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

350. Princeton Tigers – Season Cancelled Due to Covid-19

It should not be a secret that the Ivy League has three teams who stand out better than the rest and the Tigers fall into that category. Anyone who follows this great game knows what you are going to get when you watch Princeton play. That is a ton of ball movement, with skilled passers trying to create the perfect look at the basket.

One of the all-time great programs has not been as great lately but they are still one of the top three teams in the Ivy. Jaelin Llewellyn enters his junior year as the best point guard in the Ivy League.

349. Harvard Crimson – Season Cancelled Due to Covid-19

Nothing beats a good Harvard and Yale game on a Friday afternoon in February. Harvard and Yale have been the class of the Ivy for the last decade and this year is no different. Tommy Amaker has a good team in Cambridge, and they were going to give Yale a run for the top of the Ivy League. Noah Kirkwood is budding into the next Ivy star. If the Ivy season would have been played Harvard was a top-two team in the league.

348. Yale Bulldogs – Season Cancelled due to Covid-19

Every year the Ivy League has one team who is going to make waves on a national scale. That team this year is the Yale Bulldogs. Yale was also that team a season ago. The Bulldogs have two players who are better than anyone else in the Ivy League. Player of the year Paul Atkinson, who is transferring at the end of the year, and guard Azar Swain.

Swain is one of the few players who can take over a game on both ends of the floor and drastically affect the outcome. Swain also happens to be the best shooter in the country. If the Ivy League ends up playing basketball this year Yale is going to be a team that wins a lot of games against everyone.

347. Kennesaw State Owls

The first season under head coach Amir Abdur-Rahim went about as badly as anyone could have imagined. The Owls won one game a year ago and that was on December 13th. Kennesaw State has the longest losing streak in the country at 20 games. Sophomore guard Terrell Burden leads the charge for the Owls.

346. Chicago State Cougars

The Cougars are 1-43 in WAC conference games and have an overall record of 10-83 over the last three seasons. Head Coach Lance Irvin was able to improve the overall win total by one game a season ago and won four games instead of three games. On defense, the Cougars gave up 82 points per game last year. The Cougars are going to have to ride star Xavier Johnson on offense until they can’t anymore.

345. Mississippi Valley State Delta Devils

Second-year head coach Lindsey Hunter is going to have to get creative to get the Delta Devils to rise up from the SWAC basement. Coach Hunter does have the services of one of the best young players in the SWAC in sophomore guard Caleb Hunter. The Delta Devils gave up 90 points a game last year. Giving up 90 points per game is never going to lead to many wins regardless of how many points you score.

344. The Citadel Bulldogs

The Citadel has been playing Division 1 basketball for 108 years and they have never made the NCAA Tournament. Current Head Coach Duggar Baucom is struggling as his teams are getting worse, which is never a good thing. The Bulldogs can score points and play a fast-paced style but they can’t stop anyone and gave up 82 points per game last year. Until that changes it is going to be more of the same for the Bulldogs. Fletcher Agee is the go-to player for the Citadel team.

343. Evansville Purple Aces

Evansville had two of the better wins in the country last year when they went into Rupp Arena and beat Kentucky and then a little over a month later the Purple Aces beat Murray State. Then everything got flipped upside down and Evansville turned into one of the worst teams in the country. The Purple Aces have lost 19 in a row and their star player Sam Cunliffe is opting out this year. It is going to get much worse in Evansville.

342. Holy Cross Crusaders

Holy Cross did not have a good season last year at all. They won three games. The Crusaders lost one of the more promising players in the Patriot League Joe Pridgen to transfer. Holy Cross is now going to be led by senior Austin Butler. Second-year head coach Brett Nelson is in an impossible position and wins are going to be at a premium again.

341. Idaho Vandals

Idaho had a better year winning eight overall games, which was a 3-game improvement. The Vandals while bad still need to give credit to second-year head coach Zac Claus for the improvement. That improvement is going to be tough considering the roster turnover that happened after last season. 8.0 point per game scorer Scott Blakney has his work cut out for him.

