NCAA Basketball: Power ranking of all 357 teams for 2020-21 season

140. Grand Canyon Antelopes

Grand Canyon massively underachieved in the Dan Majerle era. The university decided they had seen enough and decided to hire former Vanderbilt head coach Bryce Drew. Drew was a great hire and the Antelopes have a nice team on the floor for their new coach’s first year. Grand Canyon may exceed expectations this year and justify the hiring of coach Drew. Alessandro Lever is back for his senior season and is ready to lead Grand Canyon into this new era for their program.

139. Wofford Terriers

Wofford enters year two under head coach Jay McCauley and they are headed for their second consecutive middle of the pack finish in the Southern Conference. The Terriers are not like your normal middle of the pack team though as they do have the ability to knock off anyone in this conference especially if their stars get going.

Wofford still has the best shooter in the Southern Conference in senior guard Storm Murphy. The rest of the roster is relatively young which the main reason that Wofford doesn’t look to improve their position much in the conference.

138. Boston University Terriers

Boston qualified for the NCAA Tournament a season ago before the season was cancelled by the Covid 19 pandemic. This season the Patriot League title is going to run through the Terriers, and they have a team who can run away with the league and it’s all because of their depth and star Walter Whyte. Boston University has a great shot at qualifying for the NCAA tournament again.

137. Eastern Illinois Panthers

Eastern Illinois has a tremendous offense and is going to make some very significant noise in the Ohio Valley and likely nationally. The Panthers also guard Mack Smith who is the countries leader in consecutive games with a three-point make.

Smith isn’t even the best player they have, that goes to guard Josiah Wallace who is going to be an all-conference type player. The Panthers will finish in the top half but won’t win this league given the overall strength at the top of this conference.

136. New Mexico Lobos

We all knew this was going to be a weird season, and for New Mexico, it is going to be extremely weird as their state has mandated that all sporting events are not allowed to happen in the state of New Mexico. The Lobos are likely going to relocate to Arizona to practice and play their games so that could have a huge factor on their season.

Lobo fans are hoping head coach Paul Weir can fix their leaky defense and continue the same effect on the offensive end. New Mexico lost a lot of production last year to graduation and transfers. Makuach Maluach is going to have to step his game up and get ready to lead this unproven group. New Mexico is a middle of the pack team in the Mountain West.

135. Green Bay Phoenix

The time has finally arrived for the Phoenix to take the crown in the Horizon League. Green Bay has the best roster and has the pieces built for a Horizon championship team. The Phoenix also has the makings of a team who is going to knock off a few power schools that they catch sleeping.

New head coach Will Ryan, who is the son of former Wisconsin head coach Bo Ryan, inherits a great team that is ready to win now. Green Bay is led by the favorite for the Horizon player of the year Amari Davis.

134. Old Dominion Monarchs

Old Dominion is likely not being given the respect they deserve on this list. They have virtually their entire team returning from a season ago so they should probably be given a little more consideration.

The problem is that last season the Monarchs did not appear to be themselves and they were not very good. Old Dominion under head coach Jeff Jones is never going to play fast, they play slow drawn out defensive battles that they usually come out of on top. Jones prides himself on defense and it usually works out for the Monarchs.

This year the defense will likely be just as good and senior Malik Curry is hoping that he can jumpstart the offense. If that happens Old Dominion will make me look like a fool and finish at the top of the league. They are a middle of the pack Conference USA team.

133. UMass Minutemen

The Atlantic 10 is back to being one of the premier conferences in the country and UMass is a team that has a huge variance for where they can finish in the standings. The way the roster is constructed and given the struggles the head coach Matt McCall has had as the Minutemen head coach it is reasonable to think they will finish middle of the pack again.

However, that may be too low and they may finish somewhere near the top 4 in the league. Given the roster and the overall strength of the Atlantic 10, I am sticking with UMass in the middle of the league. Star forward Tre Mitchell is going to have a lot to say on where the Minutemen end up.

132. UCF Knights

Big man Collin Smith has decided to opt-out of this season due to the Covid 19 pandemic leaving the frontcourt largely unproven for the Knights. That is a really unfamiliar position for this team to be in considering Tacko Fall and now Collin Smith have both manned the frontcourt at an all-conference level for the last seven seasons.

This year it is all about the guards for UCF with the best shooter in the American in Darrin Green Jr. leading the way. UCF is still a bottom tier team in the league.

131. Wichita State Shockers

The Shockers had quite the offseason. First, the mass exodus of the roster posed some questions, then the answers came, and it was abuse by the former head coach Gregg Marshall. Marshall verbally and physically abused his player and coaching staff and resigned.

The Shockers may be in for a tough season because things like that are extremely hard to overcome. Wichita State has a good roster returning so they won’t be the worst team in the American, but they will not have their normal season.

The Shockers have Tyson Etienne back for his sophomore year and he has a chance to be the next star for Wichita State in the American. Interim head coach Isaac Brown has his work cut out for him, but the Shockers are a middle of the pack American team based on just talent. Given everything else the team is dealing with, they could finish worse than that.

