The Most Disappointing Teams in College Basketball (Early Addition)

In any offseason of any sport, there is plenty of time to evaluate the changes each team makes and get excited about it. This happens a lot in College Basketball, especially with the Transfer Portal becoming such a big factor. Players have never been changing teams at this pace, and with that there are plenty of offseason moves made that create signs of hope and optimism. While some pan out, there are also plenty of teams and expectations that do not. The season is only a few weeks long and there is plenty of time to get things right. However, there is no guarantee that happens and even though you can’t clinch a tournament bid in November and December, you can definitely lose one. Here are the most disappointing teams in College Basketball so far this season.

Kentucky

John Calipari’s Wildcats came into the season with heavy expectations as normal, despite losing to #15 seeded Saint Peter’s in the opening round of the NCAA Tournament. While expectations are heavy for Kentucky every season, they did bring back a majority of the players from last season’s team that finished 26-8 and second in the SEC. That includes the reigning Naismith Player of the Year in Oscar Tschibwe, who was the first one to win that award and return to school since Tyler Hansborogh in 2008. Kentucky also added a star-studded Freshman class headlined by Cason Wallace and added transfers that were expected to help Kentucky’s problems shooting the basketball.

Kentucky even looked very good at their Overseas Tour over the Summer, when Damion Collins showed all of his potential and Jacob Toppin looked like a future NBA Lottery Pick. Kentucky hasn’t shown that potential so far this season, as they have lost both of their games against legitimate opponents in Michigan State and Gonzaga. These losses could not have been more frustrating, considering Kentucky was leading for the overwhelming majority of the Michigan State game, but couldn’t close the Spartans out at the end of the Free Throw line. This happened twice, and both times Michigan State was able to take advantage and extend the game.

In the first decade plus of the John Calipari era in Lexington, Coach Cal did everything he could to show that he was more than just a good recruiter and one of the best coaches in the country. That hasn’t been the case lately, as Kentucky was flat out unprepared and ready to go against Gonzaga. The Zag’s won 88-72 and it didn’t even feel that close. For an older team, Kentucky had way too many moments where they looked lost and Gonzaga didn’t even have to play their best game to handle the Cats pretty easily. For a team that entered the season with realistic National Championship expectations and fresh off the embarrassing Saint Peter’s loss, I expected way more than what Big Blue has shown so far.

Providence

The Friars had a magical 2022 season, winning their first Big East Regular Season Title in program history. Ed Cooley had done a really good job with the program up to this point, leading them to the NCAA Tournament five consecutive times from 2014 to 2018. Providence, however, was never able to advance past the Round of 32 during that stretch…. until last season when Cooley led the Friars to their first Sweet 16 since 1997.

Despite losing some key contributors from last season, Cooley did a great job in the Transfer Portal this offseason and it was clear that people were taking notice of the culture at Providence. There aren’t a ton of coaches in the country I’d want to play for more than Ed Cooley, and a lot of the players in the portal thought the same way. Providence added Kentucky Transfer Bryce Hopkins, who is a former Top 50 recruit out of High School and can score the ball with ease. They also added one of the better Freshman in the SEC last season with Devin Carter and Louisville Transfer Noah Locke, who has made over 275 threes in his college career. The Friars were predicted to finish in 5th place in the Preseason Big East Media poll and they haven’t looked like that so far.

After struggling with Rider and narrowly escaping with a one-point victory on Opening Night, Providence then entered the Hall of Fame tip off fresh off two easy bye game victories. All of that momentum was quickly lost however, as Providence dropped both of their games at Mohegan Sun to Miami and Saint Louis. While neither of these losses are particularly bad per say, Miami controlled the game the whole way and Providence was in perfect position to close out Saint Louis. After the Friars blew a 6-point halftime lead, they still led Saint Louis 73-69 with 1:48 to play. The Billikens then closed the game on a 7-0 run to capture the victory. While we all knew Providence was going to take at least a slight step back, things could be even worse than that in a very tough Big East.

Florida State

The Seminoles are the first team included here, which has somewhat of a legitimate reason for their disappointing start. Leonard Hamilton has already lost two prominent frontcourt starters for the near future in Jaylan Gainey and Baba Miller. Gainey, a transfer from Brown, was projected to be starting in the Seminoles frontcourt but was lost for the season in early October with a Knee Injury. In addition, Freshman One and Done Candidate Baba Miller, was suspended for the first 16 games of the season by the NCAA for taking illegal benefits to pay for a trip. Despite losing these players though, Florida State should be significantly better.

Before a lost 2022 season, Florida State had made four consecutive NCAA Tournaments leading them to four consecutive NCAA Tournaments from 2017-2021. During that stretch, Florida State made it to an Elite 8 and two Sweet 16’s and the Seminoles also had a legitimate chance to get to the Final 4 in 2020 before the season shut down due to the COVID-19 Pandemic. This is why no one panicked about Florida State after a disappointing 2022 season, relative to expectations. The Seminoles returned each of their top two scorers from last season in Caleb Mills and Matthew Cleveland, along with UCF Transfer Darin Green Jr. and other returnees who played a big role last season. The Seminoles Class of 2021 was expected to do big things following the exit of so many great Florida State players in recent years but those exits might finally be catching up to the Seminoles.

