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

40. Oregon Ducks – Last Season Ranking: 21

Conference: Pac-12

Coach Altman has a team who can finish in the middle of the league and will be a lock for the NCAA tournament. He also has a team who lose to teams they shouldn’t and make the NIT again. Which team will show up for Oregon this year. N’Faly Dante has always had an extremely high ceiling, but it was all about him being able to secure enough playing time as the primary big man for Oregon. The Ducks big man did that last season he was the primary big man and had a breakout season. He is currently the record holder for career Field goal percentage at Oregon, Dante shoots 64% from the floor for his career.

39. Missouri Tigers – Last Season Ranking: 42

Conference: SEC

Heading into the 2023-2024 season the Tigers are just outside of the top 25 but they are going to find themselves in the rankings soon and likely will be there for the rest of the season. Noah Carter enters his last year of college basketball, and he is truly in for a breakout season in a major conference. Carter started most of the games for the Tigers last year but was never a true focal point of the offense. This year all of that changes for Carter. He is going to have a huge role in the offense and the forward will be able to play his natural position this year. He can shoot from outside and he is deadly around the rim. His big body makes him a great defender. There have been reports coming about how good the big man looks in practice. This is going to be a huge year for the forward.

38. Iowa State Cyclones – Last Season Ranking: 33

Conference: Big 12

Iowa State is going to make the NCAA tournament again and are built to make a deep run in the NCAA tournament. Omaha Biliew is the third McDonalds All American to play for Iowa State. The big man was ranked number 11 in the recruiting rankings and became the highest ranked recruit to ever play for Iowa State. The Big man comes in with huge expectations and is going to come in and be a starter from the opening tip and will likely dominate at his position once he gets his feet wet in the Big 12. Biliew is a one and done prospect.

37. Xavier Musketeers – Last Season Ranking: 48

Conference: Big East

Heading into the season the expectations for the Musketeers may need to be tempered a bit at the start of the season. Star player Zach Freemantle and his backup Jerome Hunter are both out for an undisclosed amount of time. Freemantle had foot surgery and is out until at least January and maybe longer. Hunter is out indefinitely, and no update has been provided. Xavier lost a lot of talent from last season but were able to replenish the talent in the transfer portal and have a fantastic recruiting class coming in. Dayvion McKnight is a transfer from Western Kentucky who will fit in well at Xavier running their point guard spot. McKnight is set to have a big year for Xavier. The point guard already has over 1,000 points scored. He averaged 16.5 points per game, 5.0 rebounds, and 3.5 assists.

36. Memphis Tigers – Last Season Ranking: 36

Conference: American Athletic

The American Athletic got a face lift this year and it is going to be crowded at the top, but the Tigers should finish near the top and be a lock for the tournament.  Jordan Brown has been in college for a long time and the former five star recruit is still dominating. He was the catalyst for the Louisiana Ragin Cajuns run to the tournament last year when he averaged 19 points and 9 rebounds. That performance earned him the Lou Henson Award, and he also was a first team all-Sun Belt. The center also finds himself in impressive company as he joined Zach Edey and Trayce Jackson-Davis as the only three players in the country to average at least 19 points, 8 rebounds and 1 block per game. Brown gets fouled a lot and shoots 60% from the floor. He is a good one and will have a big role for Memphis.

35. Indiana Hoosiers – Last Season Ranking: 13

Conference: Big Ten

It didn’t take long for head coach Mike Woodson to pick up the pieces of the Indiana program and get them back to being one of the premier programs in the Big Ten. Mackenzie Mgbako is one of the best freshmen in the country. He comes to Bloomington as the number 8 recruit in the country. Mgbako has a ton of hype coming in and he is one of the reasons that Indiana is ranked as high as they are heading into the season.

34. Mississippi State Bulldogs – Last Season Ranking: 52

Conference: SEC

Mississippi State has a lot of their roster returning plus the key additions from the transfer portal and they are going to be a tournament team again. The Bulldogs did already lose a starter to a foot injury until January but this year they will be able to replace him easier. Shakeel Moore is one of the most important players in the SEC and he is arguably the most important player for coach Jans and the Bulldogs. Moore is the guard on the team who is going to be tasked with defending the opponent’s best player and trying to take him out of the game. He was one the 15 finalists for the Naismith Defensive Player of the year. He is one of the best defenders in the country and far and away the best defender in the SEC.

33. Maryland Terrapins – Last Season Ranking: 50

Conference: Big Ten

Heading into the 2023-2024 season the Terrapins have their stars back and had a good recruiting class of players who are going to fit in with what Maryland is trying to do. The Big Ten is deep this year and Maryland is going to make the tournament and will be good enough to finish in the middle of the pack in the league again. Jahmir Young is going to score 2,000 points in his college career. He is one of 10 active players with at least 1,900 points, at least 600 rebounds, and at least 350 assists. He stuffs the stat sheet every time he is out on the floor and when he is cooking on the offensive end of the floor, he is hard to defend. He has gotten close to a triple double, and I think he will get one this year.

32. Wisconsin Badgers – Last Season Ranking: 58

Conference: Big Ten

Wisconsin returns all five starters this year. The hope is that the players who had a down year bounce back and the Badgers find their way into the tournament. I am not so sure last year was a down year as much as it was the Big Ten was much better. In any case the Badgers are a bubble team. Chucky Hepburn was the player who was supposed to have the breakout for Wisconsin a season ago. He was given the offense to make things happen. He did lead the team in scoring, assists, and steals but he never could take the leap everyone thought. Hepburn has a ton of talent and his breakout is coming and it likely comes this year. He is a 40% three point shooter and is the only player on the Badgers who is athletic enough to create their own shot. His efficiency inside the three point arc is going to go up as his confidence running the offense goes up. Hepburn will be fine.

31. TCU Horned Frogs – Last Season Ranking: 15

Conference: Big 12

The Horned Frogs bolstered the roster in a big way using the transfer portal. The Horned Frogs are not preseason ranked but find themselves just outside the top 25 and with their roster they will finish near the top of the deepest league in the country. Trevian Tennyson is a transfer from Texas A&M Corpus Christi and his final season with the Islanders he broke the all time record for threes made in a season. He made 100 threes last year and shot 48% in conference games. Tennyson is a natural scorer who will not have any problem adjusting to the uptick in the competition. He is one of the best shooters in the country and shot almost 90% from the line.