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

320. Maine Black Bears

Maine has not won double-digit games since the 2011-2012 season; they are bottom-dwellers in the America East conference. The Black Bears play a slow style and for them to have a chance to win they need to keep the game low scoring. The roster is made up of entirely foreign-born players. Their roster experienced a ton of turnover a season ago but third-leading scorer senior Nedeljko Prijovic is back and looks to lead both the offense and defense.

319. Long Beach State 49ers

Dan Monson is another coach who has had a great deal of success at his school and has done really good things for the Long Beach State program. The program is not playing well or experiencing much success right now and that is due in large part to the fact they have forgotten how to play defense. The 49ers need to get back to playing lockdown defense to have a chance.

This year may be better due to their roster overhaul with transfers and their ability to keep the returning players on campus. Even with leading scorer Chance Hunter back the Beach is still a long way away from truly competing at the top of the league.

318. Milwaukee Panthers

Milwaukee was a team I was not high on going into the year a season ago and am not high on them this year either. They exceeded my expectations last year and had an okay offense from their starting five but didn’t have much quality depth.

They lost some of those guys to graduation and their depth still isn’t great. The good news for Panthers fans is Te’Jon Lucas was given another year of eligibility and he may be good enough by himself to keep the Panthers out of the Horizon league basement.

317. Marist Red Foxes

The Red Foxes play a slow style and are a team who must keep games really low scoring to have a chance to win. They are a top 70 defensive team in the country as they only allowed 66 points per game last year. They were also one of the worst offensive teams in the country last year only scoring 61 points per game.

The offense doesn’t appear to be any better this year. Michael Cubbage is the player who needs to take his game to the next level for the offense to really take off. Marist is going to struggle again this year.

316. Southeastern Louisiana Lions

Head Coach David Kiefer was given a full rebuild when he took the job and the first year did not go well. Especially considering the team was finally starting to get their footing in the Southland.

Southeastern Louisiana had a hard time guarding their man and the opponents were scoring the ball at a 78 point per game clip, and when your offense struggles to put 70 on the board the record is never going to be very good. Senior big man Pape Diop returns to lock down the middle and help shore up the defense.

315. Samford Bulldogs

Samford is entering a transitional phase as they now have a new coach and their best player in Josh Sharkey is no longer on campus. Hopefully, through all of this with the new transition, the Bulldogs can learn to play some defense because they gave up 82 points per game a season ago, and that is never going to lead to many wins. Florida Atlantic transfer Richardson Maitre can light it up from downtown and he is a player to watch.

314. Southeast Missouri State Redhawks

Welcome to year six of the Rick Ray experience RedHawks fans. In the first five years, Southeast Missouri State has gotten worse on the floor. They have a terrible time putting the ball in the basket and they can’t stop anyone. They do have some hope this year as they finally get former Nebraska guard Nana Akenten eligible. Akenten is a one-man dunk contest, is extremely athletic, and is a good shooter from deep. He is going to have to carry this team.

313. Florida A&M Rattlers

While the Rattlers may have finished fourth in the MEAC a season ago and have a lot of that team returning the MEAC is so much better especially at the top than it ever has been. Florida A&M is going to be extremely competitive but so will the rest of the league.

MJ Randolph picks up the bulk of the scoring load and in the middle, they have 6’8” 300 pound Evins Desir that teams have to deal with. Playing the Rattlers isn’t fun, but they have the talent level of a bottom tier team in the MEAC.

312. Fordham Rams

Fordham is an interesting team. They play extremely slow and need to keep the game low scoring to have a chance to win. They have one of the worst offenses in the entire country scoring under 60 points per game. On the defensive end that is a different story, as they are a top 15 team on the defensive end. Head coach Jeff Neubauer is going to have to get creative and help create more shots for his one lone playmaker on offense in junior Jalen Cobb.

311. VMI Keydets

Since VMI has been a member of the Southern Conference they have been consistent. Not the kind of consistency that teams want though. They have consistently been one of the worst teams in the league. This year it doesn’t appear to change and the Keydets are going to finish near the bottom of the league again. Sophomore guard Kamdyn Curfman is going to be asked to do a lot for his team if they want to get to double-digit wins.

310. Army Black Knights

Army lost two of their best scorers who both scored 17 points per game last season. The next highest scorer averaged a little over 10 and then a whole lot of question marks with this roster. The Patriot League is better overall, and Army doesn’t look to be a team that is going to scare too many people.

