By Sam Federman
90. South Florida Bulls (AAC)
USF won 25 games last season and won the American Conference regular season title. Amir Abdur-Rahim worked a miracle at Kennesaw State, then did it again in Tampa in year one. If his trajectory continues to rise, there won't be a year three at South Florida.
The Bulls lost a plethora of key pieces, including Chris Youngblood and Kasean Pryor, but Jayden Reid is back for his sophomore year. Reid is one of the best passers in the country, and with a year of experience under his belt, should be one of the best guards in the American.
Versatile wing Brandon Stroud is back for his 5th year under Abdur-Rahim, and Kobe Knox will continue to grow as a dynamic two-way player. Down low, Jamille Reynolds is a much better fit in the AAC than he was in the Big 12, and should be able to hold the fort down with his impressive size and strength.
Kasen Jennings and Quincy Ademokoya, two other contributors to AAR's team at KSU come in to fill out the rotation along with De'Ante Green from Florida State.
USF's wild card piece is JUCO transfer Jimmie Williams, who made All-American at Wallace State. He has an extremely high ceiling as a six-foot-five sophomore triple-double threat. Last season, JUCO stars like Jason Edwards, Pryor, and Yaxel Lendeborg had dominant seasons in the AAC, and Williams is hoping to be the next.
89. Nevada Wolf Pack (Mountain West)
One of the worst NCAA Tournament choke jobs in recent memory halted Nevada's season last year in embarrassing fashion. It ended the college careers of Kenan Blackshear and Jarod Lucas, the two best players on that team.
Steve Alford is betting big on Kobe Sanders, a high-usage 6-8 point forward who put up impressive numbers at Cal Poly.
Keeping big man Nick Davidson for his junior season is a major win for the program, as he won KenPom MVP eight different times last year. The Pack hope he takes a leap into a true star in year three.
Tre Coleman is also back, and will likely become Nevada's all-time leader in games played, and perhaps minutes played. His contributions to the program may not show up in his box score stats, but he has done all of the little things.
There won't be quite as much offensive punch, unless Fresno State transfer Xavier DuSell takes a huge step up, but the team's size will bother opponents on the defensive end.
88. Western Kentucky Hilltoppers (Conference USA)
Hank Plona takes the reigns from Steve Lutz after one successful season at WKU vaulted him into the head job at Oklahoma State. Don McHenry might be one of the best players in mid-major basketball. He played for Plona at Indian Hills, then followed him to WKU and made All-CUSA first team, winning conference tournament MVP. He's the heart and soul of the Hilltoppers, and retaining him gives Western a leg up on the rest of the league.
Joining him in the backcourt will be another IHCC product in Braxton Bayless, who was Niagara's two-way standout point guard. Terrion Murdix's health is up in the air, but if he's able to play, he'll be one of the top point guards in the conference.
Tyrone Marshall elevated his game and became one of the best role players in the conference last year. Teagan Moore's role expanded late in the season and will continue to expand into 2024-25. The rim-running Baba Faye also returns in the frontcourt, with Khristian Lander using his COVID year in the backcourt.
WKU has more returning pieces than most teams that go through coaching changes and much of that is because they listened to their players and promoted Plona from within when they could've gone for a bigger name.
87. Penn State Nittany Lions (Big Ten)
How will year two for Mike Rhoades be different from year one? That's the major question that needs to be answered in State College.
Ace Baldwin, D'Marco Dunn, Nick Kern, Zach Hicks, and Puff Johnson all return, which provides for tons of continuity. Kern became more comfortable in his role as the year went on, and Baldwin was just as good in the Big Ten as he was in the A-10.
Freddie Dillione provides a much different element of combo guard to Dunn and should see the floor in lots of different lineup combinations. Eli Rice's shooting will be a major differentiator. He needs to be the true deadeye shooter that the program hoped Jameel Brown would be. PSU didn't have an elite shooter last season, let alone one with a 6-8 frame, so if Rice can be that, then the ceiling rises significantly.
The last wild card is freshman Miles Goodman, who may be the highest-ceiling option at the five in a group with two transfers. Yanic Niederhauser and Kachi Nzeh isn't the worst big-man duo, but it's certainly not an extremely impressive one for the Big Ten.
Last season felt like a departure from the typical Mike Rhoades-coached team in terms of defensive intensity, but with a year of Big Ten basketball under his belt, he has the chance to make tweaks and improve.
86. South Carolina Gamecocks (SEC)
South Carolina was the surprise team in college basketball last year, and I'm expecting a major regression.
