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

70. Dayton Flyers

Dayton was expected to be good last year, but no one knew how good they were going to be. They were one of the best teams in the country all year last year. The Flyers also had the best player in the country last year in Obi Toppin. Dayton was likely to get a one seed which would have been the first one in their school’s history. Don’t count out the Flyers though just because Toppin is gone.

They still have a good chunk of their roster returning including star guard Jalen Crutcher. Head coach Anthony Grant has got his Flyers playing great basketball and they are dangerous again. Dayton finishes top three in the Atlantic 10 and makes the NCAA tournament.

69. Miami Hurricanes

Miami has fallen on some hard times the last few seasons and it’s hard to pinpoint just exactly what went wrong. The Hurricanes have the talent and they are still a hot destination for premier freshmen and transfers. Miami has had a hard time playing defense and at points has had an equally hard time trying to score points.

Jim Larranaga is a great coach, so he is going to figure it out and he has some good pieces this year to work on it with. Chris Lykes returns for his senior year in hopes to turn this thing around before he leaves and find themselves in the NCAA tournament. That is likely a pipe dream given the way the last few years have gone. Miami is a bottom-five team in the ACC.

68. Indiana Hoosiers

This is not what Hoosier fans had in mind when they hired Archie Miller. Indiana has not been able to put up a consistent season with the talent they have been able to bring into Bloomington. Some have said that the Hoosiers have wasted some of their talents but coach Miller could be on the verge of turning it around. If he doesn’t turn it around quickly Indiana may be looking for another new coach.

It is going to help the Hoosiers tremendously that future lottery pick Trayce Jackson-Davis is back in Bloomington. Indiana has to prove it at this point so they are a bottom four team in the Big Ten but Jackson-Davis can get this team to the tournament by himself.

67. Texas Longhorns

The quarantine has done crazy things to all of us, but Texas head coach Shaka Smart decided it would be a good idea to grow hair. While it is something that is way out of the normal, maybe the new look will help the Longhorns finally figure out how to play offense.

The Longhorns have always been great at defense under Shaka but they have never been able to find any consistent rhythm on the offensive end. The Longhorns like every Smart coached team plays low scoring defensive rock fight types of games.

Texas returns a lot of their roster from last year including point guard Matt Coleman. Coleman hopes to get this offense kickstarted. The Longhorns have not shown much under Coach Smart and the Big 12 is much stronger this year top to bottom. Texas is a bottom-three team in the league.

66. Memphis Tigers

Memphis was all the rage in the offseason a year ago and with good reason, they had a tremendous recruiting class led by the No. 1 player in the country in James Wiseman. Wiseman would only play a few games for Memphis due to some impermissible benefits. The loss of their best player hurt the Tigers and they never lived up to the lofty expectations put on them.

They did however still have a great season and many of those freshmen panned out and gave Tigers fans something to be excited about. Lester Quinones enters his sophomore year as one of the best players in the American.

The Tigers are not without a star freshman recruit this year as big man Moussa Cisse is going to be a player who plays for one year before likely entering the NBA Draft, and has lottery pick all over him. Memphis makes the NCAA tournament and is in the top three in the American.

65. Marquette Golden Eagles

A new era of Marquette hoops is upon us, the best scorer in the power leagues Markus Howard has now graduated so has his back-court mate Sacar Anim which may make the Golden Eagles less exciting to watch on the floor, it also won’t lead to as much success overall.

This season’s Marquette team doesn’t have that one player who separates them from the rest of the crowded middle in the Big East. Ohio State transfer DJ Carton is eligible this year and that is going to help immensely but replacing Howard is going to be impossible. Marquette is a bottom four team in the Big East.

64. Northern Iowa Panthers

The Panthers are the best team in the Missouri Valley and it doesn’t appear that there is another team that is all that close to them in the standings. The Panthers have a team that is going to win a lot of games against both Valley competition and against non-conference foes. They can score and defend and they are one of the best shooting teams in the country. There is a lot to like about the Panthers especially their star guard AJ Green.

63. Stephen F. Austin Lumberjacks

Winners of 24 of their last 26 games in that is a win against the Duke Blue Devils in Cameron Indoor Stadium. Stephen F. Austin had the win of the year a season ago and many thought it would get them into the tournament if they happened to lose in the Southland Conference.

Since the season was cancelled due to the Covid 19 pandemic, the Lumberjacks enter this season with one of the longest winning streaks in the country at 15 games in a row. Stephen F. Austin averaged over 80 points per game last year and most of that roster is back including star forward Gavin Kensmil. The Lumberjacks win the Southland going away again.

62. Utah State Aggies

The Aggies were ranked in the top 50 in both offense and defense a season ago. Head coach Craig Smith has done nothing but win in his time as a head coach. Utah State was headed to their second straight NCAA tournament before the season was interrupted by Covid-19. Utah State still has a tremendous amount of talent even though star Sam Merrill is no longer on campus.

Forward Justin Bean is a walking double-double and when teamed up with big man Neemias Queta they account for one of the best frontcourts in the entire country and the best frontcourt in the Mountain West, at least production-wise. Utah State won’t be as good but they will still be a team that no one should sleep on. The Aggies finish in the top three in the Mountain West and have a chance to make their third tournament in a row.

61. New Mexico State Aggies

The Aggies are bordering on the Gonzaga and Kansas dominance in WAC. There is not a single team in that conference that has provided the least bit of resistance to the Aggies. New Mexico State is currently working on relocating for the season as the state of New Mexico has banned games and practices due to the global pandemic.

New Mexico State was one of the best defensive teams in the country last year giving up under 60 points per game, that was good enough for sixth-best in the country. New Mexico State returns some key pieces from last year’s team and the pieces they lost, they replaced with transfers.

The Aggies return Johnny McCants who is the best rebounder in the WAC and helps New Mexico State with their stifling defense. The Aggies are likely not going to be challenged much in the WAC this year and win it going away.