101 Things That Have Defined the Men’s College Basketball Offseason

We’re 101 days away from the 2023–24 men’s college basketball season officially getting underway!

So much has changed across the sport’s landscape since UConn cut down the nets in Houston in early April. Even the nation’s most passionate fans might have missed some things. From huge jobs changing hands during the coaching carousel to mass player movement in the transfer portal and key NBA draft decisions shaping the national picture, who wins it all in 2023–24 has been shaped by all the action of the past four months.

Having trouble keeping up? Well, consider this your one-stop guide to the offseason, with notes on every big coaching change, key roster move and some of the biggest things you’ll want to be watching for in 2024.

Here’s everything that went down.

St. John’s ousted Anderson and replaced him with Hall of Fame coach Pitino.

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Notes from the coaching carousel

More than 60 head coaching jobs changed hands this spring in yet another incredibly active carousel, headlined by some of the sport’s biggest names leaving the game and one Hall of Famer returning to the big stage.

Syracuse and Jim Boeheim’s (1) near-50-year marriage came to an end in the hours after the Orange’s season concluded in March. It wasn’t the smooth exit and farewell tour that Mike Krzyzewski got at Duke, with a press release that never officially used the word “retire” doing the job of ousting Boeheim and replacing him with longtime assistant coach Adrian “Red” Autry (2). Autry is also a Syracuse lifer but seems intent on modernizing the program in ways Boeheim refused to, including potentially scrapping the program’s staple 2–3 zone defense.

Another messy exit came at West Virginia, where a pair of ugly incidents left AD Wren Baker with no choice but to move on from Bob Huggins (3) as head coach. Huggins survived using homophobic slurs during a radio interview in May, but a DUI just weeks later led to his dismissal. After exploring outside candidates, Baker elected to stick with interim coach Josh Eilert (4) for the season, though hopes of retaining a talented roster went somewhat by the wayside with multiple key departures. Meanwhile, Huggins has further embarrassed himself in a bizarre back-and-forth with the WVU administration claiming he never actually resigned his position as head coach.

Firing Georgetown legend Patrick Ewing (5) at his alma mater was never going to be easy, but his ineptitude over the past two years left the school (two league wins in two seasons) with no choice but to move on. That move became easier to swallow when the Hoyas landed their top target in longtime Providence coach Ed Cooley (6), a former Big East champion whose energy in the community is exactly what the Georgetown program needs to reenergize a moribund fan base. Providence fans, unsurprisingly, didn’t take Cooley’s exit well, so expect plenty of fireworks when the Hoyas visit Friartown for the first time next season. The Friars pivoted quickly with a daring hire: 34-year-old Kim English (7) from George Mason, an exceedingly sharp basketball mind and accomplished former player who’ll now have to swim with the big fish in the Big East. AD Steve Napolillo gave Sports Illustrated an assist for helping him zero in on English.

Of course, the biggest move in the Big East this spring came at St. John’s, which ousted Mike Anderson (8) and replaced him with a Hall of Famer in Rick Pitino (9). Pitino’s return to the top of the sport felt inevitable from the moment the NCAA largely cleared him of wrongdoing related to the FBI’s investigation into college basketball, and the cloud of the St. John’s vacancy clearly hung over Pitino’s Iona in March (not that it would likely have mattered against the juggernaut that was UConn). The Gaels seemed happy enough to move on from Pitino and instead landed budding star Tobin Anderson (10), who led Fairleigh Dickinson to the greatest upset in NCAA tournament history over Purdue in March.

Outside of Pitino, a few other firebrands in the profession landed on their feet elsewhere. After his midseason firing at Texas in response to domestic violence charges that have since been dropped, Chris Beard (11) was quickly scooped up by an Ole Miss program that ranks among the SEC’s toughest jobs. Interim coach Rodney Terry (12) held on to the full-time title in Austin after a trip to the Elite Eight. Another controversial hire was McNeese State’s hire of Will Wade (13), the embattled former LSU coach fired after being accused of a plethora of NCAA violations. Wade received a 10-game suspension (14) and a litany of recruiting restrictions later in the summer, but not enough of a punishment to make McNeese’s big bet look bad. Expect a return to the highest level in the next three years for Wade.

Notre Dame landed a new head coach in Shrewsberry, who had an impressive 2022–23 season at Penn State.

