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The madness has finally settled. The confetti has been swept off the floor, “One Shining Moment” has been aired, and we have our 2026 National Champion: the Michigan Wolverines. I am not a “way too early” top-25 guy. Nothing against anyone who enjoys them, but I find it to be a pointless exercise when the transfer portal is still open, and rosters are going to be changing schools like a girl changing clothes. So, here in this top-25, we’re looking back at the 2025-2026 college basketball season and declaring who the best teams actually were this past season.
MORE: Ranking the 15 teams with the best chance to win the NBA Finals
Hail to the Victors! The Wolverines are national champs for the first time since 1989 (with a few heartbreaking defeats in between). Is there any doubt that they’re the best team in the country? The only game in the tournament where I ever doubted their victory was in the first half of the National Championship game. Credit to Dusty May for bringing together a group of transfers (that a lot of pundits said couldn’t play together) and turning them into a juggernaut.
Duke Blue Devils guard Isaiah Evans (3) reacts after being called for a foul Thursday, March 19, 2026, during the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament first round game against the Siena Saints at Bon Secours Wellness Arena in Greenville, South Carolina.
Think about everything that had to go wrong to prevent the Blue Devils from a rematch with the Wolverines – they had to have Caleb Foster and Patrick Ngongba get hurt, and then have a true 1-in-1000 outcome against UConn. Remember, this team beat the National Champ. They’re good. I don’t know if that will make Jon Scheyer feel any better, however.
All of my concerns with this Arizona team came to a head on Saturday night against Michigan. When the Wolverines deployed a style that dared Arizona to shoot, and Arizona’s frontcourt didn’t win their matchups, it was over in a hurry. No team has larger looming NBA decisions with Brayden Burries, Ivan Kharchenkov, Koa Peat, and Mo Krivas all having the option to stay or go.
The Huskies showed me something in this NCAA Tournament. I had previously been unimpressed with their body of work in the Big East. But they beat Duke and Illinois and gave it a heck of a run against Michigan. This team runs a lot of complex offensive sets that generate good shots, and they’re as physical as anyone on defense and on the glass. The unsung hero of the tournament: Malachi Smith.
I do think the Illini would have given us a more entertaining final matchup against Michigan than UConn, but they had their coldest shooting night of the season against the Huskies in the Final Four. You have to feel like the Illini win that game more often than they don’t, and that will only eat at Brad Underwood until he can get back.
Mar 22, 2026; St. Louis, MO, USA; Purdue Boilermakers guard Fletcher Loyer (2) celebrates after the game against the Miami Hurricanes during a second round game of the men’s 2026 NCAA Tournament at Enterprise Center. Mandatory Credit: Jeff Curry-Imagn Images
The Boilermakers will be saying farewell to a super group of seniors that includes Braden Smith, Trey Kaufman-Renn, and Fletcher Loyer. This group set the new standard for the Boilermaker program, and were up at halftime with a chance to make it to the Final Four. You have to wonder how it would have played out if TKR could have stayed out of foul trouble.
This season will go down as a major swing-and-a-miss for the Gators, as it is unlikely that they will be able to retain anyone from their frontcourt heading into next season. It was guard play yet again that let them down, as Boogie Fland and Xaivian Lee failed to live up to the bar set by Walter Clayton Jr last season.
If I were an Iowa State fan, I would be sick of how this season played out. Injuries played a massive role in how the 2026 season played out, but no team was more affected than Iowa State losing Joshua Jefferson only minutes into the NCAA Tournament. In his absence, we got some great performances from Tamin Lipsey and Nate Heise, but the ceiling was not there without their matchup nightmare.
In a different bracket, this Spartans team may have made a Final Four, and definitely would have made the Elite Eight. UConn’s style was a matchup nightmare for the Spartans, and a wild comeback attempt fell just a few points short. Seniors Jaxon Kohler and Carson Cooper had great careers, but never made it to the Final Four.
When will Kelvin Sampson learn? Another year, another exit from the tournament directly caused by a lack of offensive creativity. I don’t care how good a defensive and rebounding team you are; you have to have a half-court offense that generates easy scoring opportunities if you want to win a National Championship.
Tennessee forward Nate Ament (10) walks off the court as Michigan players celebrate their Final Four berth behind him after a NCAA Tournament Elite 8 game between Tennessee and Michigan at the United Center in Chicago on March 29, 2026.
The Volunteers were a team that peaked at the right time and also drew a perfect spot in the bracket. They were straight-up better than Miami (Ohio) and Virginia, and then beat a wounded Iowa State team. But they were also playing great basketball, as the offense was flourishing with Ja’Kobi Gillespie and Nate Ament’s shot-making and JP Estrella and Felix Okpara crashing the glass.