340. Houston Baptist Huskies

Houston Baptist won four games last season and that was with going 0-9 in the non-conference portion of their schedule. The Huskies also had two of the best scorers in the Southland Conference a season ago, neither of those players is still on campus. Houston Baptist does have a promising sophomore is Myles Pierre, but they don’t have anything else. It is going to be a long season in Houston as the Huskies are one of the worst teams in the country.

339. Western Illinois Leathernecks

Western Illinois was destroyed by transfers in the offseason after their former coach was let go. The Leathernecks did hire Rob Jeter, which is a good hire, but this year is going to be a tough one for him. The roster is a mix of guys who are largely unproven and none of which have played a big role on their team before.

The roster is also extremely young. Western Illinois isn’t the worst team in the country, but they are one of them. Forward Will Carious, who spent the first three seasons of his career at D3 Monmouth College is the player to watch for Western Illinois.

338. Jacksonville Dolphins

Jacksonville had an okay season a year ago but heading into this year it doesn’t look promising. Why?  Their top five scorers are all gone. The Dolphins only scored 67 points per game last season and someone is going to need to step up in a big way to help. Junior Dionte Wood will need to turn into a double-digit scorer for Jacksonville to reach their max potential. He can be that player.

337. IUPUI Jaguars

IUPUI broke in a new coach last year and it didn’t go well. The Jaguars took a huge step backward for the program. Two seasons ago it seemed that IUPUI was finally making some footing and was going to start being competitive in the Horizon.

Instead, they had a team that was not great on offense and was downright awful on defense they gave up over 80 points per game and that is with one of the Horizon League’s best defenders in Elyjah Goss. The Jaguars are still at the bottom of the Horizon but hopefully, year two under Byron Rimm goes much better.

336. Wagner Seahawks

It is going to be hard to get excited for the season for Wagner. The team only won eight games a season ago and their best player is no longer on campus. The Seahawks head coach Bahsir Mason has done a really good job with Wagner he just hasn’t been able to get this team to the NCAA tournament.

Last year was the worst season Mason has had while at Wagner and this year looks to be worse. Senior Alex Morales is going to have his work cut out for him to get this team into the win column.

335. Troy Trojans

Troy was not good last year and they won’t be good this year. However, the Trojans are in good hands with their coach Scott Cross. Cross has Troy in the throes of a full program rebuild and during the first few seasons of a rebuild, it is always going to be some lean years.

The Trojans don’t project to be a whole lot better than they were last year especially considering they lost their top two scorers from a season ago. They do have some nice young pieces who are developing nicely though starting with Desmond Williams.

334. South Carolina State Bulldogs

The MEAC is going to be much better this year than in the years past. That is going to hurt South Carolina State mainly in part because of the overall roster turnover they experienced this year. They lost one of the best players in the MEAC in Damani Applewhite and that is going to hinder this offense to the point that scoring may be a chore. Senior guard Tariq Simmons is going to try and get this offense going to help his team win some games.

333. Arkansas Pine Bluff Golden Lions

The home of the worst offense in the country, the Golden Lions struggled to score for the entire season. They averaged 53.8 points per game for the season. They were bad on the offensive side of the ball and likely will be again this year. Pine Bluff is going to be one of the worst teams in the country and will be lucky to win five games. Markedric Bell is hoping to jumpstart this offense a little bit.

332. Portland Pilots

The Terry Porter experiment as the head coach of the Pilots is not going well at all. Portland has gotten worse in the four years he has been the head coach.  This year likely won’t be any better considering coach Porter lost his two best players. Senior forward Tahirou Diabete has a chance to be very good and he is going to the on-floor leader for the Pilots this year.

331. Alabama A&M Bulldogs

Coach Dylan Howard took the job knowing that a full rebuild was in order. Last season the Bulldogs had their best season in the last three seasons, and even though they only won eight games the optimism is there.

Alabama A&M had an extremely young team last year and they are all one year older and have further developed their chemistry. Sophomore guard Garrett Hicks is going to lead Alabama A&M this year.  The Bulldogs should be better but still years away from being a true contender in the SWAC.

