NCAA Basketball: Buy or sell WTE consensus top-10 teams for 2023-24 season?
After the NBA Draft deadline, many NCAA Basketball rosters became clearer for the 2023-24 season. There are still some quality transfers still in the portal, including Grant Nelson and Paul Mulcahy. But overall, the picture of who’s set to contend for next season or not is becoming clear.
Taking a look at the current prognostications from other media outlets, the Field of 68 compiled a consensus top-25 early power rankings for next season.
🧵: Here is the consensus 2023 college basketball media preseason poll, which includes the top 25s from all the major outlets: ESPN, SI, The Athletic, The Daily, CBS Sports, Heat Check CBB and Stadium.
— The Field of 68 (@TheFieldOf68) June 12, 2023
We spent an hour last week analyzing the poll here: https://t.co/dpowMHThhg pic.twitter.com/uju1gDt9B5
Here’s the question; which of them is most likely to underachieve next season based on the current roster structure? Any preseason top-10 team will have Final Four expectations but not all will succeed. I’ll be doing a “buy of sell” article, looking at which teams are least likely to make a deep run next March.
10. UConn Huskies – Sell
After winning the national title, UConn had to deal with a number of NBA Draft decisions. Losing leading scorer Adama Sanogo sucks but Donovan Clingan is already a consensus national breakout candidate for next season at the center position. And while sharpshooter Jordan Hawkins is gone, replacing him with Rutgers transfer Cam Spencer is a great addition.
Who they weren’t able to replace was Andre Jackson, the do-it-all guard that was the ultimate” glue guy”. Those are the types of players that allow you to make a run in the NCAA Tournament. Without him, that’s a ton of pressure on senior guard Tristen Newton to fully run the offense. And without Sanogo as a great security blanket inside, UConn’s offense could take a big hit.
I still think the Huskies will be very good next season but it’s incredibly hard to make it back-to-back trips to the Final Four. And with the target squarely on their backs, look for the Big East program to take a slight step back next season.