NCAA Basketball: Power rankings of all teams (363-1) for 2022-23 season

70. West Virginia Mountaineers- Last Season Ranking: 37

Conference: Big 12

The 2022 season marks the 10 year anniversary of West Virginia joining the Big 12, and in the previous 9 seasons the Mountaineers and head coach Bob Huggins have made the NCAA tournament five times. Huggins is another legendary coach who always gets his guys to play for him and buy into his style of basketball. West Virginia has had their great teams when they have had an explosive offense to go along with their aggressive defense.

Last year the offense was bad. West Virginia shot a poor percentage from the floor, didn’t rebound, and didn’t move the ball. Those are all uncharacteristic things that the Mountaineers displayed last year. West Virginia was the one team who was not very competitive in the Big 12. As we have all seen, coach Huggins will get it fixed and usually quickly the Mountaineers are never bad for long and should fare much better this year. The only problem is that the Big 12 is loaded and the deepest league in the country.

Rebuilding in the Big 12 is almost impossible, unless you have a legendary coach who knows how to recruit and get the most out of his team. The Mountaineers have rebuilt the roster quickly in the transfer portal with guys who have a lot of mileage in College Basketball. West Virginia has a roster that has a lot of versatility with a lot of guys who can do a lot of things. Look for the Mountaineers to push for the tournament this year, as I do believe the entire Big 12 can make the NCAA tournament this year.

Joe Toussaint is a transfer from Iowa, and while he was in Iowa he was never utilized properly. The guard is a true point guard who coach Huggins loves. Why?  The guard is from the Bronx, and is strong, gets after it on defense, and does not turn the ball over much. Toussaint is one of the tougher players in college basketball. He plays hard and will make his presence known. The guard is a pass first point guard who isn’t likely going to score much but he is a steady force in the backcourt who doesn’t have to leave the floor much.

69. Vanderbilt Commodores- Last Season Ranking: 93

Conference: SEC

Vanderbilt has preached patience with current head coach Jerry Stackhouse. The Commodores have gotten some warranted criticism given how bad the program has performed over the last decade. Last season the patience paid off as Vanderbilt was back to being competitive in the SEC and saw the year culminate in an NIT appearance. The Commodores beat some tournament teams last year when they had wins over Arkansas, LSU, and Alabama. Those are wins the Commodores were not getting in the first years under coach Stackhouse.

Coach Stackhouse has always been a good recruiter, he has used his ties in the AAU world to get good players in Nashville. The freshman class does have some good pieces, but Vanderbilt is not going to be able to replace their former star Scotty Pippen Jr. who is off to the NBA now. The Commodores are still a bottom tier team in the SEC.

Ezra Manjon is tasked with taking over for Scotty Pippen Jr. Manjon is a transfer from UC Davis where he had a great career. He was the freshman of the year in the Big West and was a three-time all-conference selection. The point guard was underrecruited coming out of high school and has always been told he isn’t good enough. He plays with an incredible chip on his shoulder which has led to him averaging 14 points with 3 assists over his 3 year career. Manjon is going to put himself on the map this year in a power five conference.

68. North Texas Mean Green- Last Season Ranking: 138

Conference: Conference USA

With a quick show of hands how many people knew that North Texas won the Conference USA?  To take this a step further how many knew they went 16-2 in the league? How many of you knew that they led the country in scoring defense and were arguably the best defensive team in the country?  The Mean Green have developed into a power in the Conference USA.

While offense is something that you need to win games, if you want to play for head coach Grant McCasland you better play defense. If you don’t play defense, he will not play you. North Texas plays extremely slow on both the offensive and defensive end, there were only 4 teams who played at a slower pace than the Mean Green did last year. They don’t have to play fast when you play the style of defense that North Texas does. You can play that slow and sacrifice some offense because the opponents can’t score.

The Mean Green do not give up three-point looks to anyone on the defensive end. They had the best three-point defense in the country and when you only give up 49 shots per game and only 14 three-point attempts points will be hard to come by for the opponents. I don’t know if the Mean Green will win the Conference USA again, because there are strong teams in the league, but they are going to be in the mix at the top. The defense is still elite and North Texas does have their best player returning.