330. SIU-Edwardsville Cougars

The Cougars have been a Division 1 team since the 2010-2011 season, and they have never had a winning record. They have never won more than 12 games overall. Head Coach Brian Barone enters his second year and he has vowed to make this roster more competitive and this year’s roster is a good start.

He has infused the roster with quality JUCO players and was able to get a former top-75 recruit Sidney Wilson from UConn. The only problem is that Edwardsville is in the Ohio Valley which is an extremely tough conference. While the Cougars will likely be better, they will still finish at the bottom of the conference.

329. Central Connecticut State Blue Devils

Head Coach Donyell Marshall had an extremely young team last year so it makes sense that they only won four games a season ago and struggled mightily on both the offensive and defensive end of the floor.

The Blue Devils were able to keep that roster mostly intact which should give Central Connecticut State a little continuity. Even with 13 points per game scorer Ian Krishnan, the team is still deficient in talent and one of the worst teams in the country as well as the Northeast Conference.

328. Idaho State Bengals

The Bengals have a lot returning from last year’s team and that is both good news and bad news for head coach Ryan Looney. The good news is that this team should be a little better as they gain confidence and more experience playing with others in the system.

It is also good that starter Tarik Cool is back to guide the offense again. The bad news is they were one of the worst defensive teams in the country and only won eight games a season ago. The Bengals are going to be looking at an uphill climb in the Big Sky.

327. Cal Poly Mustangs

The Mustangs have brought up the rear in the Big West for a good handful of years. Cal Poly is going to bring up the rear again in the Big West and second-year head coach John Smith hopes that this team keeps taking steps toward improvement in year two of the full rebuild. The Mustangs were not very good on the defensive end last year but big man Hank Hollingsworth is a shot-blocking specialist who will hopefully help that problem.

326. Southern Mississippi Eagles

Coach Jay Ladner took over the Eagles last year when former head coach Doc Sadler decided to be the associate head coach for Nebraska. Ladner and the Eagles did not have a great season and only won nine games. This year’s team doesn’t appear to be much better and is going to get overpowered most nights in the Conference USA.

Southern Mississippi lost their top scorers and some quality depth last year but LaDavius Drane is back to carry the offense for this last place Conference USA team.

325. Fairfield Stags

Fairfield improved their win total under new head coach Jay Young so that was a step in a positive direction. Any positive momentum the team had may be all for naught considering that the Stags were one of the worst offensive teams in the country last year only scoring 58 points per game and their leading scorer from that team is no longer on campus.

Fairfield is going to be in every game because of their aggressive defense, but if you cant score you will not win. Jesus Cruz is going to be asked to do a lot for this team.

324. Binghamton Bearcats

The Bearcats lost an elite scorer in Sam Sessions to transfer and the Bearcats are going to need to replace that 20 points per game worth of production. The Bearcats do have some production on George Tinsley who is going to need to pick up the scoring load for Binghamton. The America East conference is much better this year and that is not good for a young and unproven Bearcats team.

323. Delaware State Hornets

Delaware State has never been good at basketball and head coach Eric Skeeters is trying to build something, but he has only been able to secure 12 wins in two seasons. Delaware State should be better this year as the Hornets have a more established roster, but they are a long way from competing for the MEAC title. Pinky Wiley is ready to lead this team for his senior year, but John Crosby and his 20 points per game are going to be tough to replace.

322. Central Arkansas Bears

I am not going to sugar coat this; Central Arkansas was bad last year and they are going to be bad again this year. The bottom of the Southland conference could have two of the worst teams in the country. The Bears are so bad because they cannot stop anyone. They gave up over 80 points per game last year and that was with a 7’0” shot-blocking center. This year it is going to have to be a lot of Rylan Bergersen again and just hope the opponents miss a shot at the other end.

321. High Point Panthers

High Point had the right idea, hire a former Panther, who just so happens to be a legendary coach on the tail end of his career in Tubby Smith. The Panthers were hoping they could get a few good years out of their coach and find themselves into the NCAA tournament for the first time.

High Point is still waiting for that good year to come and until it does, they are going to have to settle with bringing up the rear of the Big South. Sophomore John Michael-Wright is the best player for High Point.