NCAA Basketball: North Carolina the worst preseason No. 1 team of all time

13. 1999-00 Connecticut

A few months before this particular season began, Richard Hamilton and the Huskies cut down the nets for the school’s first national championship. The legend of Jim Calhoun really started to take off, and it would not be Connecticut’s only success at the Final Four. However, there were heightened expectations the year after winning that first title, but this team (sans Hamilton) did not defend their initial top ranking.

There was still remarkable talent from the previous season, headlined by Khalid El-Amin, the junior guard who was the leading scorer and distributor with 16.0 points and 5.2 assists per game. Junior guard Albert Mouring and senior forward Kevin Freeman both averaged at least 11 points a game and were part of that national title team as well. Future NBA player Jake Voskuhl, a 6’11 center, was vital in the frontcourt, while a slew of freshmen got decent minutes, including Top 40 recruit Tony Robertson.

The Huskies spent most of the season near the top of the polls but nearly fell out in February with a slew of losses in Big East play. They bounced back with a trip to the championship game of their conference tournament, but suffered a third loss to St. John’s and settled for a 5-seed in the NCAA Tournament.

After a win over 12-seed Utah State, the Huskies’ hopes for a repeat were finished off in the second round by 4-seed Tennessee in a 14-point defeat. This team wasn’t terrible, but certainly did not play to the potential that many expected in the preseason; perhaps they missed Hamilton and a few other pieces more than expected.