One Program on the Rise from Every Power 6 Conference

Big East: Xavier

Sean Miller was hired as the new Head Coach of Xavier, in March and he already has fully turned the program around. Xavier did not make the NCAA Tournament from 2019-2022, which was the program’s longest NCAA Tournament drought since the early 1980’s. Xavier had one of the more talented rosters in the country last season, and Miller was able to get a handful of those players to return to school and it has worked in a big way. The Musketeers won their first six games of Big East Conference play, which is only two less than last season’s Conference win total and the same as 2021.

The Musketeers are currently the 12th ranked team in the country and have really put themselves in a good position to get a favorable seed in the NCAA Tournament. Xavier has already collected victories over other likely NCAA Tournament teams in UConn, Creighton, and West Virginia and have only lost to quality teams in Duke, Gonzaga and Indiana. While Xavier will still face some difficult road tests at UConn, at Creighton and at Marquette in the coming weeks, this squad showed they can win in a difficult road environment when they won at Villanova for the first time since joining the Big East Conference in 2014.

Sean Miller also brought in the #29 ranked recruiting class in the country, headlined by two Top 100 High School players in Kam Craft and Desmond Claude. With this Xavier team headlined by Upperclassman in Colby Jones, Jack Nunge, Zach Freemantle, Adam Kunkel and others, these youngsters will have major roles next season and are already gaining valuable experience. Claude has played double digit minutes in each of Xavier’s last six games, including 24 minutes off the bench in the Musketeers victory over Creighon on Wednesday Night.

Big 12: Kansas State

These Wildcats have become one of the biggest stories in College Basketball, under first year Head Coach Jerome Tang. Kansas State has started off the season 15-1 overall and 3-0 in Big 12 Conference play. This is the Wildcats best start since they started 13-1 in 2010 and that Kansas State team ended up going all the way to the Elite 8. Kansas State has arguably the best duo in College Basketball with Marquis Nowell and Keyontae Johnson. The duo combined, is averaging 35.6 points per game, and over 10 rebounds and assists per game. Nowell, a transfer from Arkansas-Little Rock, played at Kansas State last season for Bruce Weber, but decided to come back and play for Tang, and it could be the best decision he’s ever made.

Nowell helped Kansas State win true road games last week at Texas and at Baylor. in a five-day period. In those two games Nowell combined for 52 total points and has looked like one

of the best players in the entire sport. Alongside him is Keyontae Johnson, who the majority of College Basketball fans are familiar with from his days at Florida. Two years ago, Johnson collapsed on the court and his basketball future was unknown. This was right after Johnson returned to Florida for his Junior season and was named Preseason SEC Conference Player of the Year. Considering Keyontae was a very late add in the Transfer Portal, and was off the basketball court for a year and a half, not many expected him to be a major producer at Kansas State. Instead, Johnson has reminded everyone just how special of a player and worker he is, as he has looked just like the player we remember at Florida. Johnson is third in the Big 12 in scoring, averaging 18.4 Points Per Game.

Kansas State is already building an NCAA Tournament resume, with wins over Baylor, Texas, LSU, Oklahoma State and more. In addition, the Wildcats questionable loss to Butler is starting to look like an outlier, considering just how dominant Kansas State has been in every other game. This is the second consecutive season that an Assistant Coach hired has had instant success, with Arizona hiring Tommy Lloyd last offseason. I would bet on this becoming a trend we see much more of with hires in the future, as Tang and Lloyd have laid out a blueprint for elite Assistants taking over new programs. Kansas State was projected to finish in last place in the Big 12 Preseason Media Poll, but now look like a clear-cut NCAA Tournament team and one of the better teams in the country. If Jerome Tang is doing this only in Year 1, then the future is extremely bright.

Pac 12: Utah

Former Utah State Head Coach Craig Smith moved from Logan to Salt Lake City to become the new Head Coach of Utah at the start of the 2021-2022 season and already the program is in a much better place. Smith already has the Utes competing for an NCAA Tournament berth for the first time since 2016, with their 5-2 start in Pac 12 Conference play. Smith was able to collect his first real statement win as the Head Coach of Utah on December 1st, when the Utes demolished the #4 ranked Arizona Wildcats 81-66. Considering there aren’t as many opportunities to collect wins that move the needle in the Pac 12, this was a massive one to add against the conference’s top dog.

Utah Basketball had a great run under former Head Coach Larry Krystowiak, when they first got to the Pac 12. Krystowiak took the Utes to the NCAA Tournament in both 2015 and 2016, which included winning at least one game in both years. However, Utah still is on a six-year NCAA Tournament drought, and Craig Smith has shown his ability to turn around a program. Smith took over the Utah State program in 2018-2019, when the Aggies hadn’t made the NCAA Tournament since 2011 and he immediately made an impact.

This impact was getting them to the NCAA Tournament in 2019, and winning the Mountain West Tournament in 2020 to secure a bid, prior to the rest of the season being canceled. In addition, in his final season in Logan, Smith led Utah State to another Mountain West Tournament Title, on a team led by future NBA player Nemias Queda. Smith did a good

job bringing some of his former Utah State players with him to Salt Lake City in Marco Anthony and Rolly Worster to establish a winning culture. With UCLA and USC set to leave the conference soon, there are plenty of teams that can pick up that slack and Utah under Craig Smith will be one of them.