Despite winning 26 games, the Gamecocks finished 54th in KenPom. Lamont Paris lost both of his starting guards, Meechie Johnson and Ta'Lon Cooper, along with BJ Mack, who defined the identity of the team all year on the inside.
I'm extremely excited for Collin Murray-Boyles in year two, he should be one of the top forwards in the SEC this year. He has a diverse skillset with an NBA wing frame and tremendous athleticism.
Jamarii Thomas initially committed to VCU from Norfolk State, but South Carolina came in and swooped him away, luring him to be their starting point guard. Cam Scott was another player committed to another school, with Paris picking up the four-star recruit from the jaws of Texas. Considering the circumstances with which each player was signed to South Carolina, Paris clearly has a vision for that backcourt, but I'm uncertain about both pieces in the SEC right away.
Nick Pringle had an impressive second half of the season for Alabama last year and should be a solid piece for the Gamecocks, but I don't think he fits the identity that South Carolina established last year quite as well as Mack and Co. did.
I think a lot of South Carolina's success last year was zigging (playing slow, gritty, post-oriented ball) while the rest of the SEC zagged (fast-paced, three-point shooting, offense-first ball). Nobody will be caught off guard by it anymore, probably.
85. Arizona State Sun Devils (Big 12)
Bobby Hurley entered the offseason with a problem to solve; Improve the 218th-ranked offense in the country. He had a lot of funding and a lot of open spots, and then used it to bring in three ball-dominant transfers and two reclass freshmen.
Alston Mason, Basheer Jihad, and BJ Freeman are all very talented players, but the fit seems awkward. Three players who had outlandish usage rates at mid-major programs last year joined forces at a program not exactly known for intricate offense. Additionally, while all three are solid shotmakers, none are truly elite shotmakers, which ASU sorely lacked last year.
The alarm bells around the program are ringing because of how ASU brought in Jayden Quaintance and Joson Sanon, two talented reclass freshmen. The Sun Devils weren't big-time players for either the first time around. Quaintance's ASU commitment came as a massive shock to the college basketball world, as many had presumed he would follow John Calipari to Arkansas. Rumors swirled about the NIL asking price for the 17-year-old, and Hurley swooped in with a huge offer at the end of the process. Sanon was committed to Arizona, but hadn't officially signed or reclassed, so he was still playing on the AAU circuit. Then, once Caleb Love announced his return to the Cats, Sanon quickly flipped his commitment to Arizona State, and made his reclass official.
While ASU fans should be ecstatic about getting two five-star commits, it feels obvious that the money was the driving force in both, as the Sun Devils had an injection in NIL funding this offseason. NIL is a big part of every recruitment, but I fear that its share in these two decisions is larger than it should be. How much was fit considered? Joson Sanon is a ball-dominant scoring guard, where is the role for that on this Arizona State team with so much of that already in place? I also am not certain that Quaintance is ready to play a major role in the Big 12 at this stage in his career, which is what ASU needs him to do.
This roster is talented, and the ceiling is high, but the Sun Devils have had talented rosters before, and I don't think this one will change the narrative.
84. Santa Clara Broncos (WCC)
Adama Bal unleashed the beast that we knew was in there and became a true star in his first year at Santa Clara. The former Arizona wing put himself on the periphery of NBA Draft radars by averaging 14/3/3 last year, but decided to come back for his senior season.
Instead of popping up late in the season, scouts will be following closely throughout the entire season, and he has another summer of development under an elite developmental staff to show.
Bal isn't the only key piece returning for SCU. The third, fourth, fifth, and sixth leading scorers from last year's group also return. Johnny O'Neill's three-point shooting efficiency dropped, but he maintained his averages from his time at American, and is some positive shooting regression away from a huge fifth year.
Christoph Tilly and Brenton Knapper continue to grow, and Tyeree Bryan looks to have another solid year.
Carlos Stewart was an All-WCC player for SCU in 2022-23, but then transferred to LSU, where he played in just 13 games. Herb Sendek identified him as the missing piece to the Broncos team, and brought him back from the transfer portal. Adding Stewart with the key returners, and the way that this program develops, a fourth straight 20-win season should be in the works.
83. Princeton Tigers (Ivy League)
While Yale, Penn, and Harvard all lost notable underclassmen to the portal, arguably the top two players in the Ivy League last season returned to Princeton for their junior seasons. The league didn't see young stars flowing into the portal the same way as most other mid-major leagues... until this year, making the retention of Caden Pierce and Xaivian Lee even more impressive.