130. Winthrop Eagles

Welcome to the class of the Big South Conference. The Eagles are not just a good team in their conference they are good enough to knock off NCAA tournament teams and they are going to give everyone they play a game. Winthrop has been a consistent force in the Big South for a long time.

Winthrop was a joy to watch play basketball last year as they had a top-five offense and could score at will almost every night. Chandler Vaudrin is back for Winthrop as they make their quest to qualify for the NCAA tournament for the second straight year.

129. East Tennessee State Buccaneers

East Tennessee State was the team who was hurt the most by the premature ending to the season. They finished 30-4 and won 12 games in a row. The Buccaneers were going to be a high seed in the NCAA tournament and were likely going to make a deep run. They had a top 50 offense and top 30 defense under head coach Steve Forbes. Coach Forbes is off to Wake Forest and with him went most of the ETSU roster.

This roster has completely flipped and where they finish is anyone’s guess. The team does have some good transfers eligible including Ty Brewer who will be the teams leading scorer. The transfers will keep ETSU out of the cellar and the Buccaneers finish middle of the pack in the Southern.

128. Pacific Tigers

Pacific finished third in the West Coast Conference last year. That was totally unexpected and Pacific also had arguably the second-best player in the conference in Jahlil Tripp. Head coach Damon Stoudamire and his teams have thrived on being the underdog and this year is going to be no different.

The Tigers lost their two biggest scorers from a year ago and this year they replenished the talent from the JUCO ranks and were able to get a dynamic scorer in Jervay Green from Nebraska. If anything Pacific will be more versatile on offense this year and have more options. Don’t be surprised if the Tigers surprise everyone again.

127. North Texas Mean Green

The Mean Green is a team that can outplay this ranking easily. The reason I have them currently as a middle of the pack Conference USA team is due to the pieces they lost, not the pieces they have returning. Head coach Grant McCasland has done a tremendous job turning around the North Texas program and making them into a contender, but they have been destroyed by his good players transferring up.

He has lost Ryan Woolridge before last season and this offseason he lost another star in Umoja Gibson. Gibson was the leader of the team and the captain on a stifling defense. This year without Gibson it will be hard to keep the same intensity on that end. The Mean Green does still return a good core of players led by elite scorer Javion Hamlet.

126. Duquesne Dukes

The Dukes had their best season they have had since 1970-1971 and had the Atlantic 10 tournament been played and completed Duquesne would have made some noise in the tournament. The Dukes did not have a single senior on their roster a year ago and they were able to return mostly all of their production from last season. Keith Dambrot is a great coach and he has Duquesne on the cusp of their first NCAA tournament appearance since 1976-1977.

Point guard Sincere Carry is back to show that he is one of the best guards in the country. The top of the Atlantic 10 is good and that may hurt the Dukes a little bit. They still end up as a middle of the pack team.

125. South Florida Bulls

The Bulls lost star Alexis Yetna last year before the season started and many underplayed just how important the star was to this team. South Florida could never get right on offense last year as they did not have a reliable option to go to down in the post for easy baskets, which turned them into one of the worst teams in the country last year on that end of the floor.

The Bulls were also one of the best in the country on the defensive end of the floor. Yetna is healthy this year so both numbers should improve for the better. South Florida still plays slow and is going to have to rely on David Collins to do most of their scoring outside the paint again. The Bulls will be better but are still a middle of the pack team in the American.

124. Mercer Bears

Mercer finished fourth in the Southern Conference a year ago, and this year they are likely to finish in the same spot but have a team that could finish higher than that. Head coach Greg Gary comes from Matt Painters staff and he is doing a great job with this program. Mercer is going to be one of those teams like many of the top teams in the Southern are, that is going to give Power schools a run for their money. A healthy Ross Cummings makes Mercer much more dangerous.

123. Coastal Carolina Chanticleers

It was a shame that the country didn’t get to see a fully healthy Chanticleers team last year. The team grossly underperformed a season ago, of course when your team suffers a critical injury to a player who does everything for your team it is tough to recover. That player was Ebrima Dibba and he is back to pair with the future leading scorer in the Sun Belt DeVante Jones. Don’t be surprised when Coastal Carolina finishes in one of the top three spots in the league.

122. Loyola Marymount Lions

The Lions won 11 games last year and finished near the bottom of the West Coast Conference and there is a reason for that. That reason is the team was missing a huge piece and that player is back this year.

Loyola Marymount isn’t going to come out of nowhere and win the league by any means, but they are going to be better and they are going to be competitive. Mattias Markusson returning is a giant help for the Lions it is likely for the Lions to finish in the top half of the West Coast Conference.

121. Western Carolina Catamounts

Western Carolina is one of those teams that have so many writers and other members of the media split on how good they are going to be. Some pick them middle of the conference, while others pick them near the top. They are a team that has a tremendous amount of and is going to do damage in the Southern Conference and likely finishes near the top of the standings.

Mason Faulkner is a name that people need to learn because he is an elite scorer, rebounder, and passer and is the nation’s leader in triple-doubles from a season ago. Faulkner is likely going to average somewhere around 25 to 26 points per game and may be considered in the National Player of the Year race. Yes, he is that good.