ACC: Wake Forest

In the 2020 offseason following the NCAA Tournament being canceled due to the COVID-19 Pandemic, there was only one new Coaching Hire made in power 6 College Basketball. That hire was made by Wake Forest, bringing in East Tennessee State Head Coach Steve Forbes. Forbes had ETSU in position to make the NCAA Tournament before the pandemic struke, and Wake has only been getting better since he walked in the door.

After a difficult first season for Forbes, Wake Forest was one of the more surprising teams last season finishing 25-10 and making it to the NIT. This was the most wins the Wake Forest program has had in one season since 2009. Forbes was able to strike gold in the Transfer Portal, bringing in Alondes Williams from Oklahoma and Jake LaRavia from Indiana State, and both of them immediately developed into NBA Players under his watch. As great as last season was for the Demon Deacons, unfortunately it ended on a sour note missing the NCAA Tournament following a difficult loss in the ACC Tournament to Boston College. However, it was clear that this Wake program was in its best position in recent memory.

Many were underwhelmed by Forbes’ Transfer Portal additions this offseason, considering the sell he can make after developing two Transfers into NBA players last season. Not that the group of Tyree Appleby, Andrew Carr, Jao Ituka and Davion Bradford was bad per say, however it was unknown if they would be able to help replace two NBA players. Instead, Steve Forbes continues to coach his tail off and Wake Forest is in great position to make the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2017 and possibly win a Tournament game for the first time since 2020. The Demon Deacons have collected victories over Duke, at Wisconsin, and Virginia Tech, while Forbes has turned Appleby into an absolute star, The Transfer from Florida is leading the team in scoring with 17.8 Points Per Game and is following the same path as Williams and LaRavia. Forbes has established himself as one of the better coaches in the country and has this Wake program in a great position that will only get better under his watch.

Big Ten: Rutgers

Everyone already knew going into this season just how good of a Head Coach Steve Pikell is, after rebuilding this Rutgers program. Pikell took Rutgers to back to back NCAA Tournament’s for the first time since the 1975/1976 seasons. In addition, Rutgers would have made the NCAA Tournament in 2020, before the season was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. During this three year stretch, Rutgers had constants within the program including Geo Baker, Ron Harper Jr., Myles Johnson and others, who were there since the beginning of the Pikell era and really started the upwards trajectory.

The question was, would Rutgers be able to sustain this success following the loss of Baker, Harper Jr. and back to back NCAA Tournament births. The Scarlet Knights were projected to finish in 8th place in the Big Ten Preseason media poll, but have been much better than many expected. Rutgers is currently 12-5 overall and 4-2 in the Big Ten, winning three of their last four games in Big Ten play. These wins at Purdue, at Northwestern and vs Maryland will help Rutgers compete for their third consecutive NCAA Tournament bid, which has never happened in the history of the program.

Despite losing some of the main contributors from the last few seasons, other Scarlett Knights have risen to the occasion in a big way. Rutgers had trouble scoring the ball at times, with defense being their main focus and Steve Pikell decided to address that in the offseason. In came Loyola-Maryland Transfer Cam Spencer, who averaged 18.9 points per game with the Greyhounds last season and is currently leading the Scarlet Knights in scoring with 13.5 points per game. Spencer also hit two monster game winning threes in the final 10 seconds to lift Rutgers over Purdue and Northwestern in the past week. With other guys like Cliff Omoruyi, Paul Mulcahy and Caleb McConnell who are really good at their individual roles as returning players under Pikell, this Rutgers program has established an elite culture and is in a great position to thrive going forward.

SEC: Missouri

In only his first season in Columbia, Dennis Gates has Missouri ranked inside the Top 25 and in a really favorable position to make the NCAA Tournament. This is an incredible turnaround considering Missouri finished 12-21 overall last season and only won five SEC Conference games. While their leading scorer Kobe Brown returned to school, the Tigers lost just about everyone else from last season. Dennis Gates had to revamp his roster in a big way, and used the Transfer Portal to his advantage.

Gates bought a handful of his former players from Cleveland State to Missouri with him, which might not sound like a big deal. However, the fact that Gates was able to recognize that guys like D’Moi Hodge and Tre Gomillion were able to handle the jump from the Horizon League to the SEC is very impressive. Gates was also able to add useful players from other mid-major schools like Noah Carter from Northern Iowa, DeAndre Gholston from UW-Milwaukee, and Sean East from Bradley. All of these players might not have been the most highly recruited players in the portal, but Gates and his staff realized just how great of a fit they would be inside the Missouri program and it’s paying off.

Missouri has a very passionate fan base that loves the basketball program more than anything. However, they have fallen on some tough times lately. The Tigers have not won an NCAA Tournament game since 2010 and haven’t made the big dance in back to back years since 2012-2013. At first, the perception around the Dennis Gates hire wasn’t great considering he came from a relatively small Cleveland State program and Missouri fans wanted a bigger name. While some programs make underwhelming hires, this is not one of them, and there is already more excitement around the Missouri program than we’ve seen in a while. The atmosphere for Missouri’s home games against Kansas and Kentucky were two of the better atmospheres we’ve seen in College Basketball so far this season. Considering Gates has just arrived in Columbia, and Missouri already feels reborn in a way, this is a program to watch going forward.