The Most Disappointing Team In Each Conference After The First Month of the Season

Big East – Villanova

Consistency was always going to be an issue for Villanova, after adding a handful of new players from the Transfer Portal this offseason. The Wildcats were coming off their worst season in the last decade, finishing 17-17 and missing the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2012. The interesting thing however is that Villanova still had players coming back from each of the last few seasons including guys like Justin Moore, Eric Dixon and Jordan Longino. It was always interesting to me how those guys would feel with so many new players coming into the picture making big time NIL Money, while they haven’t done nearly as much as they did for the program. 

 After an early season loss to Penn that was pretty head scratching, it looked like the Wildcats had figured things out. Villanova collected a trio of wins over likely NCAA Tournament teams in the Bahamas including Texas Tech, Memphis and North Carolina. That featured a career game by Dixon, that featured him scoring a career high 33 points against North Carolina. That momentum couldn’t continue as Kyle Neptune’s team dropped their next two Big 5 games against the likes of Drexel and St. Joseph’s this week. Prior to his retirement in 2022, Jay Wright finished 33-1 in his final 34 Big 5 games at Villanova. The Wildcats finished 0-3 in those games this season.  

Just when things couldn’t get worse Villanova lost a very winnable game at Kansas State on Tuesday Night in Overtime. The Wildcats held a two-point lead in the final ten seconds, before Tylor Perry drained a three in the face of one of their many high-quality Transfer Lance Ware. In addition, Villanova couldn’t get a quality look at the end of regulation with the game tied, which sent the game to overtime. Despite their trio of quality wins in Atlantis, the Wildcats are far away from an NCAA Tournament lock and will have way more questions than answers heading into Big East Conference play.  

Big 12 – Oklahoma State

Although the preseason expectations were somewhat bleak in Stillwater with the Cowboys being selected 10th in the Preseason Poll, not many expected it to be this bad. Following Tuesday night’s loss at Southern Illinois Oklahoma State is now 3-5, with a lot more questions than answers. The Cowboys three wins this season have come against the likes of Sam Houston State, New Orleans and Houston Christian. Per KenPom Sam Houston State is the best out of those three victories being ranked at #143, leaving the Cowboys without a win over a top 140 team. This is now year #7 for Mike Boynton Jr. as Head Coach. While there have been some good moments including winning an NCAA Tournament game in 2021, the cupboard is looking pretty bare.  

It is also important to remember that Oklahoma State easily could have been a tournament team in 2021-2022, if not for the NCAA banning them from postseason play due to “players receiving improper benefits.” There was a much better way to punish them without ruining their postseason hopes, and the program has not been able to recover. Just last season, Oklahoma State entered the middle of February with legitimate postseason hopes, but faltered down the stretch dropping five of their six games to close out Big 12 conference play.  

The Cowboys have dropped games to Notre Dame and St. Bonaventure so far this season, which are the games you have to win if you have any hope of turning things around. In a loaded Big 12 Conference, featuring the likes of Kansas, Houston, Baylor, BYU, Oklahoma and others, things could get really ugly really quickly. The Cowboys currently rank tied for 193rd in the country in Points Per Game with 74.1, and tied for 220th for true shooting percentage at 53.9%. That is simply not good enough to get the job done.  

Pac-12 – Stanford

Similarly to Oklahoma State, this was always going to be a make or break season for Jerod Haase and his Cardinal. There aren’t many coaches in Division I College Basketball that have been at the same job for seven seasons without an NCAA Tournament bid, who are able to get to year number eight. A big reason for that is just how well Stanford has recruited lately, with talent being nowhere close to what the issue is right now on the farm. The Cardinal have brought in five-star prospects recently including Harrison Ingram, Zhaire Williams and Andrej Stojakovic. Plus, four-star recruits like Isa Silva, Kanaan Carlyle, and Brandon Angel.  

The issue is that getting this talent hasn’t resulted in enough victories, and that came to the forefront in Atlantis during FeastWeek. The Cardinal had a golden opportunity for their first signature win of the season against Arkansas in their opening game leading by two in the final seconds, but not being able to secure the victory. They followed that up by dropping two very winnable games against Michigan and Northern Iowa, finishing 0-3 on the trip. It was the game against Northern Iowa that was completely unacceptable, losing by 23 points and never being remotely competitive.  

