The 25 best teams in men's college basketball in the past 25 years

[Halldan1]

College basketball's 25 best teams of the past 25 years

Some of these teams won national championships, some didn't. But they all were far superior to the rest of Division I men's college basketball in their respective seasons.

www.espn.com

Myron Medcalf, ESPN Staff Writer
Oct 3, 2023

 

[Pirate Russ]

There is no way the 17-18 Nova team should be 15th (they should be much higher). While there are a lot of good teams on the list, Nova boat raced everyone in tournament.

 

[Halldan1]

I noted halfway through that season that the Nova team might have been the best team I ever saw in the Big East. And I'm including those great Georgetown teams with Ewing.

 

[Pirate Russ]

I noted halfway through that season that the Nova team might have been the best team I ever saw in the Big East. And I'm including those great Georgetown teams with Ewing.

And to think that without Desi, we were down 1 with 8 seconds to go with KC going to line for 2 shots (and he was 8-8 at that point). It was probably one of the best defensive games i remember us playing. Even Wright said in the post game interview after winning the National Championship that their win against SHU (when they did not shoot the ball well) gave them confidence that they didn't need to shoot well to win the title.

If we would have won that game, it would have been very interesting to see where we would have landed seeding wise in NCAA tournament. I know we would not have been an 8 seed playing Kansas in Kansas.

 

[thehall07]

If we would have won that game, it would have been very interesting to see where we would have landed seeding wise in NCAA tournament. I know we would not have been an 8 seed playing Kansas in Kansas.

As stated year over year , there is little to no movement for conference tournament wins.

 

[U-Hall]

Pirate Russ is writing about this game. Not the 2017 Big East tournament game where Desi forgot to box out.

March 28, 2018: Villanova 69, Seton Hall 68 (OT)​

With 11 seconds left in regulation, Khadeen Carrington made one of two free throws to force overtime at the Rock. Fourth-ranked Villanova would go on to win the national title; the Hall would get stuck with a No. 8 seed in Kansas.

 

[TheHall87]

And to think that without Desi, we were down 1 with 8 seconds to go with KC going to line for 2 shots (and he was 8-8 at that point). It was probably one of the best defensive games i remember us playing. Even Wright said in the post game interview after winning the National Championship that their win against SHU (when they did not shoot the ball well) gave them confidence that they didn't need to shoot well to win the title.

If we would have won that game, it would have been very interesting to see where we would have landed seeding wise in NCAA tournament. I know we would not have been an 8 seed playing Kansas in Kansas.

Winning that game would have likely helped our seeding but there were other opportunities left on the table that year.

Losing to Rhode Island (26-8, RPI 6) at Barclays. Instead of playing (and losing to) Virginia (31-3, RPI 1) the next night, we played Vanderbilt (12-20, RPI 1113).

Losing to Rutgers (14-19, RPI 202) on the road.

Losing to Marquette (21-14, RPI 68) by 20 on the road. Not so much the loss much the margin. Then, losing to Marquette at home as well.

Losing to Georgetown (15-15, RPI 130) on the road.

Losing to Butler (21-14, RPI 43) in the BET quarterfinals.

URI and Butler were one-point losses in games where we gave up the lead on the last possession.

Win those two and one of the others and we would have been 24-8 on Selection Sunday instead of 21-11. That's at least one, maybe two seed lines right there.

 

[Pirate Russ]

Winning that game would have likely helped our seeding but there were other opportunities left on the table that year.

Losing to Rhode Island (26-8, RPI 6) at Barclays. Instead of playing (and losing to) Virginia (31-3, RPI 1) the next night, we played Vanderbilt (12-20, RPI 1113).

Losing to Rutgers (14-19, RPI 202) on the road.

Losing to Marquette (21-14, RPI 68) by 20 on the road. Not so much the loss much the margin. Then, losing to Marquette at home as well.

Losing to Georgetown (15-15, RPI 130) on the road.

Losing to Butler (21-14, RPI 43) in the BET quarterfinals.

URI and Butler were one-point losses in games where we gave up the lead on the last possession.

Win those two and one of the others and we would have been 24-8 on Selection Sunday instead of 21-11. That's at least one, maybe two seed lines right there.

Yes - so many lost opportunities that year. The loss to Butler was disappointing since we had just beaten them, and were up 14 early in that game. We were up i think 14 in Rutgers game, they came back and then we were up 10 relatively late in game.

The Gtown loss was just part of a horrible stretch of games for us that clearly cost us the year. It is really that stretch that sank our season. We actually finished the season very strong, but the damage was done. Nonetheless, if we would have beaten Nova late in year, it would have made up for a lot.

 

[thehall07]

We always had those stretches, it was classic letdown Willard.

 

[donnie_baseball]

Pirate Russ is writing about this game. Not the 2017 Big East tournament game where Desi forgot to box out.

March 28, 2018: Villanova 69, Seton Hall 68 (OT)​

With 11 seconds left in regulation, Khadeen Carrington made one of two free throws to force overtime at the Rock. Fourth-ranked Villanova would go on to win the national title; the Hall would get stuck with a No. 8 seed in Kansas.

To be fair, both sucked immensely.

 

[TheHall87]

We always had those stretches, it was classic letdown Willard.

That stretch started and ended with road losses to Villanova and Xavier, both top five teams at the time, with the Marquette home and Georgetown road losses in between.

Yes, we needed to do better but that was a difficult 10-day stretch which included three road games. The positive was they turned around and won four of five before the Butler loss in the BET.

Still as outlined above, there were plenty of chances to improve our fate that we left on the table.

 

[radecicco]

We always had those stretches, it was classic letdown Willard.

Please stop. Nearly every team not named Duke have losing streaks every season. And yes, they always hurt seeding.

 

[shu09]

Please stop. Nearly every team not named Duke have losing streaks every season. And yes, they always hurt seeding.

Not too many teams with deep NCAA aspirations go 3-7 over a 10 game stretch in the middle of the season with losses to the likes of Marquette (2x) and Georgetown. For added context, MU finished 7th at 9-9 in the conference that season and GU was 8th at 5-13. Can't be losing those games if you want to get a good seed. 2-1 or 3-0 (rather than 0-3) over just those three games would have put Seton Hall at 23-10 (12-6) or 24-9 (13-5) entering the NCAA Tournament, instead of 21-10 (10-8). That's a huge difference in seeding.

 

[Piratz]

The annual consistency of our losing steaks were amazing for a perennial NCAAT team. I have no idea if this is as frequent with other teams. Most teams that get into the 7-10 seed range hoe similar amount of losses but no clue if they got there so consistently as we did.

 

[LBP43]

There is no way the 17-18 Nova team should be 15th (they should be much higher). While there are a lot of good teams on the list, Nova boat raced everyone in tournament.

Russ --Could not agree more and I am as Anti-Mild Cats as can be -just a great College Team