With the College Basketball Offseason in full swing, many teams have been labeled as the clear winners or losers up to this point, even though nothing will be known until we get on the floor. With that being said, there are plenty of teams around College Basketball that have had a successful offseason so far, that might have also gone a little bit under the radar. With the NBA Draft approaching shortly, more teams will have a chance to gain or lose some momentum, as the summer approaches.
Florida State (ACC)
Longtime Seminoles Head Coach Leonard Hamilton has done a tremendous job establishing Florida State as a “New Blood” in the ACC. Florida State has made four out of the last 5 NCAA Tournaments and after a down in 2022, the Seminoles are bound to bounce back in a big way. Just because Florida State missed the 2022 NCAA Tournament, doesn’t mean that it wasn’t a productive season in Tallahassee. Multiple members of the Freshman class showed promise including Matthew Cleveland, John Butler III and Jalen Warley. What makes this group so intriguing is that each of them plays different positions as a lead guard, wing and big man, while also showing promise and hope for the future. At 7’1” Butler even got an invitation to the NBA Draft Combine, and still has to decide regarding the NBA Draft. Florida State also had success in the Transfer Portal ranks last offseason, bringing in Caleb Mills from Houston and Cam’Ron Fletcher from Kentucky. Both of those guys are set to return for Florida State along with Darrin Green Jr. from UCF, who averaged 13.3 points per game last season. Hamilton has done a tremendous job of collecting talent to bring into his program, after losing multiple props of the years like Scottie Barnes, Devin Vassell, RaQuan Gray and Patrick Williams. With some of the older experienced players leaving the program, it is now time for the youngsters to bring some energy to the Seminoles, as they should be ranked as a preseason Top 25 team, in the ACC.
Penn State (Big Ten)
First year Nittany Lions Head Coach Micah Shrewsberry did a phenomenal job during his first year in Happy Valley, leading Penn State to a 14-17 overall record and 7-13 in the Big Ten. Although it didn’t result in an NCAA Tournament appearance, Penn State showed better effort and organization compared to years prior and have some optimism heading into Shrewberry’s second season. The Nittany Lions are set to return the trio of Jalen Pickett, Seth Lundy and Myles Dread, who were all top five in scoring for Penn State last season. Pickett and Lundy combined for 25.2 Points Per Game last season, and with another year familiar in the program should be even better. In addition, Penn State added a pair of transfers from the mid major ranks that should help scoring the ball right away. Penn State Camren Wynters from Drexel who averaged 15.8 points, 5.3 rebounds and 4.3 assists per game last season. In addition, they added Andrew Funk who averaged 17.6 points per game while shooting 36.3% from three last season at Bucknell. “We’re right there,” Shrewsberry said after the season. “That’s the part where you get a little disappointed that you’re close, you’re really close. Now, don’t take steps back to take steps forward. We need to build off what we did this year,” Shrewberry explained following the conclusion of his first season in Happy Valley. With the Big Ten losing a jaw dropping amount of high-level players including Keegan Murray, Johnny Davis, Kofi Cockburn, Max Christie, Trent Frazier and more, the door could be open for a sleep team like Penn State to have a successful season.
Oklahoma (Big 12)
Second year Sooners Head Coach Porter Moser, gained a huge addition from the Transfer Portal this week picking up the services of former Nevada Wolfpack Grant Sherfield. Sherfield has scored over 1260 total points throughout his college career, and will now be in a winning situation. The Sooners narrowly missed the 2022 NCAA Tournament, even making things really interesting for the committee when they knocked Baylor out of the Big 12 Tournament, when they were defending NCAA Champions at the time. Furthermore, the Sooners picked up wins over Arkansas, Iowa State and Texas Tech, all of whom played in the NCAA Tournament. With key contributors Tanner Groves and Jalen Hill set to return in the frontcourt, along with George Washington Transfer Joe Bamislie, there is no reason why Oklahoma cannot be a Top 25 team in 2022. The Sooners also have a pair of young guards in Bijan Cortes and CJ Noland, who should see an increased role after a solid Freshman season especially on the defensive end. Historically, all of Moser’s teams at Loyola Chicago had massive success on that end of the floor, and the same thing should go for Oklahoma. Similar to the Big 10, the Big 12 has lost a ton of talent, especially from the teams at the top of the ranks, which could open up a spot for Porter’s squad.