The Service academies obviously operate for a different purpose than being good at athletics, but it is still always nice when they are. The Black Knights will likely be led in scoring by Lonnie Grayson.

309. Canisius Golden Griffins

Let’s all be honest for a second, does anyone really know who is going to be good in the MAAC or where teams are going to finish? That conference is always so hard to predict. Canisius doesn’t have a great roster on paper and they appear overmatched in most of their games.

However, they are okay on offense and serviceable on defense. Majesty Brandon is going to return to lead this team but the Golden Griffins must find a reliable second option and some quality depth to escape to the bottom of the league.

308. Middle Tennessee State Blue Raiders

Former head coach Kermit Davis had the Blue Raiders up to the top of their game and built them into one of the best mid-majors in the game. Once he left to take another job Middle Tennessee fell and become one of the worst mid-majors in a matter of one season.

Head coach Nick McDevitt did fill his squad with a bunch of sit out transfers who become eligible to play this year. The star of that show is Jalen Jordan. Middle Tennessee still doesn’t have the firepower to climb out of the basement in Conference USA.

307. Campbell Fighting Camels

Campbell may not have finished very high in the Big South standings last year, but without having one of the most prolific scorers the NCAA has ever had in Chris Clemons what did people really expect was going to happen?

The Fighting Camels do have some pieces to win with but it won’t be this year as the rest of the Big South is too strong but nothing is predictable in that conference. Cedric Henderson Jr. is one of the best shooters in the league and hopes to shoot his way to some victories.

306. Sacramento State Hornets

Everything begins and ends on the defensive end for the Hornets. They had the fifth-best defense in the country last year allowing under 60 points per game. Even with the smothering defense, Sacramento State couldn’t crack 65 points on a nightly basis.

Heading into this season the Hornets lost three of their top five scorers. Losing those players to graduation is going to hurt their overall defense as well. The Hornets play really slow like so many other outmatched teams on this list. Point guard Bryce Fowler returns to lead the offense in what looks to be a bottom-three finish in the Big Sky.

305. UMass-Lowell River Hawks

The River Hawks have never had a winning record since they have been a member of Division 1. Last year was a tale of two sides of the floor. Watching this team play offense was a thing of beauty and Lowell had a top 100 offense averaging about 75 points per game.

On the defensive end, it was a different story as they allowed about 76 per game which was in the bottom third of the country. The River Hawks have a bona fide star on their roster in wing Obadiah Noel. The River Hawks are still a bottom third team in the America East.

304. Presbyterian Blue Hose

The Big South has some really good teams at the top but the bottom of the league is made up of a bunch of teams without solid rosters and a ton of question marks. That is where Presbyterian falls. They have had their fair share of talent over the years but seemingly anyone good who plays for the Blue Hose decides to transfer and leaves a giant hole in the offense.

Presbyterian is going to have to get creative to score points this year as no one is really proven on that side. Sophomore Michael Isler and his 8 points per game return.

303. Cal State Northridge Matadors

Northridge is going to go through a little bit of a transitional year and it’s expected when they lost as much production as they did. Head Coach Mark Gottfried saw his three leading scorers leave and that includes one of the best mid-major players in recent memory in Lamine Diane.

The Matadors are likely going to struggle in the Big West because of it, but if the transfers that Northridge has on their team pan out this team could be much better. Darius Brown II returns to lead the offense for the Matadors.

302. UNC Wilmington Seahawks

Admittedly, I am not very high on the Seahawks, but they do have some very interesting pieces who could push them to outplay this ranking. UNC Wilmington had their most success under the Kevin Keatts regime, when he left to become the coach at NC State, the team was left trying to find the magic that they had. So why not hire Keatts top assistant in Takayo Siddle?

SIddle does have some building blocks to turn this program around in high major former four-star recruit Ian Steere. How the team develops and how quickly the new pieces can come together will determine how good the Seahawks will be this year. Siddle may need a few years to get this rebuild really moving in the right direction.

301. Air Force Falcons

The Falcons are going to struggle mightily this year. They are by far the worst of the service academies and they may be one of the worst teams in the country. Air Force has not been good for a while and this year is going to be another one of those years except worse.

The Mountain West is a tough conference with eight teams who are likely going to make the postseason either NCAA tournament or NIT, and the Falcons lost way too much last season to even be considered a factor. Air Force has no scoring outside of AJ Walker and they don’t have much quality depth. Those are the reasons they end up one of the worst teams in the country.

