SPORTS: College Basketballs Overachievers and Biggest Let Downs

BY: BODE BULLOCK

JANUARY 18, 2023

Every year College basketball has the teams that are very shocking and the teams that everyone thought was going to be great but just don’t meet the expectations. So here are five of the most disappointing teams in college basketball and the five overachieving teams.

Five of the most disappointing teams are Kentucky, Duke, Indiana, North Carolina, and Louisville. Kentucky is very disappointing because they started this season as the number four ranked team in the nation, and now they aren’t even ranked and are falling out of the tournament on some experts’ brackets. The fans are very fed up with the head coach John Calapari, because fans believe that if you are going to be coaching a blue blood team like Kentucky, you should be winning or coming close to the title, but their last final four appearance was in 2015. Fans want Calapari to be bought out of his contract or go to be Texas head coach. 

The next disappointing team is Duke, but they have a reason of being disappointing because their legendary coach Mike Krzyzewski retired last year and new coach Jon Schyer is taking over But still, they should still be pretty good with all the top recruits they get, and they shouldn’t be losing by 20+ points to teams they beat every year. 

Indiana, during a point this year, was a top ten team, but now they have fallen out of the top 25. They have suffered injuries to some of their starting players. 

Coming into this year, North Carolina  was ranked as the number one team in the country and favorite to win the National Championship. Now they see themselves as a team that’s not ranked and might not even make the NCAA tournament. 

Coming into the season Louisville wasn’t expected to be great but being 2-14 and being one of the worst teams in college basketball was something that wasn’t expected.

Five of the most overachieving teams are Houston, Kansas State, Purdue, Charleston, and New Mexico. 

Houston who was supposed to be a decent team, but flew over those expectations and are now the number one ranked team in the NCAA. 

Next, Kansas State who wasn’t ranked until last week, but after 3 wins over ranked teams they have jumped up to 11th in the country and with transfer Keyonte Johnson the sky’s the limit for the Wildcats. 

Purdue came back this year with big man Zach Edey, who is playing like the national player of the year, rose above expectations, and are a top 5 team in the country. 

Charleston who most people didn’t even know about coming into the year are now ranked and are on a 16 game winning streak. 

Finally, New Mexico who is coached by the son of the legendary coach Rick Patino, Richard Patino, in the first year that he has been there he turned them from a bottom tier team to a team that will make the NCAA tourney.