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Other compelling story lines from the carousel

• Notre Dame was among the first big jobs to open after Mike Brey’s midseason retirement announcement (15). The Fighting Irish elected to cast a wide net before eventually landing on Indiana native Micah Shrewsberry (16), who was in high demand after a remarkable second season at Penn State. The Nittany Lions hired a near-opposite candidate to replace the offensively gifted Shrewsberry, pivoting to VCU coach Mike Rhoades (17), whose teams have been known for toughness and defense.
• Stanford sticking with Jerod Haase (18) was a surprise nationally, especially with well-liked Cardinal alum Mark Madsen (19) coming off a monster year at Utah Valley. Instead, crosstown rival Cal fired Mark Fox (20) and scooped up Madsen, who has injected new energy into the Bears program thanks to some high-profile portal acquisitions.
• Scott Drew’s Baylor coaching tree was in high demand after Jerome Tang’s success in Year 1 at Kansas State. Texas Tech landed former Drew assistant Grant McCasland (21) after an impressive run at North Texas, while Wichita State hired Paul Mills (22) away from Oral Roberts.
• Nate Oats’s staff at Alabama was raided after earning the No. 1 overall seed in the NCAA tournament, with all three full-time assistant coaches earning head jobs. Ace recruiter Bryan Hodgson (23) departed for Arkansas State, while tactical genius Charlie Henry (24) earned the Georgia Southern job and longtime Tide staffer Antoine Pettway (25) landed at Kennesaw State.

Kansas was eliminated during the first weekend of last year’s NCAA tournament, but is expected to be preseason No. 1 after an effective offseason.

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Bluebloods reemerge

Much of the narrative surrounding last year’s NCAA tournament was the poor year bluebloods had. North Carolina missed the tournament altogether after opening as preseason No. 1, Duke, Kansas and Kentucky all were bounced during the first weekend, and Michigan State exited in the Sweet 16. Here’s why that now looks more like an aberration than a sign of things to come.

Kansas is the popular choice for preseason No. 1 after a very active offseason. Bill Self won the high-stakes recruitment of Michigan transfer Hunter Dickinson (26), arguably the best player in the history of the transfer portal, who gives the Jayhawks the dominant interior force it lacked a season ago. KU also added shooting, landing sought-after grad transfer Nick Timberlake (27) from Towson and former elite recruit Arterio Morris (28). Add in veterans Dajuan Harris, Kevin McCullar Jr. and K.J. Adams, and you’ve got a talented veteran group.

The other No. 1 contender is Duke, which has surprising roster continuity for the program. The return of Kyle Filipowski (29) is huge: He averaged 15 points and 9 rebounds a season ago and figures to be in the All-American conversation assuming he recovers well from offseason hip surgery. Mark Mitchell (30), Tyrese Proctor (31) and Jeremy Roach (32) were also not locks to come back but did, and combine that experience level with an elite recruiting class and you have a very dangerous group.

Kentucky’s offseason was a bit bumpier, missing on Dickinson and losing Oscar Tshiebwe and Chris Livingston at the draft decision deadline. But John Calipari bounced back quickly, coaxing Antonio Reeves (33) back to Lexington after he considered transferring and landing West Virginia transfer big man Tre Mitchell (34) to solidify the frontcourt. The Wildcats looked outstanding at the GLOBL Jam in Canada in July and have the level of guards between Reeves, D.J. Wagner (35) and Reed Sheppard (36) to play the offensive style Calipari wants to play.

At Michigan State, this may be Tom Izzo’s last best chance at pushing for a national title. This group is old and talented in the backcourt, with Tyson Walker (37) returning for his extra year of eligibility, and A.J. Hoggard (38) and Jaden Akins (39) back after testing the draft waters. Plus, this group gets a major talent boost from a loaded freshman class: I love athletic two-way wing Coen Carr (40) as an immediate contributor.

And finally at North Carolina, Hubert Davis had a strong offseason after a disastrous 2022–23 season. Big man Armando Bacot (41) is back for his extra year of eligibility, and the Heels kept the better of their two volatile guards in R.J. Davis (42). Around them, they added more passing and shooting with the likes of Stanford’s Harrison Ingram (43) and Notre Dame’s Cormac Ryan (44).

Purdue big man Edey will be back with the Boilermakers next season.