It was a dream season for the Cornhuskers that ended with a run to the Sweet 16. Honestly, it should have been the Elite 8, as Nebraska led Iowa for virtually the entire game and then surrendered a basket with only four players on the court. Oh, what could have been for Fred Hoiberg.
I had to have the Commodores right here behind Nebraska, considering they played one of the most back-and-forth, competitive games of the entire tournament, and lost by literal millimeters when Tyler Tanner’s half-court shot rattled out. Had they advanced from that game, I truly believe that this under-seeded 5-seed could have made a Final Four.
No team moved further up in the rankings through their NCAA Tournament run than the Longhorns. Credit to Sean Miller – this team did not look like an 11-seed once they made the field of 68. The shot-making from Tramon Mark and Jordan Pope, as well as the inside dominance of Matas Vokietaitis and Dailyn Swain, was incredible to watch, and they were one shot away from a trip to the Elite Eight.
Ben McCollum is about the closest comparison to Curt Cignetti that we have in college basketball. He took a new job at a P5-program, brought with him a lot of players from his old school, and instantly started winning. This team is not better than Florida or Nebraska, two teams that they beat, but they outplayed them on that night, which is a testament to how well-coached the Hawkeyes are.
Rick Pitino’s crew represented themselves very well in the tournament, blasting Northern Iowa, delivering the tournament’s only true buzzer-beater against Kansas, and taking Duke down to the wire. In a different bracket, this team could have gone further, but the Red Storm ran dry from 3-point land at the wrong time against Duke.
Mar 25, 2026; San Jose, CA, USA; Arkansas Razorbacks guard Darius Acuff Jr. (5) looks on during a practice session ahead of the west regional of the men’s 2026 NCAA Tournament at SAP Center. Mandatory Credit: Eakin Howard-Imagn Images
Darius Acuff supplanted himself as one of college basketball’s best point guards in this NCAA Tournament. He carried this team as far as he could, dazzling against Hawaii and High Point before running out of gas against Arizona. He needed more help for this team to have been taken seriously as a true contender.
Live by the three, die by the three. After one of the best whole-team shooting performances I have ever seen against Texas Tech, the Crimson Tide seemed as if they were going to keep it going against Michigan. It lasted about half an hour. The Wolverines pulled away in the second half as Alabama finally ran cold, and the Crimson Tide’s season was over in a hurry.
The Jayhawks looked incredible in the first half of the game against Cal Baptist and the second half of the game against St. John’s. If only they could have put that together in 40 minutes of one basketball game and not two. Darryn Peterson’s stay in the NCAA Tournament was shorter than we would have liked it to be.
The Zags are always a difficult team to evaluate because of the conference that they play in. But it became clear in this tournament that they are not the same team without Braden Huff in the frontcourt, as they were tested by Kennesaw State and then dominated on the interior by Texas. This is yet another team that was impacted by injury this season, and we’re simply left wondering what could have been.
Oh, what could have been. This team owned 5 total victories against the Elite Eight, the highest of anyone in the field, save for Michigan, after the games had been played. That is an incredible ceiling that the backcourt duo of Boyd and Blackwell displayed. But the inconsistent defensive intensity and 3-point shooting reared its ugly head against High Point, and the team that *could* beat anyone *would* not get the chance to.
Mar 22, 2026; Philadelphia, PA, USA;Virginia Cavaliers head coach Ryan Odom reacts in the first half during a second round game of the men’s 2026 NCAA Tournament at Xfinity Mobile Arena. Mandatory Credit: Bill Streicher-Imagn Images
I was low on this team all season long, and I think that at the end of the day, I was correct. They used a lot of decisive wins against bottom-dweller ACC schools to prop up their analytical profile, and were a good rebounding team until they went up against bigger, better rebounding teams. Credit to Ryan Odom for what they accomplished in year 1, but this team should not have been a 3-seed, and their first-weekend exit was not shocking to me.
South Florida was my upset special in round 1, and that was thwarted by Louisville. The Cardinals represented themselves well to just win a game and be competitive in the round of 32, considering they were without their best player, Mikel Brown Jr. Pat Kelsey is finally off the schnide when it comes to winning in the NCAA Tournament.
VCU’s 19-point comeback against North Carolina was one of the most thrilling games of the first round of the tournament. Credit to the Rams’ athletic department – they simply don’t miss when it comes to hiring head coaches, and Phil Martelli Jr appears to have this team in position to dominate the A10 for years to come.
Hear me out – as coach Flynn Clayman famously mentioned in the post-game interview, High Point had not played any top-25 opponents all season long. Actually, they hadn’t played anyone in the top-50 or top-100, according to KenPom ranks. So, they leave this tournament with a 1-1 record against the top-25, and the loss was by only 6 points. It’s a small sample size, but it’s a better win percentage against the top-25 than any other team I could have put here, and it’s a fitting spot for the only true cinderella that this tournament gave us, even if the stay was quite short.
