Source: ESPN College Sports
Predicting 30-win men’s NCAA basketball teams in 2025-26 – ESPNSkip to main contentSkip to navigation<>17 men’s college basketball teams that could win 30 games in 2025-26Gonzaga Bulldogs3dMyron MedcalfTop 100 men’s NCAA basketball players ranked going into 2025-26Missouri Tigers11dJeff Borzello and Myron MedcalfplayA quick lookahead to the 2025-26 NCAAM season (1:02)Myron Medcalf breaks down some of the teams to look out for ahead of the 2025-26 men’s college basketball season. (1:02)Myron MedcalfOct 31, 2025, 09:00 AM ETCloseMyron Medcalf covers college basketball for ESPN.com. He joined ESPN in 2011.Follow on XEmailPrintOpen Extended ReactionsPreseason rankings are a great glimpse of a college basketball season ahead. But we can only measure what we see right now. And that lens is limited.Over the next five months, however, some of the top teams in the country — and a couple of mid-majors — will hit a mark that might be more indicative of a team’s ceiling: 30 wins.Why does that number matter?Since 2013-14 — and we’re eliminating the 2019-20 season that ended without an NCAA tournament as well as the 2020-21 campaign that featured imbalanced schedules due to the pandemic — seven of the 10 national champions had won at least 28 games by the time they reached Selection Sunday. Ninety-three teams reached the 30-win mark by the end of those respective seasons in that stretch, too.Teams can always get hot and make a run in the NCAA tournament to turn a solid 24- or 25-win season into a miraculous finish that ends with a national title. In recent college basketball history, however, the bulk of the national champions were already flirting with that 30-win tally before they cut down the nets in the final game.Yeah, we talk about Cinderellas. A lot. But barring Baylor’s 28-win campaign during the pandemic in 2021, the last team to win a national title without reaching 30 wins was Arizona (25-9) in 1997. Sure, conference schedules were mostly shorter then, but three other teams in 1996-97 reached 30 wins: Kentucky, Kansas and Minnesota.The following teams, in alphabetical order, have the talent, experience, depth and, perhaps, the schedule to make those coveted 30 wins a reality this season.BYU CougarsFew coaches lean into the analytics obsessed model employed by Kevin Young to best position his players to impact the game. As a result, the first-time collegiate head coach had the best offense in America for the last half of the 2024-25 season. This season, he has potential No. 1 draft pickAJ Dybantsa, Baylor transferRobert Wright IIIand All-Big 12 first-team selectionRichie Saunders– in short, all the talent he needs to build another offensive machine in Provo and improve on last season’s 26-win tally.Duke Blue DevilsAJ Dybantsa andDarryn Petersoncould be the top picks in next summer’s NBA draft, but fellow freshmanCameron Boozer– the projected No. 3 selection in June — could have the best statistical season among the trio. His 33-point (4-for-7 …
Published: 2025-11-03T13:03:06
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