300. Cleveland State Vikings

Dennis Gates did a pretty good job his first season as the Vikings head coach. He won 11 games and given the roster he acquired when he took over for former head coach Dennis Felton it is amazing that even 11 games were won. Cleveland State has most of that team including star Al Eichelberger.

The problem for the Vikings is that they are nowhere close to one of the most talented teams in the Horizon league yet. Cleveland State looks destined for another bottom-tier finish in the league.

299. Rider Broncs

Rider has a much different roster than they did a season ago. The roster last year was filled with talented athletic players who many thought would push Rider over the top in the MAAC and get them to the NCAA tournament.

The team was never able to live up to those expectations and many players graduated but the two best players transferred to other schools leaving Rider in a full rebuild mode. The MAAC preseason poll has the Broncs coming in dead last but I think they will be slightly better than that. Christian Ings leads the charge for Rider.

298. Sacred Heart Pioneers

The Pioneers won 20 games for the first time in their history a season ago. It was still somewhat of a disappointment as many thought that Sacred Heart would finally get the monkey off their back and make the NCAA tournament. That didn’t happen and given the roster turnover that the Pioneers experienced it may be a long time before they are in that position again.

Sacred Heart does have Aaron Clarke back this year to lead the offense, but their roster still looks much different than it did a season ago. Sacred Heart is a bottom-three team in the Northeast Conference.

297. Jacksonville State Gamecocks

Jacksonville State had a nice three year run of success from the NCAA tournament season of 2016-2017 to the 2018-2019 season. The Gamecocks won 20 games each season in their run. Last year Jacksonville State took a step back and finished middle of the pack in the Ohio Valley.

This season the Gamecocks lost a ton of production from last year’s team and are going to have to JUCO players and high major transfer who never lived up to the hype. Kayne Henry returns as the most experienced and best player on the offense. Jacksonville State is a bottom-three team in the Ohio Valley.

296. Louisiana-Monroe Warhawks

The Warhawks took a giant step backward a season ago under current head coach Keith Richard. Louisiana Monroe had been trending up and finally seemed to have found something, but it all came crashing back down last year. The Warhawks could not put the ball in the basket last year and outside of two players, they had no reliable scorers.

Louisiana-Monroe is not going to be any better this year as their top three players left and are going to have to rely on a lot of JUCO transfers and Sacred Heart transfer Koreem Ozier to kickstart this offense.

295. Alabama State Hornets

Earlier this offseason, the Hornets hired former NBA player Mo Williams to be their head coach. That is likely only going to help out with recruiting and it should help Alabama State win games in the long run as well.

Coach Williams has his work cut out for him though as this team was terrible on the offensive end last year and the top two scorers from a year ago are no longer on campus. The Hornets will have to be creative and hope promising senior forward Brandon Battle can take the next step to develop his game.

294. Denver Pioneers

Over their history, Denver had been a very consistent program. Not a program that would qualify for the NCAA tournament but a team that would usually .500 and be extremely competitive. Then the last two years and came and Denver has really struggled. They don’t score enough points to offset their often porous defense. They have a good portion of their roster back from a year ago and should be better. They are led by a potential 20 points per game player in Jase Townsend.

293. Bellarmine Knights

The Knights are beginning their first year of Division one basketball as a member of the Atlantic Sun Conference. They ended up 21-8 a season ago and return a good portion of that team. Point guard Dylan Penn makes this offense work. Bellarmine will eventually be good but this year they are likely a bottom-tier team.

292. James Madison Dukes

It appeared that the Dukes were ready to take the next step and finally have a winning record after a promising season two seasons ago, but in reality, James Madison had an extremely tough year and failed to win 10 games. They had a terrible defense to go along with a good enough offense. The Dukes do play relatively fast, but it all comes down to senior guard Matt Lewis and his 20 plus points per game. Lewis is the Colonial preseason player of the year.

291. Rice Owls

The Owls lost a lot of production from last seasons team, the top five leading scorers are all gone, but never fear Owl fans as head coach Scott Pera has replenished that talent with a ton of high-quality transfers. It is going to be tough for Rice to replace the production that they lost from last year’s team. Regression is likely, but Rice is still likely to finish right about where they did a year ago and that is in the bottom tier of the league.