Florida State started the season 0-3 with losses to Stetson, UCF and Troy. In their next game against in-state rival Florida, the Seminoles played their best first half of the season, leading 43-26 at the half. Unfortunately, their best half of the season was followed up by their worst half of the season, as Florida outscored Florida State 50-24 in the second half en route to a 76-67 victory. Thankfully, Florida State finally got in the win column for the first time on Monday Night against Mercer, but the Seminoles have a long way to go to get anywhere close to their preseason expectations.

Louisville

It isn’t very often that the team that was picked to finish in 12th place in the ACC Preseason with a first year Head Coach gets labeled as a disappointment but here we are. Kenny Payne’s Cardinals have started the 2022-2023 season with a record of 0-5 and each loss seems to be worse than the next. Louisville lost each of their first three games in extremely heartbreaking fashion, all by just one single point. These games weren’t against the best competition either, as Louisville lost these three games to Bellarmine, Wright State and Appalachian State. Losing three games in a row to mid major competition was bad enough, but these games were in preparation for the most stacked Maui Invitational we’ve seen in recent years.

Louisville did compete with Arkansas in their opener, but followed it up by losing to Texas Tech in embarrassing fashion, only scoring 38 points total in the game. Texas Tech is the worst possible matchup for Louisville considering the way they play defense and lack of offensive creators for the Cardinals. However, as bad as the season has been on the floor so far, that shouldn’t even be Louisville fans’ primary concern.

Kenny Payne was brought in to be the coach for his prowess and connections on the Recruiting Trail.  As a former Kentucky and New York Knicks Assistant, the consensus expectation was that Payne would be able to bring in players, especially with the Transfer Portal rules changing. Instead, Payne only added one impact Transfer in Brandon Huntley- Hatfield and it was clear that this Louisville team did not have enough to compete. While no one expected it to be this bad, Payne’s inability to get players this offseason is more concerning than any result they’ve had so far.

Georgetown

In a similar way to Louisville, it isn’t often that a team that was projected to finish towards the bottom of their league would be included in this conversion. Especially after they didn’t win a conference game last season, like in Georgetown’s case. However, the start to this season has been much worse than anyone could have imagined as Georgetown is currently 3-3 overall, with losses to Northwestern, Loyola-Marymount and American. The Hoyas have been outscored by a combined 69 points in each of their last 4 games, which shows that Patrick Ewing has been getting out-coached and out- executed consistently during these games.

Following last season’s disaster, Georgetown was in a really tough spot considering they wouldn’t be Georgetown without Ewing. However, after putting up a donut in the win column during conference play and this start, this feels like the end. Ewing just started his 6th season in charge, and has only led Georgetown to one NCAA Tournament Appearance so far, which resulted in a blowout first round loss to Colorado. That was during the 2020 COVID season which Georgetown went on a magical run as an #8 seed, winning three games in three days to secure the bid. Aside from that one run, Georgetown needs to be better and they are too good of a program to be this bad.

One of the most disappointing things so far about the Ewing era has been the lack of recruiting and the inability to keep the best players within the program. Georgetown has recruited at a lackluster pace, and way too low of a level when you have someone as notable as Patrick Ewing as your Head Coach. There have been some moments during the Ewing era where it looked like things were starting to get rolling like when they had current pro’s in James Akinjo and Mac McClung, but they didn’t stay at Georgetown long enough to really establish something. Wednesday’s 10-point halftime lead being blown to American on Georgetown’s home court really felt like rock bottom and the end for Ewing.

Texas A&M

There weren’t many teams that played better towards the end of last season then Buzz Williams and his Aggies. After failing to find consistently good play during the regular season, Texas A&M won their last 4 regular season games along with their first 3 games of the SEC Tournament to advance all the way to the finals. Unfortunately, the Aggies fell to Tennessee and didn’t get selected into the big dance. Williams wasn’t particularly thrilled about this stating “After studying all this nonstop the last two day and looking at it from every vantage point,” he continued, “it defies logic that we are not in the NCAA Tournament.”

When you make a quote like that, other people are going to notice and you can become the hunted. The Aggies even used their fuel in the NIT, winning their first three games en route to the finals before losing to Xavier. With the Aggies returning three of their top five scorers from last season, there was no reason to think the Aggies wouldn’t be able to continue that momentum built late last season.

That hasn’t been the case so far for the Aggies though. So far this season, Texas A&M looks much closer to the team we saw lose 8 consecutive games during SEC play last season. The Aggies got run off the floor in both of their first two games in the Myrtle Beach Invitational against Murray State and Colorado, after entering the tournament as the clear-cut favorite. Despite bringing back a ton of returning talent, there is no continuity with this Aggies team at all, as they seem to have a different starting lineup each night. The Aggies quit in their game against Colorado, giving up 54 points in the first half and allowing 103 total points to a young inexperienced Buffs team. The way Buzz handled the Transfer Portal, adding a ton of guys that don’t not have a clear role for this Aggies team, probably wasn’t the best move and it is apparent when you watch them play.  Buzz has done a lot of good things prior to arriving in College Station, but he needs to start winning soon or else Aggies fans might run out of patience.