There are a multitude of surprising storylines in college basketball this season. Auburn and Tennessee lead an SEC that could break the record for at-large berths in the NCAA tournament. Florida and Oklahoma entered the week with zero losses. Who could have predicted any of that?
Maryland and St. John’s have excelled; UCLA might be a Big Ten contender in its first season in the conference. Plus, Mark Pope (Kentucky) and Dusty May (Michigan) have exceeded expectations thanks to strong starts in their first seasons with their respective teams.
But also, many teams have missed the mark. Although we haven’t reached the midpoint of the season, the following teams are approaching desperation mode and need a turnaround.
Here are 10 teams that have to make a move — now — to save their seasons.
Caleb Love‘s return for his senior season — he won Pac-12 player of the year in 2023-24 — seemed to position Tommy Lloyd’s squad for immediate success in the program’s first season in the Big 12. But the nonconference path for the Wildcats has been littered with problems. An Arizona squad that was ranked 10th in the Associated Press Top 25 preseason poll recorded its fifth loss of the season just over a week ago. With an 0-5 record against Quad 1 opponents — the victories that boost and validate a team’s seeding in March — the Wildcats will need a miraculous course correction during Big 12 play and an improved Love (29% from beyond the arc) to reach the NCAA tournament.
Though Saturday’s come-from-behind victory over UCLA at Madison Square Garden helped the Tar Heels secure their first top 25 victory of the season, it also highlighted their ongoing challenges. They’ve been an inconsistent team, especially in high-level matchups. On Saturday, the Tar Heels started 4-for-12 from beyond the arc in the opening half, days after they had missed 11 of their first 12 3-point attempts in a loss to Florida in Charlotte. Plus, the team hasn’t found a consistent big man to trust in clutch moments. The Tar Heels need RJ Davis to continue to showcase All-American poise and freshman Ian Jackson (24 points against UCLA on Saturday) to soar during ACC play.
Prior to the season, coach Mike Woodson said he had the most talented roster of his time at Indiana. On paper, maybe. But the on-court product has not demonstrated that potential yet. It’s not a crime to lose to Louisville, Gonzaga and Nebraska — all top-60 teams on KenPom — in venues outside Bloomington. The Hoosiers, however, lost those three games by 61 points combined and surrendered an average of 87.6 points per game. They have talent (Malik Reneau is one of four players averaging double figures), but those lopsided losses were the result of serious defensive lapses that must be addressed immediately.
Every reputable NBA mock draft for 2025 has slotted Rutgers freshmen Dylan Harper and Ace Bailey as a pair of top-three picks next summer. But the future pros have not lifted Rutgers from its current state: an imbalanced crew playing sub-100 defense per KenPom and connecting on just 34% of its 3-point attempts. Steve Pikiell has a young team in a college basketball climate that’s dominated by veteran standouts. Still, a team with two lottery picks shouldn’t lose to Princeton and Kennesaw State. The last squad that had two top-three picks in a single NBA draft — Kentucky in 2012 — won a national title. This group, despite its promising stars, isn’t even in the NCAA tournament convo yet.
Entering the season, Wake Forest was picked to finish third in the ACC’s preseason poll. That might still happen, but Steve Forbes’ crew has a lot to do to reach that perch. Wake Forest has suffered four double-digit losses to top-60 teams, all neutral and road games. The Demon Deacons also failed to impress in some of their wins. They scored just 64 points in a season-opening win over Coppin State. They commit turnovers on nearly one-fifth of their possessions and they’ve made just 26% of their 3-point attempts. Hunter Sallis (17.8 PPG), a preseason all-ACC first-team selection, has to bounce back — he has made just 27% of his 3-point attempts compared with 41% last season — to change his team’s fortunes.
Sure, Miami didn’t enter the season with a squad that seemed capable of making a Final Four run. The Hurricanes ended last season on a 10-game losing streak. And then, Wooga Poplar and Norchad Omier — key players in the team’s Final Four run in 2022-23 — transferred. But the Hurricanes are 4-8 right now and their résumé features losses to Oklahoma State (101st on KenPom), Charleston Southern (295th) and Mount St. Mary’s (235th). Point guard Nijel Pack‘s foot injury has been a shadow over this season’s team, but a program that recently made a run to the national semifinals should not be losing home games to sub-200 mid-majors two years later. Yet, this is Miami’s situation.
Even without Zach Edey (two-time Wooden Award winner), Purdue was still viewed as an elite program led by an All-American guard in Braden Smith. And Trey Kaufman-Renn (17.9 PPG, 6.6 RPG) has been a respectable successor to Edey. Yet, the Boilermakers suffered an 87-69 loss to Auburn on Saturday (they were down by as many as 33 points) in another failed opportunity to look like a team with Final Four ambitions. They’ve allowed opponents to shoot 52.6% inside the arc, one of the worst defensive marks in the country. OK, they have a win over Alabama, but that version of this squad has not been the one we’ve seen most of the season.
Coach Kyle Neptune’s squad suffered an 86-79 loss at Creighton on Saturday. That happens — the Bluejays are notoriously astute and efficient at home. But Creighton, which recently lost standout Pop Isaacs to a season-ending hip injury, had just suffered an 81-57 loss at Georgetown. The Bluejays clearly have their flaws. Instead of taking advantage, Villanova saw its five-game winning streak end when it surrendered 139 points per 100 possessions to Creighton. (Let’s put that in perspective. The Cleveland Cavaliers have the NBA’s top offense at 120.9 points per 100 possessions.) Villanova’s subpar defense also fueled a double-digit home loss to Columbia in November. All of that has overshadowed Eric Dixon‘s epic season (25.8 PPG), too. The Wildcats need a rapid turnaround to avoid rumblings about Neptune’s future with the program.
The name, image and likeness era has allowed programs with willing, wealthy supporters to add an immediate influx of talent each season. Kansas State did that. Coleman Hawkins, an Illinois transfer, reportedly received a seven-figure sum to pick Kansas State. But the Wildcats have had more problems than solutions thus far. Samford transfer Achor Achor recently left the program for personal reasons. Head coach Jerome Tang and Michigan transfer Dug McDaniel have had contentious moments. And Hawkins is averaging 9.2 points. All of that means a fan base that welcomed a multimillion-dollar collection of talent has not been pleased with a 6-5 start that was punctuated by a 19-point loss at Wichita State on Friday.
The return of Yaxel Lendeborg, the American Athletic Conference’s defensive player of the year and first-team all-conference selection last season, raised preseason expectations for Andy Kennedy’s squad. The Blazers won the conference tournament last season before they suffered a loss to San Diego State in the opening round of the NCAA tournament. As a result, the Blazers were picked to win the conference championship in this season’s preseason poll. Now, however, they’re a 6-6 squad with losses to five sub-100 teams on KenPom, including Vermont (240th). The Blazers ended last season with momentum and were fortunate to bring back their best player, but they’ve struggled to convince anyone that they’re still the team to beat in the American because of their early struggles.
