Between the time when the Florida Gators chomped down the nets in San Antonio in April and now — in the days leading up to the start of fall practices — college basketball has undergone a transformation across the sport. So with the offseason all but effectively over, it’s time for a review of what has gone down and which teams, programs and conferences have come out looking better, and worse, from the last few months.
Let’s dive in with a look at the biggest offseason winners and losers.
Winner: Florida reloads after title
Florida recruited the No. 6 transfer class in the country and has two four-star high school players joining its ranks to reload a roster that is ready to defend its national championship. The Gators secured Arkansas star Boogie Fland, Princeton’s Xaivian Lee and Ohio’s AJ Brown to replace outgoing production of their backcourt — and they also bring back Thomas Haugh and Alex Condon, among others.
Coach Todd Golden has pieced together a preseason top-10 team on paper that has both talent and experience and that fits what the Gators like to do. They won’t win 36 games again like last season’s magical team did, but Florida has +1700 odds to repeat as NCAA Tournament champion, according to FanDuel Sportsbook, and a run to the title and a chance to establish themselves as the top dog, er, uhm, reptile, in the SEC is very much within reach.
Winner: Rick Pitino ready to roll it back
The dream season at St. John’s for Hall of Fame coach Rick Pitino ended in the second round of the NCAA Tournament and left the Johnnies with a sour taste in their mouth thanks to a public exposing of its flaws on the big stage. Pitino, though, has the No. 1-ranked incoming transfer class — replete with three former top-25 recruits in Ian Jackson, Joson Sanon and Dillon Mitchell — to keep this team’s identity around defense while establishing a respectable skill set of scoring prowess to boot. Bringing back Zuby Ejiofor and bringing in Bryce Hopkins all but guarantees this team will contend for 30+ wins again in 2025-26.
“Hard working group that excels athletically and shoots the lights out,” Pitino tweeted earlier this summer, playfully nodding to his last team’s shortcomings on offense. “Thank God.”
Loser: Memphis distractions impossible to ignore
A quiet offseason for Memphis and Penny Hardaway might’ve been exactly what the team needed after a first-round NCAA Tournament loss earlier this year. But it’s the opposite of what the Tigers got.
Instead, the basketball program was fined and put on probation for academic fraud; a key transfer was arrested on an assault change; and the school’s offer to the Big 12 to join the league was rejected.
That’s all happened in just a few months.
Memphis is no stranger to distractions under Hardaway, of course. The program has been under NCAA scrutiny in a series of cases under his watch (he was suspended to start the 2023-24 season) and there have been several cases of players finding legal trouble. But this offseason has been particularly noisy for the Tigers.
Winner: Basketball in the Bluegrass State
Uncertainty entering last offseason with Louisville and Kentucky both transitioning into new regimes cast a pall over the state of Kentucky. Not the case this year.
Instead, Kentucky and coach Mark Pope — led by a top-10 incoming class and a star-studded group of returnees and transfers — has a team ready to take another step forward after 24 wins and an appearance in the NCAA Tournament’s second weekend.
At Louisville things may be even more optimistic under coach Pat Kelsey. Kelsey called his mission at Louisville the reviVille, and he has certainly fulfilled that obligation. They went from 8-24 two years ago to 27-8 in his first season. Now they will enter the season likely ranked near the AP Top 10 thanks to a stellar group of incoming talents led by Mikel Brown Jr. — who this summer has acquitted himself as one of the best young talents in all of basketball.
College basketball rankings: Projected starting lineup for every Top 25 And 1 team heading into 2025-26 season
Isaac Trotter
Loser: Proponents of NCAA Tournament expansion
The size of the NCAA Tournament field (68 teams) will remain for at least one more season after unsuccessful pushes this offseason to expand March Madness officially ended in August. The decision from the Division I men’s and women’s basketball committees came after extensive consideration to move to 72 or 76 teams. That remains on the table for next season, but the sanctity of the perfect field size of 68 remains for now.
Loser: Kevin Willard’s eventful offseason
Maryland coach Kevin Willard became Villanova coach Kevin Willard in a tumultuous offseason of change for the veteran coach. It’s hard to argue it went well for him as Terps fans turned on him for his acrimonious exit.
That’s not to say he won’t work out at Villanova — in fact, I suspect in time he’ll do just fine! — but the way he handled his departure generated animosity from Maryland fans and beyond.
He now heads a Nova team that is expected to endure growing pains in 2025-26 and potentially beyond as he sets up shop in a new town. Only two Maryland players followed him — both of whom were not primary contributors — and the team’s recruiting ranking is No. 48 nationally at 247Sports. He’s made a career of overachieving relative to talent level but a finish in the top half of the Big East standings this year might qualify as one of his better coaching jobs. It’s going to take time for him to build the Wildcats up to relevance again.
Winner: B1G expectations in the Big Ten
BartTorvik.com’s early preseason projections for next season have four (!!!) Big Ten teams inside the top 10 and nine Big Ten teams inside the top 30. That speaks to just how good the conference shapes up entering 2025-26. (For reference: the SEC is coming off its best basketball season ever, and it finished with four top-10 teams at BartTorvik.com and only eight teams inside the top 30.)
The strength of the Big Ten lies in its depth but there are plenty of mammoths at or near the top, too. That centers around a Purdue team that brings back Braden Smith and Trey Kaufman-Renn, both of whom could be preseason All-Americans. But it should absolutely include Michigan in that mix, too, after the Wolverines added Yaxel Lendeborg, Aday Mara, Elliot Cadeau and Morez Johnson Jr. from the portal.
Also worth mentioning: Illinois is No. 7 at BartTorvik (!!) on the heels of adding transfers Andrej Stojakovic and Zvonimir Ivisic as well as a pair of Serbian talents in David Mirkovic and Mihailo Petrovic. This team has a ton of experience and the models are very high on the ceiling for Brad Underwood’s team.
The Big Ten has not won a national title since Michigan State did so in 2000 – and since then, UConn has won five rings while Duke, UNC and Florida have won thrice. The league is overdue.
Loser: Every team not named Houston in the Big 12
BYU had a great offseason and landed AJ Dybantsa to prep for one of its most anticipated seasons ever.
Kansas landed No. 1 recruit Darryn Peterson.
Arizona, Iowa State and Texas Tech should all be preseason top-25 teams.
But everyone in the Big 12 is playing for second. Houston is just that good. Again.
Kelvin Sampson’s team returns JoJo Tugler, Milos Uzan and Emanuel Sharp — and it enrolls five-star Chris Cenac Jr., the highest-rated signee in program history. The Cougars have won the Big 12 by multiple games in each of their first two years in the league and I’d wager this year won’t be any different.
Winner: Duke distances gap in the Triangle
Duke has finished higher in the ACC standings than both North Carolina and NC State in four of the last six seasons — including a stunning 19-1 run in league play last year — and its strong offseason has seemingly helped it further the gap between the other two schools in the Triangle. Duke has the No. 1 recruiting class led by Cam and Cayden Boozer and five-star Dame Sarr, making it a strong contender for preseason No. 1 along with Purdue and Houston.
UNC meanwhile isn’t even the clear No. 2 in its own conference thanks to Louisville’s reemergence. And NC State is bound to endure some growing pains in Will Wade’s first season.
The Tar Heels have their work cut out to get back to national prominence and will push Duke atop the ACC. That pressure comes in a year where Hubert Davis’ seat is somewhere between hot and scorching.
Like it has been much of the last few years in the ACC, there’s Duke and there’s everyone else in the league fighting for second. UNC and NC State have a ton of catching up to do, and this season seems an unlikely time for them to start closing that gap.
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