NCAA Basketball: Gonzaga, Houston lead in updated way-too-early top 25 ranking

It’s been nearly two months since Kansas cut down the nets as champions of the 2022 NCAA Basketball Tournament. We’re two months past that wild Tournament, having experienced a great number of coaching and personnel changes along the way. The coaching carousel has mostly settled down, while the same could also be said about the Transfer Portal, for the most part.

At the beginning of June, the portal for entrance into the NBA Draft closed, meaning a number of players were forced into tough decisions on if they were staying in the NBA Draft or not. Many decisions were made, with some returns greatly bolstering teams, while some departures will certainly be felt this upcoming season. Even though it’ll be another five months until college basketball games are played, we’re already getting a feel for these rosters.

There’s not a team in college basketball who’s roster can be considered absolutely final at this point, but we have a much better idea today than we did a few days ago about a number of teams and players. With all of that in mind, we’re going to update our top 25 rankings of these teams. These rankings are solely based on these teams and their rosters; it doesn’t particularly matter what a team did during the 2022 Tournament or season; the focus is all on 2023.

25. Ohio State

Last year, Ohio State had a good season, albeit not necessarily a great season. The Buckeyes were a Tournament team yet again and took care of business in the opening round before bowing out gracefully to a Final Four qualifier in Villanova. EJ Liddell averaged nearly 20 points a game and played a clear starring role for these Buckeyes. Replacing his value is no easy assignment.

The Buckeyes move forward, filling the gaps in their roster with a slew of high-impact transfers. Former Wright State forward Tanner Holden put up impressive numbers (20.1 ppg, 7.1 rpg) in the Horizon League and will hope to make an impact in the Big Ten. Sean McNeil will slide into that starting backcourt and try to replicate the offensive success he had at West Virginia. Another player to watch is Isaac Likekele, who had a steady role as a wing the last four seasons at Oklahoma State.

We don’t know exactly how these new faces are going to gel, but what we do know is that the Buckeyes are going to need a bounce-back season for Justice Sueing, their talented forward who missed almost all of last season to injury. Historically, Holtmann’s teams have been slow-tempo, high-intensity teams that are efficient on the offensive end. If all the pieces come together, they could have another season contending in the Big Ten race. However, this team will certainly miss the star power of Liddell.