Bennett, Posh Alexander, and Malachi Smith. Bennett put together a solid sophomore season, distributing the ball well and scoring efficiently in conference play. However, he wilted against the top opponents, with his ORTG falling to 62.3 in 8 games against tier-A foes.
Alexander has been a defensive ace in the Big East for four years, but his offensive game has long been criticized. He took a major step forward as an outside shooter this past season at Butler and is a solid playmaker. A step down a level should benefit his offensive game, and really bother other A-10 guards with his on-ball defense.
Smith hasn’t been fully healthy since his freshman season in 2022, but he’s an all-around floor general who controls the game at a high level. Bringing in Alexander is probably a bet that Smith isn’t who he used to be, but if he is, that backcourt can be scary.
Enoch Cheeks, a starter on last year’s team who stepped up late in the season when Kobe Elvis began to struggle, also returns and creates an even more fascinating backcourt dynamic.
Zed Key will step into the shoes that Holmes vacated but isn’t expected to fill them. His role was downsized last year at Ohio State with Felix Okpara emerging as a sophomore, but Key is an experienced big with great finishing and rebounding numbers.
The Flyers’ wild card is Qatari freshman Hamad Mousa. He’s on NBA Draft radars thanks to his combination of guard skill with a 6-foot-7 frame and seven-foot wingspan. If he pops, Dayton’s ceiling is dramatically higher.
71. West Virginia Mountaineers (Big 12)
Tucker DeVries has legitimate All-American potential in his senior year. In three years at Drake, he won two MVC Player of the Year awards and came within 150 points of becoming the Bulldogs’ all-time leading scorer.
He’d have easily cracked that mark had his father not taken the job at West Virginia, but the Mountaineers score a two-for-one, with a terrific coach on the rise and his superstar son.
The rest of the portal haul is an extremely fascinating combination of pieces that may or may not fit together. Javon Small brings proven Big 12 experience and stability to the point guard spot. He averaged 15 points, 4 rebounds, and 4 assists per game last season for Oklahoma State, draining 47% of his catch-and-shoot threes. However, he struggled with turnovers, and most Big 12 opponents were able to prevent him from getting consistently good looks from beyond the arc.
Toby Okani should be one of the most athletic players in the Big 12, but he has a long history of inefficiency and turnovers on bad teams. If he can reign himself in and stay at a low usage, his defensive playmaking will shine.
Detroit Mercy transfer Jayden Stone scored 20 points per game last year but did so on a 1-31 team.
Amani Hansberry has generated a decent amount of buzz this offseason, sliding over to the center spot after transferring from Illinois and rebounding the ball at a high level. He’ll split the time at the five with Fresno State transfer Eduardo Andre.
The star of Drake’s at-large team in 2020-21, Joe Yesufu, returns to play for the coach that he started his college career with after underwhelming stops at Kansas and Washington State. Sencire Harris, another Illinois transfer, adds some more backcourt depth.
Surrounding his son with five grad students clearly shows that DeVries is attempting to make one push for the tournament in Tucker's final year of eligibility before resetting and getting younger, building around what absolutely must be a big 2025 freshman class.