NCAA Basketball Roundtable: ACC/Big Ten Challenge, early surprises of 2020-21

3. Which team has been the biggest disappointment so far?

Burgess

It saddens me to say, but for me, the biggest disappointment has been the UNLV Runnin’ Rebels. In TJ Otzelberger’s second season some had high expectations for the team but they have stumbled to a 1-4 start after falling to Montana State by 13 in their season opener and going 0-3 in the Maui Invitational, before knocking off Kansas State last time out.

South Dakota State transfer David Jenkins, Jr. struggled out of the gate but has picked up over his last two games, scoring 43 points and knocking down over 50% of his three-point attempts.  Maybe the win over Kansas State will get the Rebels turned in the right direction.

Zacker

Kentucky is the obvious choice.  A preseason top-ten team with the best recruiting class in the country – and now 1-3 and out of the poll.  That is not even addressing the loss to Georgia Tech, which might be as awful as a loss as Calipari has ever endured.  This team is young, and I do expect them to get better as the season progresses – but this does not look like a team that will compete in the SEC with Tennessee, Florida, and Missouri.

Tineo

It’s really early to have disappointments appear, but a team that I expected more from was Texas Tech. Throughout the first three games, they dominated teams just outside the Top 300 in the country. When they played a real opponent in Houston, they were overwhelmed. Even a Red Raider favored crowd couldn’t help the Red Raiders get outhustled by the Cougars.

Thedinga

It would be hard to say that anyone has disappointed me more than Virginia. The Cavaliers are 3-1, with their only loss coming by one point to a good San Francisco team. However, they went to overtime against Kent State and have silenced claims of their offense being a lot better than it has been in recent years. Kihei Clark needs to be much more efficient for my Final Four pick to live up to preseason expectations.

Zinkula

Duke. Kentucky (1-3) seems like the obvious answer, but I’ll go with the Blue Devils (2-1). The preseason No. 9 team only has one loss but has looked pretty unimpressive in all three of its games thus far. Duke’s offense turned it over 22 and 18 times respectively in its victories over Coppin St. and Bellarmine.

And although the team’s lone defeat came to a solid Michigan State team, the game wasn’t as close as the score (75-69) suggested. Additionally, ESPN’s No.19 and 25 recruits in guards Jeremy Roach and D.J. Steward have underwhelmed so far.