Tylor Perry was first team all-conference, and the sixth man of the year in Conference USA last year. Perry is one of the best three point shooters and individual defenders in the country. He is going to take home a lot of hardware at North Texas before his career is over.

67. Tulane Green Wave- Last Season Ranking: 134

Conference: American

Ron Hunter is a great coach, and he is going to turn Tulane into a relevant program, and something tells me it may be this year. There is a legitimate hype train around this team in the media circles, and coach Hunter is the one leading the charge. The Green Wave already finished just outside the top half of the American a season ago, Tulane has that entire team returning and a team who is as hungry as ever to get back to the NCAA tournament. The American is still going to run through Houston, but the top tier is going to be bunched after that and the Green Wave are a team you should absolutely consider as a real threat to land in the top 4 teams in the league.

Coach Hunter did exactly what he said he was going to and that was turn this team around and make an NCAA tournament. Those seemed like lofty goals given where the program was when coach Hunter took over. The Green Wave are going to be tournament bound this year. I love this team. The way they play, their drive, and how gritty they are, all things that are going to work in their favor to get where they need to be.

Outside of Houston, the Green Wave have the best backcourt in the American and it is led by Jalen Cook. Cook shot 40% from beyond the arc and 43% from the floor overall. The point guard missed the last four games of the season due to injury and the Green Wave could have used his 18 points per game against Houston in the tournament. Cook is back to lead the offense both with his scoring and his ability to pass the ball. Cook is one of the best players in the AAC and he will need to continue to play at an all-conference level for Tulane to have their shot at making the tournament.

66. Washington State Cougars- Last Season Ranking: 60

Conference: Pac-12

It had been 10 years since the last time Washington State won 20 games and before the previous two seasons it had been 8 years since they had a winning record. Head coach Kyle Smith has done a great job bringing this program back to life after Ernie Kent essentially destroyed the program. I had the Cougars as a bubble team all year long and given that Washington State beat the teams they were supposed to beat and didn’t have a great resume building win on their resume they were not really on the bubble. They did play in the NIT, but the Cougars were far from the tournament as an at large.

Coach Smith wants to play fast and play tough defense. That is what Washington State did last season. They played fast, but the offense still was not great given that they were inefficient from the floor. If the efficiency improves Washington State can be good, the defense is going to be there because Smith doesn’t do anything special on defense but slows the opponents way down and contests everything. The Cougars have an extremely young roster and lose almost all their production from a year ago. I believe in coach Smith and know he is going to be big things in Pullman.

Mouhamed Gueye was the number 34 recruit in the country originally in the 2022 class. He reclassified and played every single game for the Cougars last year and is just scratching the surface of how good he can be. Gueye was rewarded with the Pac 12 all-freshman team last year, led the team in double-doubles, and was an elite rebounder. He is still raw on the offensive end of the floor but is good enough to likely average a double-double this year. If he can shoot closer to 60% from the floor he will really take off. The big man from Senegal is turning into a star.

65. Wake Forest Demon Deacons- Last Season Ranking: 87

Conference: ACC

It was not a question of if head coach Steve Forbes could turn around the Demon Deacons, it was a question of when. The time has come for Wake Forest to be a perennial top of the ACC finisher. The Demon Deacons just missed the tournament last season and this year with the way the roster is assembled they are not going to miss again.

Coach Forbes ran a successful program at ETSU and is now on his second stint of running a successful program. Wake Forest has a loaded roster returning even though they lost the ACC player of the year and their second leading scorer to the NBA. Coach Forbes has some momentum, and the Demon Deacons are going to be a bubble team all year long.

Jao Ituka won the MAAC freshman of the year at Marist last year and decided to transfer up. The guard is an elite scorer as he shot over 50% from the floor and over 40% from three. Ituka is not going to have a problem with the step up in competition. Coach Forbes will get the best out of his star guard and will turn him into ACC player of the year potential. The Demon Deacons are going to be a team to watch in the ACC.

64. Wyoming Cowboys- Last Season Ranking: 186

Conference: Mountain West

I missed on the ranking for Wyoming badly last season. The Cowboys were a team that I thought had a lot of question marks heading into the season and outside of their star I didn’t know who else was going to produce consistently. The same mistake will not be made with Wyoming this season. Head coach Jeff Linder is quickly building a Mountain West powerhouse who is capable of making a deep run into the tournament. Wyoming does not play fast at all, but on offense they run through their two stars and take the best shot possible. It doesn’t hurt when you have one of the best point guards in the nation to run the offense.