There is too much talent on this roster to be this bad, and this is very sad to see for a once very proud program. This past summer, many Stanford Basketball alumni have spoken out on the current state of the program and it is hard to blame them watching this product on the floor right now. Changes need to be made and very soon.  

ACC – Duke

The Blue Devils entered this season as a consensus top three team and in some instances the #1 ranked team in many preseason polls. That is largely due to the fact that Duke finished last season playing tremendous basketball, going 9-0 in their final nine ACC games, which also included an ACC Tournament title. Despite the losses of NBA players in Dariq Whitehead and Dereck Lively II, Duke still returned a ton from last season’s team.  

The issue so far this season has been outside of Kyle Filipowski, that talent hasn’t necessarily been as good as we’ve expected. Sophomore Guard Tyrese Proctor found his way into the lottery in a handful of mock drafts this offseason, and was expected to take a major leap forward this season. Proctor has been fine, averaging 10.3 points and 4.5 assists per game. However, he just hasn’t taken the leap many expected to really put this Duke team over the top. He also left Saturday’s game against Georgia Tech early with a sprained ankle and it is unknown when he will return.  

Jon Scheyer also brought in the second ranked Freshman class in the country, and he just hasn’t been able to find trust with anyone just yet. Caleb Foster had a coming out party in the Champions Classic against Michigan State with 18 points, but hasn’t done much outside of that. The Blue Devils also have a clear hole at the five spot and are clearly lacking rim protection without Lively. While Freshman Sean Stewart can be that guy by season’s end, it’s clear that he just isn’t there yet.  

Duke has already dropped a trio of games to Arizona, Arkansas and Georgia Tech before we hit the mid-way point of December. The Blue Devils will have one more marquee game against a Baylor team ranked in the Top 10, before the start of ACC Conference play. While there is still plenty of time to figure things out, Duke hasn’t looked like anything close to the team that many expected had the most pure talent in College Basketball in the preseason.   

Big Ten – Michigan State

There were many different options on where to go here, but I landed on Tom Izzo’s team, who has started 4-4 on the season, after entering this season with National Title Aspirations. After an up and down 2022, Michigan State returned five of their top six leading scorers from last year’s team that made the Sweet 16. That included the trio of Tyson Walker, AJ Hoggard and Jaden Akins in the backcourt that combined to average 42.1 points per game.  

One thing that is very noticeable about Michigan State so far is that Tyson Walker just doesn’t have enough help around him. Despite being one of the best players in the Big Ten, it is hard to ask a smaller guard to do everything by himself. Hoggard has been inconsistent, and Akins has had a tough time getting going. The other major problem right now for Sparty is the Center position. Despite having a number of different options in Mady Sissoko, Carson Cooper and Five-Star Freshman Xavier Booker, Tom Izzo hasn’t found someone that can give them consistently productive minutes.  

The one key contributor that Michigan State lost from last season was Joey Hauser, who was probably much more valuable than everyone realized during his time in East Lansing. This was Michigan State’s best three-point shooter who could stretch the floor, and it’s been noticeable just how bad this team has been shooting the basketball. Michigan State is currently tied for 338th in the country in three-point shooting at a dreadful 27.5%. Those shooting issues really started the Spartan’s season trending in the wrong direction, when they shot 1/20 from deep in their shocking opening night loss to James Madison.  

SEC – Vanderbilt

The Commodores were picked 11th in the Preseason SEC poll, and somehow their start to this season has been significantly worse than those expectations. Considering Vanderbilt ended last season playing rather well, winning 10 of their final 12 SEC Conference games, it is somewhat surprising just how much they have struggled so far in 2023-2024. That end to the season a year ago, was by far and away the best basketball the ‘Dores have played in the Jerry Stackhouse era. Vandy returned both key members of their starting backcourt in Ezra Manjon and Tyrin Lawrence, who have combined to average 29.3 points per game so far.  

Unfortunately, that backcourt production hasn’t resulted in a ton of team success as Vandy already has a handful of head scratching losses to the likes of Presbyterian, Boston College and San Francisco. Throughout the first few years under Stackhouse losses like these were pretty common. However, the hope was after how well they played to end last season, that they would be over. That hasn’t been the case, and things aren’t going to get any easier with games against Texas Tech and Memphis before the start of SEC Conference play.  

Just when you thought things couldn’t get any worse for Vandy, their former Head Coach Bryce Drew has Grand Canyon off to a 7-1 start and just earned their first ever victory over a ranked team in the reigning National Runners Up San Diego State.