At the beginning of the season, every school aims to dance in the March Madness tournament. But despite high hopes, some teams have high expectations and flat-out suck when it’s time to hit the court. Here are the ten most disappointing college basketball teams in history.
10. 2023-2024 USC Trojans
Okay, we bought into the Bronny James hype. But who didn’t? The Trojans were stacked to start the year; head coach Andy Enfield is a proven winner, and fans were excited to see DJ Rodman and Bronny James lead USC to the big tournament. However, things just did not go as planned as the Trojans finished 9th in the Pac-12 conference, missing the big dance.
9. 2021-2022 Kentucky Wildcats
On the heels of a 9-16 season the year before, the Kentucky Wildcats finished second in the SEC in 2021 thanks to a dominant season from Oscar Tshiebwe. After claiming the second seed in their respective bracket, the Wildcats were there to show that they were indeed a dominant team. This was before falling victim to the 15th-seeded St. Peters Peacocks in the first round of the NCAA tournament. The Wildcat got their fans’ hopes up in the regular season, but couldn’t make it happen come tournament play.
8. 1999-2000 Uconn Huskies
The 1998-1999 Uconn Men’s basketball team won the NCAA National Championship and were heavy favorites to repeat during the 1999-2000 season. This was a young team with the potential to grow into a college basketball dynasty. However, the 19990-2000 season was not a memorable one for the Huskies. Uconn finished the regular season ranked 20th in the AP Poll, but the fifth seed in their regional bracket. They lost in the second round of the NCAA Tournament to Tennessee.
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7. 2004-2005 Kansas Jayhawks
The Kansas Jayhawks finished the previous season with a loss in the Elite Eight. The previous year they were expected to break out and finish the job with a win in the National Championship. The Jayhawks were ranked number one in the AP Poll to start the season, but posted a record of 23-7 and entered the tournament as the third seed in their region. This is a roster that had six future NBA players but lost in the first round of the tournament to 14th-seeded Bucknell.
6. 2009-2010 Kansas Jayhawks
Sticking with the Jayhawks, the 2009-2010 roster featured eight players who would eventually play in the NBA. After winning it all in 2007 and entering the 2009-2010 season with the sixth-best odds to win the national championship, the stacked roster set to repeat would fall in the Midwest Regional Semifinals on a game-sealing three-pointer to Northern Iowa.
5. 2014-2015 Kentucky Wildcats
Another team making this list for the second time is the Kentucky Wildcats. The Wildcats destroyed most of the teams they played and finished the regular season undefeated. The roster featured nine future NBA players and was one of the most talented teams the game has ever seen. Despite being ranked as the number one team in the nation for a majority of the year, and with easily the best odds to win the national championship, it seemed like nothing could go wrong for the Wildcats.
However, they are on this list for a reason, and that reason is because something did indeed go wrong. Despite the dominant run, and all of the hype around this high-flying team, The Wildcats lost in the final four to the Wisconsin Badgers who lost to Duke in the championship. Despite a dominant season for the Wildcats, it would have only been satisfying with a national title.
4. 1998-1999 Duke Blue Devils
The Duke Blue Devils had won 32 games in a row before losing to the UConn Huskies in the 1999 National championship game. Duke annihilated teams all season with the best coach, and roster in college basketball at the time. The Blue Devils roster had four NBA Draft lottery picks and had started to shape the culture of college basketball. But they would ultimately meet their match against the Huskies in the National Championship game; not living up to the hype.
3. 2022-2023 Purdue Boilermakers
Every March Madness bracket was immediately wiped out after one of the greatest upsets in college basketball history occurred in 2023. The Purdue Boilermakers played one of the toughest defenses the NCAA had seen. The team finished conference play 15-5 and a victory in the Big Ten tournament. Despite having low odds of winning it all at the beginning of the year, the third-ranked team in the nation found themselves as the first seed in the East regional conference. The team was poised and ready to make a championship run, but the Boilermakers lost in the first round to the sixteenth-seeded Fairleigh Dickinson Knights.
FDU was actually added to the tournament because the team FDU replaced (Merrimack) was still transitioning to Division One and was ineligible to play in the postseason. FDU was ranked as one of the worst teams to play but made history as the second 16th seed to defeat a one-seeded team.
2. 2017-2018 Virginia Cavaliers
Purdue was the second one-seed to lose to a sixteen-seed, but the first team that did so was the Virginia Cavaliers. Virginia had won 23 of 24 previous games and was the top seed in the NCAA tournament in 2018. They found themselves matched up against 16th-seeded UMBC in the first round of the tournament. Upsets happen all the time when David barely beats Goliath. However, in this case, David beat Goliath and had energy left in the tank. UMBC blew out the best team in the nation 74-54. The blow-out upset was embarrassing for Virginia and one of the worst losses in NCAA history.
1. 2022-2023 North Carolina Tar Heels
The downfall of the 2022-2023 Tarheels needs to be studied. They were ranked Number One in the nation in October of 2022 but managed to fall all the way out of the rankings and miss the NCAA tournament in one of the biggest drop-offs in NCAA history. The team finished 20-13 and missed out on a tournament bid, becoming the first team to start the year ranked first in the nation and miss the post-season tournament.
