This week marks the start of the 2023-2024 athletic season. Freshmen student-athletes are moving into dorms and transfers who have successfully navigated the portal are moving into their second (or third, etc) athletic and academic home.
Here are three men’s basketball programs to watch that did not make last year’s tournament but should be on your radar for this upcoming season.
1. St. John’s – The Red Storm ended last season with an 18-15 overall record and a heartbreaking OT loss in the Big East Tournament to Marquette to end the season. Since then, Rick Pitino has taken the reigns and has welcomed 10 transfers to Queens, the most in the nation. Jordan Dingle, who starred for Penn and led the nation in scoring, headlines the incoming transfer list, along with four Iona players who are joining Pitino at St. John’s. In Pitino’s last 25 years as a college head coach (Kentucky, Louisville and Iona), his men’s basketball programs have missed the NCAA Tournament only four times.
2. Cal – The Golden Bears only won three games the entire 2022-23 season. Losses at home early in the non-conference against Southern University and Texas State and an ugly road loss at UCSD (in only their third season as a Division 1 program) were only the embarrassing appetizers for a 2-18 Pac-12 conference record. But now Mark “Mad Dog” Madsen is Cal’s head coach. Madsen’s Utah Valley squad finished 28-9 and advanced to the NIT semifinals. Madsen has inked five transfers, two of whom are joining the Golden Bears from Texas Tech. Among those two is Fardaws Aimaq, who two years ago starred for Madsen at Utah Valley when he averaged 18.9 points per game.
3. Ole Miss – After being dismissed from Texas eight games into the 2022-23 season, Chris Beard has taken over an Ole Miss team that was 12-21 overall and finished 13th in the 14-team SEC. Beard is only four years removed from having Texas Tech in the national championship game and AP National Coach of the Year honors. Ole Miss has added six transfers, including two seven footers to anchor Beard’s defense, Jamarion Sharp (Western Kentucky) and Moussa Cisse (Oklahoma State).