After winning back-to-back national titles in 2022-23 and 2023-24, Dan Hurley and UConn took a step back last season. They finished with a 24-11 record and made it to the second round of the NCAA tournament, losing to the eventual national champion in Florida by just two points. Projected Lineup: G Silas Demary (Georgia transfer) G Solo Ball G Braylon Mullins F Alex Karaban C Tarris Reed UConn returns three key players from last season's team in 6-foot-4 shooting guard Solo B

Rick Pitino showed that he was one of the best coaches in the country last season. In just his second year after leaving the University of Iona to take the St John's job, they had a 31-5 record and won the Big East regular season and conference titles. St John's did get upset by Arkansas in the second round of the NCAA tournament, but all things considered, it was still an excellent season. Projected Lineup: G Ian Jackson (St John's transfer) G Joson Sanon (Arizona State tran

The Shaheen Holloway era looked like it had gotten off to a great start after his first two seasons after taking over. In Holloway's first year at the helm, Seton Hall finished 17-16. They would then have an 8-win increase the following year, going 25-12 and winning the NIT title game. Last season, everything went downhill for the program. They went 7-25 and finished dead last in the conference with a 2-18 record in Big East play. Projected Lineup: G Adam 'Budd' Clark (Merrim

It's now been two seasons since Ed Cooley left Providence to take the Georgetown job. Kim English had a nice first year as his replacement, winning 21 games. He did take a step in the wrong direction last year; Providence went 12-20 on the season and finished 9th in the Big East. Projected Lineup: G Jason Edwards (Vanderbilt transfer) G Corey Floyd Jr G Jaylin Sellers (UCF transfer) F Duncan Powell (Georgia Tech transfer) F Oswin Erhunmwunse Providence will be heavily reliant

Shaka Smart enters his fifth season as the head coach at Marquette. He's had a very successful tenure so far, reaching the NCAA tournament in every season. Marquette will have a very similar roster to last season. They're one of the only power-conference teams that didn't bring in a single player through the transfer portal. Projected Lineup: G Sean Jones G Chase Ross G Zaide Lowery F Royce Parham F Ben Gold Marquette will be relying on their guys from last season's team to s

It's safe to say that the Ed Cooley era at Georgetown hasn't gotten off to a good start. In his two seasons at Georgetown after leaving Providence, Cooley has a record of 27-39. Georgetown did take a step forward last season, though. They had an 18-16 record overall with an 8-12 record in the Big East, which was 7th in the conference. Projected lineup: G Malik Mack G KJ Lewis (Arizona transfer) G Langston Lewis (Baylor transfer) F Caleb Williams C Vincent Iwuchukwu (St John's

Historically, DePaul is pretty much unanimously the worst power conference program in Division one men's basketball. They are currently in the midst of a 21-year NCAA tournament drought, which is by far the largest of all power conference programs. After winning just three games during the 2023-24 they fired head coach Tony Stubblefield and hired former Ohio State head coach Chris Holtmann to replace him. Holtman had a decent season in his first year, given the standards of t

The 2025-26 season will mark the 16th year of the Greg McDermott era at Creighton. They've made the NCAA tournament a total of 11 times in his tenure and have not missed the tournament since the 2018-19 season. Creighton does lose their top four scorers from last season, but McDermott reloaded, bringing in a very talented transfer portal class, which should be one of the best in the conference. Projected Lineup: G Nik Graves (Charlotte transfer) G Josh Dix (Iowa transfer) F B

The Thad Matta era at Butler has not gotten off to a great start. Butler has failed to make the tournament in each of his three seasons since being hired. Matta also has a record of below .500 in his tenure (47-53). Last season, the Bulldogs finished tied for 8th in the conference with a 6-14 record. Projected Lineup: G Jalen Jackson (IPFW transfer) G Finley Bizjack F Yame Butler (Drexel transfer) F Michael Ajayi (Gonzaga transfer) C Yohan Traore (SMU transfer) Butler lost th

Wake Forest goes into this season looking to snap a five-year NCAA tournament drought. They still had a decent season last year, finishing with an overall record of 21-11 and a 13-7 record in ACC play, which was tied for fourth-best in the conference. Steve Forbes enters his fifth season as the head coach. He's a coach who could potentially be on the hot seat as Wake Forest has zero tournament appearances in his tenure. Although he does still have a solid overall record of 92

