NCAA Basketball: Power ranking of all 357 teams for 2020-21 season
By Bryan Mauro
100. Vermont Catamounts
Vermont is on top of the America East again? That should not be something new and should be almost expected at this point. The Catamounts are the class of the league and have been most of the time head coach John Becker. Vermont has won 20 or more games every year since 2008-2009 and coach Becker has never seen his Catamounts win less than 20 games.
This year the Catamounts should run away from the rest of the America East conference again. Vermont should also put a scare into the power conference teams they play. The Catamounts are one of the most consistent programs in the country. Stef Smith is the best overall player in the America East.
99. Georgia Bulldogs
Eventually, Georgia is going to finish better than the bottom half of the league. Head coach Tom Crean has been getting a ton of top recruits, but he is not the best in-game coach and the team has never been able to live up to the hype their roster produces. The Bulldogs ended up at .500 last year but they should have been better. That’s because they had the No. pick in the past NBA draft played for Georgia in Anthony Edwards.
Edwards was an elite scorer and once the Bulldogs were able to land that commitment the expectations were extremely high, and they didn’t live up to them. Georgia has a great roster this again led by a lot of grad transfers. George Mason grad transfer Justin Kier has the ability to carry the Bulldogs, but Tom Crean and his coaching ability still make this team one of the bottom two in the SEC.
98. Kansas State Wildcats
Kansas State is in a full-on rebuild and I felt they would be much better last year. The Wildcats only won 11 games and finished dead last in the Big 12 and had their worst season since 1999-2000 when they only won nine games. Kansas State already had a hard time scoring last year which is why they were so bad. They were a great defensive team but couldn’t score enough to make a difference.
This season the Wildcats might be worse. They lose their top three scorers and defenders and don’t have much in the way of returning scoring. Dajuan Gordon is going to be the likely first option for Bruce Weber this year. Kansas State finishes last again.
97. Belmont Bruins
Belmont made a successful transition from their longtime coach Rick Byrd, and they hired former Bruin Casey Alexander to lead his alma mater. The Bruins are one of the best programs in the Ohio Valley and have been for quite some time. Even with their transition to a new coach they were still able to win 27 games and win the Ohio Valley Tournament.
Grayson Murphy is back to run this offense and he fills a stat sheet in every way possible. He is going to be a player who can pile up triple-doubles. Belmont is a top-three team in the Ohio Valley again.
96. California Golden Bears
Year one under new coach Mark Fox saw the Bears win 14 games, which is two less than former coach Wyking Jones won in his two seasons in Berkeley. That was enough for the Bears to be optimistic about their chances going forward and shows that Fox is doing well with the rebuild.
California still doesn’t have enough talent yet to compete with the big boys in the Pac 12, but they are getting better. They still have star guard Matt Bradley, but even with him, the Golden Bears had one of the worst offenses in the country a season ago. California is a bottom two team in the Pac 12.
95. Davidson Wildcats
It is reasonable to think that Davidson will bounce back from their very uncharacteristic season a year ago. The Wildcats struggled all year and many including myself picked Davidson to be near the top of the Atlantic 10 Conference a season ago. Head coach Bob McKillop has done this for too long and for too many years to be down for long.
Davidson still has one of the best players in the Atlantic 10 in senior guard Kellan Grady. He is going to help lead this offense and take their rightful place as one of the top four teams in the Atlantic 10.
94. Little Rock Trojans
Occasionally, a team rises up from the ashes and surprises me. That is what Little Rock did last year, I’m sure some people were high on them and totally saw them running away with the Sun Belt last year, I was not one of them.
The Trojans bring back a lot off that Sun Belt championship team and had the year not been cancelled because of Covid-19, they would have found themselves back in the NCAA tournament. Markquis Nowell is going to be the Sun Belt player of the year.
93. Saint Mary’s Gaels
This year is going to be extremely telling on the ability of Randy Bennett to coach. I happen to fall on the side of the fence that suggests Bennett is one of the best coaches in the game and is always going to have success no matter the roster.
That theory is going to be put to the test this year as the Gaels roster is not awe-inspiring but it does have the makings of a roster that will overachieve and show just how good of a coach Bennett is.
Tommy Kuhse is not a scorer but he has played a lot of basketball in Moraga and he leads Saint Mary’s into battle every night. Saint Mary’s is coached by the second-best coach in the West Coast Conference and that counts for something. The Gaels finish in the top four of the league.
92. DePaul Blue Demons
The Blue Demons toyed with our emotions last year as they came out of the gates blazing and looked destined to make the NCAA tournament. Then only in a way that DePaul could they ripped it out from under us and ended up having a miserable season in the Big East. That isn’t to say DePaul wasn’t a good team they were just not up to snuff with the rest of the league.
Dave Leitao has done a good job infusing the program with talent, but he isn’t winning at all and needs to in order to keep his job. Romeo Weems is primed for a breakout year. DePaul is a bottom two team in the Big East again.
91. Boston College Eagles
Boston College has improved its roster through the transfer market, but even with that, it is still so hard to trust the Eagles to be good. Every year that everyone thinks they are going to be better they underachieve.
Head coach Jim Christian has not had much success as the Eagles head coach and honestly, it is surprising, he is still the coach. The ACC is so good and so deep and even with the quality transfers and star Jay Heath returning the Eagles are still a bottom two team in the league.