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MORE: Ranking the 15 teams with the best chance to win the NBA Finals
1. Michigan
Hail to the Victors! The Wolverines are national champs for the first time since 1989 (with a few heartbreaking defeats in between). Is there any doubt that they’re the best team in the country? The only game in the tournament where I ever doubted their victory was in the first half of the National Championship game. Credit to Dusty May for bringing together a group of transfers (that a lot of pundits said couldn’t play together) and turning them into a juggernaut.
2. Duke
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Duke Blue Devils guard Isaiah Evans (3) reacts after being called for a foul Thursday, March 19, 2026, during the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament first round game against the Siena Saints at Bon Secours Wellness Arena in Greenville, South Carolina.
Think about everything that had to go wrong to prevent the Blue Devils from a rematch with the Wolverines – they had to have Caleb Foster and Patrick Ngongba get hurt, and then have a true 1-in-1000 outcome against UConn. Remember, this team beat the National Champ. They’re good. I don’t know if that will make Jon Scheyer feel any better, however.
3. Arizona
All of my concerns with this Arizona team came to a head on Saturday night against Michigan. When the Wolverines deployed a style that dared Arizona to shoot, and Arizona’s frontcourt didn’t win their matchups, it was over in a hurry. No team has larger looming NBA decisions with Brayden Burries, Ivan Kharchenkov, Koa Peat, and Mo Krivas all having the option to stay or go.
4. UConn
The Huskies showed me something in this NCAA Tournament. I had previously been unimpressed with their body of work in the Big East. But they beat Duke and Illinois and gave it a heck of a run against Michigan. This team runs a lot of complex offensive sets that generate good shots, and they’re as physical as anyone on defense and on the glass. The unsung hero of the tournament: Malachi Smith.
5. Illinois
I do think the Illini would have given us a more entertaining final matchup against Michigan than UConn, but they had their coldest shooting night of the season against the Huskies in the Final Four. You have to feel like the Illini win that game more often than they don’t, and that will only eat at Brad Underwood until he can get back.
6. Purdue
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Mar 22, 2026; St. Louis, MO, USA; Purdue Boilermakers guard Fletcher Loyer (2) celebrates after the game against the Miami Hurricanes during a second round game of the men’s 2026 NCAA Tournament at Enterprise Center. Mandatory Credit: Jeff Curry-Imagn Images
The Boilermakers will be saying farewell to a super group of seniors that includes Braden Smith, Trey Kaufman-Renn, and Fletcher Loyer. This group set the new standard for the Boilermaker program, and were up at halftime with a chance to make it to the Final Four. You have to wonder how it would have played out if TKR could have stayed out of foul trouble.
7. Florida
This season will go down as a major swing-and-a-miss for the Gators, as it is unlikely that they will be able to retain anyone from their frontcourt heading into next season. It was guard play yet again that let them down, as Boogie Fland and Xaivian Lee failed to live up to the bar set by Walter Clayton Jr last season.
8. Iowa State
If I were an Iowa State fan, I would be sick of how this season played out. Injuries played a massive role in how the 2026 season played out, but no team was more affected than Iowa State losing Joshua Jefferson only minutes into the NCAA Tournament. In his absence, we got some great performances from Tamin Lipsey and Nate Heise, but the ceiling was not there without their matchup nightmare.
9. Michigan State
In a different bracket, this Spartans team may have made a Final Four, and definitely would have made the Elite Eight. UConn’s style was a matchup nightmare for the Spartans, and a wild comeback attempt fell just a few points short. Seniors Jaxon Kohler and Carson Cooper had great careers, but never made it to the Final Four.
10. Houston
When will Kelvin Sampson learn? Another year, another exit from the tournament directly caused by a lack of offensive creativity. I don’t care how good a defensive and rebounding team you are; you have to have a half-court offense that generates easy scoring opportunities if you want to win a National Championship.
11. Tennessee
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Tennessee forward Nate Ament (10) walks off the court as Michigan players celebrate their Final Four berth behind him after a NCAA Tournament Elite 8 game between Tennessee and Michigan at the United Center in Chicago on March 29, 2026.
The Volunteers were a team that peaked at the right time and also drew a perfect spot in the bracket. They were straight-up better than Miami (Ohio) and Virginia, and then beat a wounded Iowa State team. But they were also playing great basketball, as the offense was flourishing with Ja’Kobi Gillespie and Nate Ament’s shot-making and JP Estrella and Felix Okpara crashing the glass.
12. Nebraska
It was a dream season for the Cornhuskers that ended with a run to the Sweet 16. Honestly, it should have been the Elite 8, as Nebraska led Iowa for virtually the entire game and then surrendered a basket with only four players on the court. Oh, what could have been for Fred Hoiberg.
