NCAA Basketball: Biggest storylines for each current top-25 team for rest of 2023-24

18. South Carolina Gamecocks - Is Lamont Paris the National COY?

In his first season at South Carolina, Coach Paris went 11-21 overall and finished in the bottom 3 of the SEC standings. This year, after being picked to finish in the bottom tier again, the Gamecocks are 22-5 and just one game back of first place in the standings. It’s one of the top turnarounds we’ve seen in recent years and it’s hard to see who else should earn the top coaching award.

17. Saint Mary’s Gaels - Moving on from losing Joshua Jefferson

The Gaels are currently unbeaten in WCC play and are a win away from winning the regular-season title outright. But it’s not all roses for the program, as they’re without starting forward Jefferson for the rest of the season with an injury. The 6’8 sophomore averaged 10.2 ppg and 6.5 rpg on the season and gave them big offense. We’ll see how they look without him against good teams going forward, starting with a big home game vs Gonzaga this weekend.

16. Kentucky - Still looking to sort out the rotation

The Wildcats have had some thrilling wins and losses in the past month, including a buzzer-beating win over Mississippi State on Tuesday. They’ve been without Tre Mitchell for a while with an injury, while there’s been plenty of discourse over how much freshmen should play such as Rob Dillingham and Zvonimir Ivisic. Coach Calipari doesn’t have much longer to figure out the proper lineups to have them as a Final Four contender and injuries haven’t helped.