The Cowboys are great on the defensive end of the floor as every shot is contested, and if you do get an open look, you better knock it down because there is no guarantee you will get another one. It is time for Wyoming to run it back and become one of the premier teams in the Mountain West. They have almost their entire roster returning from a season ago including their two stars. Wyoming is going to be one of the top teams in the Mountain West and will make a return trip to the NCAA tournament which will make it two in a row.

Hunter Maldonado is one of the best point guards in all of college basketball. He is also an elite scoring guard who is great off the dribble driving to the rim. The scoring is great but his passing is the best asset, without that the Cowboys offense would be stuck. He makes this offense what it is by getting everyone involved and seeing the open shot. Maldonado makes Wyoming special and with him running the point there is no telling how far they can go in 2022-2023.

63. Furman Paladins- Last Season Ranking: 118

Conference: Southern

Furman has been one of the better teams in the Southern Conference for a while and head coach Bob Richey has yet to get his team over the hump to make the NCAA tournament. This season though is going to be different. If the Paladins do not win the conference and make the NCAA tournament this year it would be a giant upset.

Let’s get brought up to speed on the Paladins for those who have not watched them play. Furman shoots a ton of threes, makes a lot of threes, they rarely turn the ball over, get a ton of assists and is loaded with athletes. The Paladins are not fun to play because of their ability to stretch the floors and keep constant pressure on the defense. Furman is going to win a ton of games and are going to beat some power teams. The Paladins are a dangerous squad.

Mike Bothwell is the favorite for Southern Conference player of the year. He does everything for head coach Richey. Bothwell is an elite scorer, fantastic shooter, and great passer. There is not much Bothwell cannot do, the athletic guard is already a two-time first-team all-conference player and just needs an NCAA tournament and Southern Conference Player of the Year to complete the awards.

62. Clemson Tigers- Last Season Ranking: 62

Conference: ACC

At one point in the season last year Clemson was 9-4 with wins over Virginia and Bryant and my prediction of them being an NCAA bubble team looked like it was going to come true. Then conference play started and everything that everyone had thought about Clemson turned out to be true. The Tigers didn’t have enough talent to reasonably compete at the top of the ACC.

Clemson lost a lot of talent from the previous year. Even though they returned half of their roster the pieces that did return were not good enough to get them to the middle of the pack. Clemson beat the teams they were supposed to beat and outside of the win over Virginia didn’t beat anyone of note but did lose to some teams they should have beaten like Boston College.

Head coach Brad Brownell is a coach who knows defense and the Tigers are usually dialed in on that end. When the Tigers are dialed in and have one of the better defenses in the country, they will win a lot of games. When coach Brownell has a mediocre defense like last year, they are consistently around a .500 team under Brownell. This season Clemson is young and have a lot of Freshman on the roster who are going to be forced to contribute.

Dillon Hunter is a freshman who is the highest ranked player in the class for Clemson. Hunter is a guard who is going to team up with his older brother Chase in the Clemson backcourt and the younger Hunter should be the focal point of the offense once he gets his feet wet. Clemson is still going to be a bottom tier ACC team.

61. Florida State Seminoles- Last Season Ranking: 21

Conference: ACC

Leonard Hamilton had such an uncharacteristic season last year. He still had tons of height, the Seminoles had top freshman talent on the roster, and surrounded the top freshman with an experienced group of returning players. That usually leads to a great season for Florida State and one in which they easily make the tournament.

The complete opposite happened for the Seminoles last year. Florida State was never able to go on a run or establish itself in the ACC. Something was never right with the Seminoles last year. Florida State doesn’t have near the expectations this year that they did last year and that is when the Seminoles are going to step up and surprise everyone. Florida State is nowhere close to done.

Matthew Cleveland was a five star freshman who came to Tallahassee last year and was expected to be a lottery pick. He didn’t play as well as he would like and ended up coming back to college and that is good news for the Florida State program. Cleveland did most of his work inside the arc and was not a good three-point shooter. One offseason of development for Cleveland should see him take off in this offense. Cleveland is in for a breakout this year, and word is he is a much-improved shooter in year 2 under Hamilton.