Vols, Tide among rising powers in college hoops
The final men’s college basketball rankings for the 2012-13 regular season were frontloaded with well-known hoops schools and perennial powers.
Gonzaga, at the start of its rise to the sport’s upper echelon, was No. 1, followed by established heavyweights Duke, Indiana, Louisville and Georgetown. And there was no big step down with Michigan sixth, Kansas seventh and Michigan State eighth.
Flash forward 10 years, and the current AP Top 25 has a different look and feel.
New programs have risen to the top tier. Upsets have turned up the madness in March even more in recent years. A few blue bloods have lost a bit of their shine.
ESPN analyst Seth Greenberg was Virginia Tech’s head coach from 2003-12, with the Hokies spending his first season in the Big East before moving to the Atlantic Coast Conference. Both leagues are rich in tradition, so Greenberg got plenty of up-close views at hoops powers.
Now he sees something different.
“When you look at college basketball, there are some new bloods,” Greenberg said. “The blue bloods have an opportunity to reemerge as the season goes along, but we’ve got some new bloods that are stepping up and making a statement.”
Changes in the sport have led to the shuffling at the top.
Elite recruits have become more willing to eschew the traditional powers for smaller schools, spreading talent across the country. Name, image and likeness deals have helped facilitate the shift, offering players financial opportunities they had never had before at those schools.
When it comes to transfers, the NCAA’s implementation of a portal five years ago and, more recently, relaxed rules for immediate eligibility have allowed schools to replenish rosters quickly, pulling in players whose experience and maturity allow them to fit in right away. Some schools have invested more in facilities and coaches, adding to the allure of their programs.
The lasting effects of the COVID-19 pandemic — namely the extra year of eligibility granted by the NCAA — has lended itself to more teams with cohesiveness and coachability.
“Because of the COVID year, you have older, more experienced teams that have grown or been put together that have the maturity and understanding of what it takes to be successful,” Greenberg said. “But the big thing is new coaches in certain leagues have done a really good job of evaluating and recruiting.”
The evidence is in the rankings.
Purdue has continued its rise under coach Matt Painter, spending six weeks atop the poll this season after earning the program’s first No. 1 ranking a year ago. Tennessee has become a defensive menace with Rick Barnes in charge, steadily rising to reach No. 2 in the AP Top 25 this week, although that was also followed by the Volunteers losing 67-54 at Florida on Wednesday, their most lopsided defeat this season.
Kelvin Sampson has restored Houston, which reached three straight Final Fours in the early 1980s, into one of the nation’s toughest teams to play. The Cougars went to the Final Four in 2021 and had two stints at No. 1 this season. No. 4 Alabama has shown it can play some basketball, too, reaching the Sweet 16 two years ago and climbing to No. 2 last week — and on Friday, fourth-year coach Nate Oats was rewarded with a new six-year contract through 2029.
No. 7 Kansas State, picked to finish last in the Big 12, has made a quick rise under firstyear coach Jerome Tang, a former longtime assistant at Baylor. No. 15 TCU is no longer known as just a football school, while programs including Charleston and Florida Atlantic have risen through the ranks.
No. 20 Clemson leads the ACC, and Pittsburgh is just a game back. No. 18 Saint Mary’s is ahead of No. 12 Gonzaga in the West Coast Conference.
On the flip side, North Carolina fell off quickly. Last season’s NCAA tourney runners-up, the Tar Heels went from preseason No. 1 to out of the AP Top 25 in less than a month. On Saturday they visit in-state and ACC rival Duke — which lost to North Carolina in the Final Four last year — but neither is ranked.
Eight-time NCAA champ Kentucky struggled so much earlier in the season, fans were calling for coach John Calipari to be fired from the Southeastern Conference program. Big East giant Villanova, winner of two of the past seven national titles, has dropped off precipitously in its first season since Jay Wright retired.
Of course, there’s still a month left in the regular season, so the currently middling blue bloods can still turn it around. And once it gets to March Madness, the final chapter has still tended to be written by established powers.
Kansas won last year’s national championship after a Final Four that also included Villanova. ACC schools won three of five titles from 2015-19. But with those big-name champions, chaos has reigned with some of the biggest upsets and unexpected deep March runs the past few years.
Loyola of Chicago reached the Final Four in 2018, the same year Maryland-Baltimore County beat Virginia to become the first No. 16 seed to topple a No. 1 in NCAA tournament history. Oral Roberts reached the Sweet 16 in 2021, while Saint Peter’s made the Elite Eight a year ago.
The way this season has gone so far, college basketball fans could be in for the maddest March yet.