13. Vanderbilt
I had to have the Commodores right here behind Nebraska, considering they played one of the most back-and-forth, competitive games of the entire tournament, and lost by literal millimeters when Tyler Tanner’s half-court shot rattled out. Had they advanced from that game, I truly believe that this under-seeded 5-seed could have made a Final Four.
14. Texas
No team moved further up in the rankings through their NCAA Tournament run than the Longhorns. Credit to Sean Miller – this team did not look like an 11-seed once they made the field of 68. The shot-making from Tramon Mark and Jordan Pope, as well as the inside dominance of Matas Vokietaitis and Dailyn Swain, was incredible to watch, and they were one shot away from a trip to the Elite Eight.
15. Iowa
Ben McCollum is about the closest comparison to Curt Cignetti that we have in college basketball. He took a new job at a P5-program, brought with him a lot of players from his old school, and instantly started winning. This team is not better than Florida or Nebraska, two teams that they beat, but they outplayed them on that night, which is a testament to how well-coached the Hawkeyes are.
16. St Johns
Rick Pitino’s crew represented themselves very well in the tournament, blasting Northern Iowa, delivering the tournament’s only true buzzer-beater against Kansas, and taking Duke down to the wire. In a different bracket, this team could have gone further, but the Red Storm ran dry from 3-point land at the wrong time against Duke.
17. Arkansas
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Mar 25, 2026; San Jose, CA, USA; Arkansas Razorbacks guard Darius Acuff Jr. (5) looks on during a practice session ahead of the west regional of the men’s 2026 NCAA Tournament at SAP Center. Mandatory Credit: Eakin Howard-Imagn Images
Darius Acuff supplanted himself as one of college basketball’s best point guards in this NCAA Tournament. He carried this team as far as he could, dazzling against Hawaii and High Point before running out of gas against Arizona. He needed more help for this team to have been taken seriously as a true contender.
18. Alabama
Live by the three, die by the three. After one of the best whole-team shooting performances I have ever seen against Texas Tech, the Crimson Tide seemed as if they were going to keep it going against Michigan. It lasted about half an hour. The Wolverines pulled away in the second half as Alabama finally ran cold, and the Crimson Tide’s season was over in a hurry.
19. Kansas
The Jayhawks looked incredible in the first half of the game against Cal Baptist and the second half of the game against St. John’s. If only they could have put that together in 40 minutes of one basketball game and not two. Darryn Peterson’s stay in the NCAA Tournament was shorter than we would have liked it to be.
20. Gonzaga
The Zags are always a difficult team to evaluate because of the conference that they play in. But it became clear in this tournament that they are not the same team without Braden Huff in the frontcourt, as they were tested by Kennesaw State and then dominated on the interior by Texas. This is yet another team that was impacted by injury this season, and we’re simply left wondering what could have been.
21. Wisconsin
Oh, what could have been. This team owned 5 total victories against the Elite Eight, the highest of anyone in the field, save for Michigan, after the games had been played. That is an incredible ceiling that the backcourt duo of Boyd and Blackwell displayed. But the inconsistent defensive intensity and 3-point shooting reared its ugly head against High Point, and the team that *could* beat anyone *would* not get the chance to.
22. Virginia
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Mar 22, 2026; Philadelphia, PA, USA;Virginia Cavaliers head coach Ryan Odom reacts in the first half during a second round game of the men’s 2026 NCAA Tournament at Xfinity Mobile Arena. Mandatory Credit: Bill Streicher-Imagn Images
I was low on this team all season long, and I think that at the end of the day, I was correct. They used a lot of decisive wins against bottom-dweller ACC schools to prop up their analytical profile, and were a good rebounding team until they went up against bigger, better rebounding teams. Credit to Ryan Odom for what they accomplished in year 1, but this team should not have been a 3-seed, and their first-weekend exit was not shocking to me.
23. Louisville
South Florida was my upset special in round 1, and that was thwarted by Louisville. The Cardinals represented themselves well to just win a game and be competitive in the round of 32, considering they were without their best player, Mikel Brown Jr. Pat Kelsey is finally off the schnide when it comes to winning in the NCAA Tournament.
24. VCU
VCU’s 19-point comeback against North Carolina was one of the most thrilling games of the first round of the tournament. Credit to the Rams’ athletic department – they simply don’t miss when it comes to hiring head coaches, and Phil Martelli Jr appears to have this team in position to dominate the A10 for years to come.
25. High Point
Hear me out – as coach Flynn Clayman famously mentioned in the post-game interview, High Point had not played any top-25 opponents all season long. Actually, they hadn’t played anyone in the top-50 or top-100, according to KenPom ranks. So, they leave this tournament with a 1-1 record against the top-25, and the loss was by only 6 points. It’s a small sample size, but it’s a better win percentage against the top-25 than any other team I could have put here, and it’s a fitting spot for the only true cinderella that this tournament gave us, even if the stay was quite short.
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