NCAA Basketball: Power Ranking every team (362-1) for 2023-24 season

80. UCF Knights – Last Season Ranking: 93

Conference: Big 12

UCF will still likely win some games in the non-conference but they are going to struggle in the Big 12. Coach Dawkins will be able to recruit talent in the Big 12 but this year is going to be a rebuild year. Shemarri Allen is a transfer from UMKC is a scoring machine and was on the Summit League all-defensive team. The point guard averaged 17 points per game, with 5 rebounds, 2.7 assists and 2 steals per game. He can play in the Big 12 and will be a star for the Knights.

79. Loyola-Chicago Ramblers – Last Season Ranking: 99

Conference: Atlantic 10

Loyola-Chicago has a lot coming back from last season and improved their roster by getting players who have a skill set that will fit into the Ramblers perfectly. Loyola-Chicago will be much improved and will finish in the top tier of the Atlantic 10 pack. Philip Alston was the leading scorer and rebounder from the Ramblers last year. He returns to a team that has some more around him to take some pressure off him.  The wing is a 40% 3 point shooter and can go on a run. He scored 20 or more points 5 times and is a 1,000 point scorer in college.

78. Yale Bulldogs – Last Season Ranking 155

Conference: Ivy League

Yale is the class of the Ivy League again this year and will likely receive the automatic bid into the NCAA tournament and will probably win the regular season again. They return 4 out of 5 starters and most of their bench pieces return. The freshman class is talented with a lot of high ceiling players and the transfer into the program was a former 4 star recruit. Yale is rolling and they are going to win a lot again this year. Matt Knowling was a unanimous first team all conference selection. He was top 10 in the country in field goal percentage at 63%. Knowling is one of the favorites for the conference player of the year.

77. Drake Bulldogs – Last Season Ranking: 112

Conference: Missouri Valley

After a 27-8 regular season the Bulldogs got better in the transfer portal. The point guard is very important in coach DeVries offense and Drake was able to secure one who is going to thrive in this offense. Drake also has their dominant big man back and have a ton of depth. They are going to win finish in the top of the Valley again and make a deep run into March. Tucker DeVries is the best player in the Missouri Valley and the second-best player is not particularly close. DeVries is already one of the best players in Drake history.  He is the third player in school history to score over 500 points in back-to-back seasons and only the fourth player in school history to score over 600 points in a season. The forward is going to win the player of the year in the Missouri Valley this year.

76. Florida State Seminoles – Last Season Ranking: 61

Conference: ACC

Dare I say that they are one of the most improved teams in the ACC and find themselves on the bubble all season?  Darin Green Jr. is a natural leader who is going to become one of the most prolific three point shooters in Florida State and NCAA history this year. The guard has made 299 threes over his college career and should easily get to right outside of 400 this year which will put him near the top of the leaderboard for career threes. He is going to be one of the better three point shooters in the Florida State history as well.  Green Jr. is the active leader for three pointers made in the ACC. The point I am trying to get across is that Green Jr. can shoot and is deadly from deep. Florida State needs all the help they can get on offense.

75. St. Bonaventure Bonnies – Last Season Ranking: 122

Conference: Atlantic 10

St. Bonaventure should never be considered a sleeper anymore, but it does seem like no one is giving them a chance to win the Atlantic 10. The roster says otherwise, and the Bonnies are going to be one of the top teams in the league and have a great chance to make the NCAA tournament again. Charles Pride is a transfer from Bryant. The guard is arguably the best player in Bryant history. He has scored over 1,500 points, hauled in 750 rebounds, and has 250 assists. He finished with 144 steals in his 4 years in Smithfield. The guard is the only player in Bryant history to record 1,000 points, 500 rebounds, and 200 steals over a career. Pride is likely going to bump a starter from last year which makes Saint Bonaventure deep and loaded with scoring.

74. Dayton Flyers – Last Season Ranking: 23

Conference Atlantic 10

The Flyers are once again one of the favorites to win the Atlantic 10, but their national expectations are much lower. Dayton needs to focus on winning the Atlantic 10 and receiving the automatic bid into the NCAA tournament, but they should still be a bubble team for most of the year regardless. DaRon Holmes II has never won the Player of the Year in the Atlantic 10 which is surprising considering how good he has been his first two seasons in Ohio. Holmes II will be the Player of the Year and Defensive Player of the Year in the Atlantic 10 this year.

73. South Carolina Gamecocks – Last Season Ranking: 73

Conference: SEC

South Carolina is rebuilding and this is going to be another tough year, especially in the SEC that is loaded from top to bottom. Ebrima Dibba missed all last season with a torn Achilles tendon. The guard is one of the most unique players in the country. He is a stat sheet stuffer and has had numerous games with 10 plus assists, 10 plus points, and 10 plus rebounds. Dibba is one of my favorite players to watch in college basketball because of his ability to affect a game in so many ways. Had he been healthy last year South Carolina would have won some more games. The guard holds career averages of 8 points, 5 assists and 5 rebounds. He will have a triple double this year.

72. Nevada Wolf Pack – Last Season Ranking: 140

Conference: Mountain West

The Wolf Pack have been on top of the league for the better part of the last decade, and they don’t plan to leave anytime soon. Nevada is a team who has enough talent to beat a power five team so keep an eye out for that. Jarod Lucas has a ton of experience in college basketball, and he especially has experience now in the NCAA tournament. He was one of the stars for Oregon State when they made their run to the Elite Eight, and now Lucas led Nevada to the NCAA tournament.

71. Mississippi Rebels – Last Season Ranking: 49

Conference: SEC

Coach Beard built this roster like he does all the rest of them. He crushes the transfer portal and gets talent quickly. Beard has the uncanny ability to get the players to buy in a gel well together in year 1. They won’t play fast on offense but will efficient and will shoot a lot of threes. It has worked for him in the past and is going to work again. Jamarion Sharp may be the biggest win for coach Beard of any of the big time transfers he locked down. Sharp is 7’5” is a shot blocking machine and has a nice touch around the rim. He was named the Conference USA defensive player of the year and found himself as a finalist for the Naismith Defensive Player of the Year award. He averaged 4 blocks per game last year and that is likely going to happen again and with the way coach Beard is going to utilize him he may have a huge breakout year coming.