Busting Brackets
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NCAA Basketball: 6 biggest breakout candidates for 2019-20 season

By Brian Rauf

WASHINGTON, DC - APRIL 05: NBA Hall of Famer and former Georgetown Hoyas player Patrick Ewing is introduced as the Georgetown Hoyas' new head basketball coach John Thompson Jr. Athletic Center on April 5, 2017 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Mitchell Layton/Getty Images)
WASHINGTON, DC - APRIL 05: NBA Hall of Famer and former Georgetown Hoyas player Patrick Ewing is introduced as the Georgetown Hoyas' new head basketball coach John Thompson Jr. Athletic Center on April 5, 2017 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Mitchell Layton/Getty Images) /
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CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA – MARCH 02: Head coach Jeff Capel of the Pittsburgh Panthers calls to his team as Sidy N’Dir #11 runs up the court in the first half during a game against the Virginia Cavaliers at John Paul Jones Arena on March 2, 2019 in Charlottesville, Virginia. (Photo by Ryan M. Kelly/Getty Images)
CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA – MARCH 02: Head coach Jeff Capel of the Pittsburgh Panthers calls to his team as Sidy N’Dir #11 runs up the court in the first half during a game against the Virginia Cavaliers at John Paul Jones Arena on March 2, 2019 in Charlottesville, Virginia. (Photo by Ryan M. Kelly/Getty Images) /

Which NCAA basketball teams will exceed expectations during the 2019-20 season? Here are the six teams most likely to have breakout campaigns.

One of the best things about NCAA basketball is the fact that things rarely go as expected. In fact, the only thing that’s predictable about the sport is the fact that it’s unpredictable.

Yet we sit again, one week before the start of the season, with preseason rankings claiming to know what the hierarchy of the new year will be.

Every year this proves futile as surprises inevitably come about. Kansas, the preseason No. 1 team last year, had their record-setting streak of conference championships snapped after 14 years. West Virginia, No. 13 in the preseason, had a losing season and finished in last in that same conference. Oregon, preseason No. 14, nearly missed the tournament before getting hot in March. There was even UCLA, preseason No. 21, who fired their head coach before the start of conference play!

At the same time, there are always those programs that get overlooked early and end up playing major roles in the national narrative.

It seems silly now, but Texas Tech wasn’t ranked for the first month of last season. Houston, LSU, Buffalo, Wofford, Wisconsin, Cincinnati, Iowa State, and Utah State were also top 25 teams in the last AP poll despite not being ranked in the first.

Some of those programs simply performed slightly better than expectations, but others – Texas Tech, Houston, LSU, Buffalo, Wofford, and Utah State, specifically – had true breakout campaigns that put them on the map.

There are a few obvious breakout candidates headed into the 2019-20 season. Memphis immediately comes to mind thanks to the country’s top recruiting class, and their preseason ranking (No. 14) bears merit to those increased expectations. The same goes for Louisville (ranked No. 5 after losing 14 games a year ago), Florida (No. 6), Maryland (No. 7), and Seton Hall (No. 12 after an identical 20-14 mark).

I think almost all of those teams will perform well and deliver on their projected breakout seasons – I am picking Florida to win the national championship, after all – but a “breakout” would simply be meeting expectations for those programs.

Instead of highlighting them, let’s look at some teams that are not ranked in the preseason polls but could find their way into the top 25 at some point this season. Here are six teams I expect to have true breakout years:

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