Butler (Big East)
Although hired on April 6th which is typically pretty late in the coaches’ cycle, the Bulldogs are in a solid spot heading into the summer, under new Head Coach Thad Maata. The former Ohio State leader has not coached in Division 1 since 2017, but has already done a nice job building his roster. Prior to his arrival, Butler had some major question marks in terms of who would be returning and if Maata would be able to add after some time away from the game. Rising Sophomore Guard, Simas Lukosius announced he would be returning to Butler to play for Maata, after entering the Transfer Portal after former Butler Coach LaVall Jordan was let go. This was significant due to the fact that Lukosius was one of the lone bright spots for the Bulldogs in 2022, especially towards the end of the season. Simas dropped 27 points in Butler’s surprising opening round Big East Tournament victory over Xavier, to knock them out of the NCAA Tournament. Having younger Guards like Simas, Chuck Harris, and Jayden Taylor to build around is an overall recipe for success. In addition, Maata has brought in Power 6 transfers in Manny Bates from NC State and Eric Hunter Jr from Purdue. Both of these guys have played in a combined 182 College Basketball games in their careers and know what it’s like to be part of a winning team. With Ali Ali, another productive transfer coming in from Akron as well, Maata has done as good of a job as anyone could have asked building this roster, as now the difficult part comes of getting them all on the floor.
Stanford (Pac 12)
The situation pertaining to Jerod Haase at Stanford, is one of the more intriguing storylines in College Basketball, that should be spoken about more often. After taking over for Johnny Dawkins at the start of the 2017 season, Stanford has still not returned to the NCAA Tournament under his watch, and at a majority of the other Power 6 schools, not making the tournament in that amount of time is going to keep you around much longer. Haase’s best season came in 2020 when Stanford won 20 games, but still wouldn’t have made the tournament if it took place, thanks to a late season collapse. The one thing that has given the program hope has been Haase’s ability to recruit, while even producing some future NBA players. Harrison Ingram was an absolute win on the recruiting trail last offseason, averaging 10.5 points per game and improving as the season went on. While Ingram did declare for the NBA Draft, he did it while maintaining his college eligibility and his decision will impact Stanford’s 2023 season in a major way. The Cardinal are set to return a nice core group of players including Spencer Jones, Michael O’Connell, Isa Silva and Brandon Angel, who all showed nice flashes last year and should only improve with another year in the program. Stanford also recently gained the commitment of Davidson Transfer Mike Jones, who shot the ball nicely last season while playing for an NCAA Tournament team. The one constant that has hurt Stanford in recent years has been players leaving early, while some hoped a return would bring the team to the next step. With guys like Tyrell Terry and KZ Okpala becoming professionals while not many originally expected them to do so, Stanford has missed the opportunity to capitalize on some of their more talented teams since Haase took over. This is a trend that has to change this season, with an NCAA Tournament bid while playing in a pretty weak Pac 12 Conference.
Mississippi State (SEC)
Getting talent on campus was not the issue at Mississippi State, during the Ben Howland era. As a matter of fact, Howland did a really good job from a recruiting perspective, landing some of the more talented players from an overall talent perspective that the program has ever got their hands on. With that being said, it didn’t necessarily translate into as many wins as expected and things finally came to a halt after the 2022 season. The Bulldogs brought in former New Mexico State Head Coach Chris Jans, who won 4 Western Athletic Conference titles and three Conference Coach of the Year awards in his five years in Las Cruces. In addition, Jans is fresh off leading his Aggies to their first NCAA Tournament win since 1993. Jans has done a great job getting some of the best players that came to Starkville under Howland to come back to school. This includes guys like Shakeel Moore and DJ Jeffries, who entered the Transfer Portal, following the news of Howland leaving but decided to come back. As a first-year coach, taking over a program that had some talent prior to you getting there, those guys returning could be the difference of getting off to a good start in Year 1 of your tenure. Senior Big Man Tolu Smith, who was one of the more underrated players in not only the SEC but all of College Basketball is set to return as well. Smith averaged 14.2 points and 6.5 rebounds per game last season, and could take another massive step forward in 2023 playing for a coach like Jans. With Oregon State Transfer DaShawn Davis also coming in to play Point Guard, there is no reason why Mississippi State cannot be an NCAA Tournament team next season, thanks to the successful first off season of the Chris Jans era.
Zac Krull has covered College Basketball for the last 2 years while working with Aaron Torres of Aaron Torres Media and recording his own Zac Krull Sports Podcast. Currently, Zac is writing as a contributor for Aaron Torres online with weekly articles and working as a producer for the BETQL Network. Zac graduated from SUNY Cortland in 2021 with a degree in Sports Studies.