Pierce won Ivy League Player of the Year averaging 18/9/3 on 53/41/84 splits during conference play. During his freshman season, Henderson called Pierce the best rebounder that he's ever coached. He evolved into a three-level scorer for his sophomore season, part of Princeton's identity shift putting more emphasis on individual creation while spacing the floor with 5 shooters. Pierce may be the most underrated player in the country, as despite being the conference's player of the year, he was overshadowed on a national scale by his point guard.
Lee, the other key junior, is one of the most skilled point guards in the country. He uses his ball-handling and shiftiness to get in the lane at will. His skinny frame and high skill also mask the other side of his game, a remarkable appetite for physicality. Last season, he averaged 7.1 rebounds per game in league play despite standing just six-foot-three.
Having two 18-point scorers returning from a team that would've had a legit shot at an at-large going into Champ Week in a perfect world is enough to get the Tigers into the Top 100.
Dalen Davis had a strong freshman season off the bench, and Blake Peters has been a reliable piece for each of the last two seasons. They'll likely be the starting wing combination, with their shooting abilities benefitting the two stars. However, neither are taller than six-foot-one, making it hard to scale up defensively as a team.
Freshman Malik Abdullahi, who played with the Boozer twins and Jase Richardson at Columbus, is an extremely important piece because of his long and athletic 6-foot-8 frame that will be necessary on the defensive end from day one. If Deven Austin is healthy and himself, Princeton adds another wing with length and physicality. He was breaking out in the middle of the 2022-23 season before injuring his knee, costing him the end of his first and his entire second season of college ball. Another freshman, Jack Stanton, could provide valuable minutes off the bench in the guard spots.
Mitch Henderson and his staff have been especially good at identifying and developing talent over the past few years, and the Tigers are set up for another strong season.
82. James Madison Dukes (Sun Belt)
Read from here: https://www.bracketsbubblesandbidstealers.com/post/a-few-new-coaches-who-have-built-strong-year-1-rosters
81. High Point Panthers (Big South)
When most mid-majors lose a conference player of the year, it's a major hit to the expectations for the next season.
Not for Alan Huss at High Point.
Even without Duke Miles, HPU still has multiple legitimate Big South Player of the Year contenders on the roster. Kezza Giffa was a great compliment to Miles, and a great Batman when Miles was hurt. In many conferences, he'd be a slam dunk pick for preseason player of the year. So would Kimani Hamilton, who averaged 15 and 7 last season for the Panthers as a sophomore. He's one of the best wings in all of mid-major basketball thanks to his ability to get to the rim with ease.
Back in 2021-22, D'maurian Williams made the All-Big South Second Team for Gardner-Webb as a sophomore. He played two seasons in the Big 12 for Texas Tech, and now returns to the league to pair up with Giffa in the backcourt. Abdoulaye Thiam averaged 13 points per game last season and will give High Point options, just like it had last year. Trae Benham, another returning starter, is too important to keep off the floor because of his shooting and rebounding, so they'll find plenty of minutes for him as well.
The fifth piece of the backcourt, Bobby Pettiford, has high-major experience as a role player for Kansas a few years back before starting at East Carolina last year. Chase Johnston is a 13-point scorer over his four-year career in the ASUN, having already made 276 threes. His season was cut short after nine games last year, but he'll resume his college career in this insanely deep backcourt.
Lamar transfer Terry Anderson, another double-digit Division I scorer, will provide some more depth on the wing. He's a bigger option to play next to Hamilton in big lineups, or at the four when Hamilton comes off the floor
And just the backcourt would be enough to get High Point into the top 100, but they're also one of the few mid-majors with two legitimate seven-footers in the frontcourt. In this offseason's inflated big-man market, Juslin Bodo Bodo easily could've gotten a huge NIL deal to be a high-major starter, but instead, he stays with High Point. The only reason why Bodo Bodo wasn't averaging a double-double last year was because HPU simply didn't need 10 points from him each game. He's insanely efficient down low, and gobbles up rebounds like there's no tomorrow. He also served as the defensive safety net for a team that was so slanted toward offense.
Joining him in the frontcourt is Syracuse transfer William Patterson, a seven-footer who redshirted for the Orange.
I have no idea how all of the minutes will be juggled, and there's a chance that it ends up with too many cooks in the kitchen, but there's such overwhelming talent for the Big South on this roster that I'm confident in putting the Panthers in my top 100.