NCAA Basketball: 5 teams who benefitted most from season ending early

Honorable Mentions

Wichita State

I don’t know what was going on behind the scenes at Wichita State, but whatever it was caused an effective exodus of the team’s players when the season was called off. Five players are looking to transfer away from the program, including the team’s top two leading scorers Erik Stevenson and Jamarius Burton. After what was supposed to be a bounce-back year for the Shockers, Gregg Marshall is going to have to again find a way to rebuild a roster shaken by departures. Unfortunately, this time, it’s because his best players chose to leave.

Florida

The Gators’ season did recover down the stretch and they were on the right side of the NCAA Tournament bubble as the SEC Tournament had gotten underway, but let’s not forget how the year started for Florida; they were the 6th ranked team in the preseason, but quickly fell out of the poll before Thanksgiving. They lost to a Connecticut team on the same floor the Huskies had just lost on to St. Joe’s, a squad that would finish with six wins.

They wouldn’t suffer any other particularly head-scratching losses, but Michael White’s team would only manage an 11-7 SEC record. They notched an impressive win at home against #4 Auburn but would drop decisions to Missouri, Ole Miss and Tennessee during the SEC slate. I suppose their campaign could’ve gone worse, but I’ll be happy to forget about this Florida team. Kerry Blackshear is graduating and they could lose a piece or two to the NBA, but Florida might have the talent to challenge Kentucky next year.

Washington

Remember these guys? They were the Pac-12’s only bright spot last year during one of the league’s all-time worst seasons, Mike Hopkins was bringing in two top-ten recruits and snatched Kentucky transfer Quade Green, and came out in Alaska and beat a Baylor team that turned out to be a serious contender for a national championship. It looked like they’d seriously contend for the Pac-12 title.

Before a January 9th showdown with Stanford, the Huskies were 11-4; a couple of losses, first to a talented Houston team and then at home to UCLA to open the Pac-12 slate, had left them stumbling, but they were in decent enough shape. Their frontcourt freshman duo of Isaiah Stewart and Jaden McDaniels were dominating, and Quade Green was averaging over 11 points and 5 assists running the offense. But on that day, Green was ruled academically ineligible and didn’t play again on the year. They’d lose 11 of their next 12 and finish 5-13 in the conference.