Syracuse took a step back in year two of the Adrian Autry era. After finishing with 20 wins in his first season, they won only 13 games last year. That was good enough for a 14th-place ACC finish. Syracuse is currently in the midst of a four-year NCAA tournament drought, which is the longest they've gone without an NCAA tournament appearance since 1972. Projected Lineup: G Naithan George (Georgia Tech transfer) G JJ Starling G Nate Kingz (Oregon State transfer) F Sadiq White

Virginia Tech enters this season hoping to end a three-year NCAA tournament drought since winning the ACC tournament during the 2021-22 season. They're now in year seven of the Mike Young era, and he's had a 105-85 record during his Virginia Tech tenure. VT is coming off one of the worst seasons since of his tenure. They finished with an overall record of 13-19. There's reason for optimism this season with one of the best freshman recruiting classes in the history of the prog

Virginia is another ACC team that will have a first-year head coach next season. They brought in former Virginia Commonwealth and Utah State head coach Ryan Odom to lead the program. Odom is coming off a very successful 28-7 season last year at VCU. He also won the Atlantic 10 regular season and tournament championships. With a new head coach, Virginia will have a very different-looking squad this season. Projected Lineup: G Dallin Hall (BYU transfer) G Jacari White (North Da

Head coach Kyle Smith put together a 21-win season in his first year at Stanford after leaving Washington State. It wasn't quite good enough to make the NCAA tournament, but they still finished 7th in the ACC with an 11-9 record. On paper, I'm not really sure how they're gonna be able to replicate that. Stanford lost their top three scorers from last season, and they really didn't do anything in the portal to replace what they lost. Projected lineup: G Benny Gealer G Jeremy D

SMU is coming off a fairly successful first season as a member of the ACC. They finished with a 13-7 record in conference play last year, which was tied for fourth in the ACC. It was also the first season of the Andy Enfield era after he shockingly left the University of Southern California to take the SMU job after being at USC for 11 seasons. Projected Lineup: G Kevin 'Boopie' Miller G B.J. Edwards G Jaron Pierre Jr (Jacksonville State transfer) F Jaden Toombs C Samet Yigit

Pittsburgh is entering year eight of the Jeff Capel era. It's safe to say he's probably on the hot seat, as Pitt has missed the NCAA tournament in back-to-back seasons; they've also only made it there in one of Capel's seven seasons as the head coach. Capel has slowly started to turn it around though. In his first four seasons, Pitt had a record of 51-69, compared to a record of 63-38 in their last three seasons. Projected Lineup: G DaMarco Minor (Oregon State transfer) G Bra

It's no secret that the Micah Shrewsberry era for Notre Dame is off to a rough start. He's got an overall record of 28-38 over his first two seasons as the head coach. They won 13 games during their first season and 15 games last year. There's optimism for a larger win increase in year three, as Notre Dame returns a lot of important players from last season's team. Projected Lineup G Markus Burton G Braeden Shrewsberry G Jalen Haralson F Carson Towt (Northern Arizona transfer

North Carolina is now entering its fifth season with Hubert Davis as the head coach. He hasn't made it past the round of 32 in the NCAA tournament since his first season, when the Tar Heels lost to Kansas in the national title game. Last season's team barely got into the tournament field. They beat San Diego State in the first four, but ultimately lost to Ole Miss in the opening round. This will be a different-looking North Carolina team this season, as they're losing four of

Perhaps the most notable coaching hire of the offseason was when NC State announced the hiring of former LSU and McNeese State head coach Will Wade. He had taken McNeese State to the NCAA tournament in back-to-back seasons and got a first-round victory over Clemson last season. This year's NC State team looks to be immediately competitive as head coach Will Wade has loaded up in the transfer portal. Projected Lineup: G Quadir Copeland (McNeese State transfer) G Tre Holloman (

Miami enters this season with a new head coach for the first time in 14 years. They hired former Duke associate head coach Jai Lucas to replace the legendary Jim Larranaga. There's almost nowhere to go but up at this point for the program. Miami finished dead last in the conference last season with a 3-17 record in ACC play. That shouldn't be the case this season, as Miami went out and got one of the best transfer portal classes in the conference. Projected Lineup G Tre Donal