Adam Cairns/Columbus Dispatch / USA TODAY NETWORK

Others who won the offseason

• Purdue had to sweat until the draft decision deadline, but got National Player of the Year Zach Edey (45) back for his senior year. There will be plenty of Fairleigh Dickinson jokes until the Boilers get the monkey off their back in March, but this is clearly a top-five team in the preseason.
• Dusty May somehow retained his entire Florida Atlantic roster, namely Johnell Davis (46) and Alijah Martin (47), stars of the Owls’ Final Four run. Preseason hype will be at an all-time high in Boca Raton.
• That said, the Owls will have company at the top of the AAC thanks to the work Penny Hardaway did in the portal at Memphis. Alabama transfer Jahvon Quinerly (48) and Louisiana transfer center Jordan Brown (49) are the headliners, but watch out for D2 star Jonathan Pierre (50) on the wing.
• Houston held on to veteran PG Jamal Shead (51) and gave him help in the backcourt with sharpshooter LJ Cryer (52) from Baylor and high-volume scorer Damian Dunn (53) from Temple. Kelvin Sampson’s team shouldn’t miss a beat in its move up to the Big 12.
• Big Ten backcourts got beefed up by seniors returning for one last go-round. Northwestern’s chances of returning to the NCAA tournament were buoyed (pun intended) by Boo Buie’s (54) return to Evanston, while Maryland looks like a potential top-25 team thanks to Jahmir Young (55) and optimism is high once again in Champaign after Terrence Shannon’s (56) decision to stay in school.
• Florida landed the nation’s best transfer class per EvanMiya.com’s analytics, a huge boon for Todd Golden entering his second season. The big wins: Iona transfer Walter Clayton Jr. (57), UC Riverside’s Zyon Pullin (58) and Seton Hall import Tyrese Samuel (59) up front.
• Another monster portal group: The quartet reeled in by Kyle Neptune at Villanova. He brought back Justin Moore (60), then added three talented wings in Tyler Burton (61), T.J. Bamba (62) and Hakim Hart (63) and even beefed up the interior with Kentucky transfer forward Lance Ware (64).
• Gonzaga needed a big portal class to offset the loss of Drew Timme and Julian Strawther to the pros and got one. Mark Few upgraded at point guard with Creighton’s Ryan Nembhard (65), added a scoring big man in Graham Ike (66) and just recently picked up an intriguing long-term piece in wing Marcus Adams Jr. (67), who was a 2023 Kansas signee but left after mere weeks on campus.
• Red Autry’s first team at Syracuse has some legs thanks to a dynamic young backcourt: Judah Mintz (68) spurned the NBA for a second year in college and should be among the nation’s best guards, while former elite recruit JJ Starling (69) heads home to upstate New York after a year at Notre Dame.

Big names you won’t see in CBB

The death of the traditional center in the NBA has kept plenty of stars at that position in college (see Edey, Bacot, Dickinson and more). A few that didn’t return to school include 2022 National Player of the Year Oscar Tshiebwe (70), who despite his defensive woes was still among the best players in the sport, Gonzaga All-American Drew Timme (71), who decided it was time to move on despite still having one year of eligibility left, Indiana’s Trayce Jackson-Davis (72) and UConn’s Adama Sanogo (73), who left on high notes after big seasons.

Two fan favorites and consummate winners also turned pro and saw their pro stocks rise throughout the spring: Andre Jackson Jr. (74) and Jaime Jaquez Jr. (75). Jackson’s impact on UConn’s title run was immense, and his eye-popping athleticism made him among the most entertaining players in the sport. Jaquez will be credited with helping reassert the UCLA program as a national power in the Mick Cronin era and became a rare first-round pick to spend four years in college.

Michigan will be without Dickinson in 2023–24 after losing him to the transfer portal.

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One big offseason loser: Michigan. The Dickinson marriage in Ann Arbor felt over when the Wolverines missed the NCAA tournament, but Michigan also lost both its star guards in Kobe Bufkin (76) and Jett Howard (77) to the pro ranks. Then, to make matters worse, high-profile transfer commit Caleb Love (78) decommitted after issues getting through admissions, leaving the Wolverines thin in the backcourt for 2023–24.

A few more notable departures

• Marquette kept most of its team together, but starting power forward Olivier-Maxence Prosper’s (79) pro departure was a major blow. His stock rose as much as any player in the predraft process.
• Keyontae Johnson’s (80) story of returning and starring years after collapsing on the court and suffering cardiac arrest was inspiring. Once cleared by NBA medical personnel, it was a no-brainer for him to turn pro, but his departure from Kansas State is still a big loss for the college game.
• Charles Bediako (81) was the linchpin of Alabama’s defense last season as a rim protector. His absence will be felt far more than his 6.4 ppg a year ago would suggest.
• Jaylen Clark’s (82) Achilles injury from late last year made his draft decision more difficult. He was a two-way stud for the Bruins for much of the 2022–23 season and would have been great to have around for life without Tyger Campbell and Jaquez.

Plus, from the high school ranks, an already-weak 2023 class was further depleted from a college basketball perspective by two of its best prospects opting for the G League Ignite program. Elite shooting wing Matas Buzelis (83) and do-it-all forward Ron Holland (84) make for arguably the best duo the Ignite program has landed since its founding, and both are likely to be strong contenders to go No. 1 in the 2024 NBA draft. Buzelis committed early to the G League path, whereas Holland spent most of his senior year committed to Texas before reopening his recruiting this spring and choosing Ignite over Arkansas.

10 freshmen to know

85. Isaiah Collier (USC): Collier is the highest-rated recruit playing college basketball this season, a game-ready point guard who impacts the game with both his passing and scoring ability. He should be among the best ballhandlers in the nation and pair nicely with fifth-year SG Boogie Ellis in the USC backcourt.

86. Cody Williams (Colorado): Colorado’s highest-rated recruit ever is the brother of Oklahoma City Thunder wing Jalen Williams. Cody Williams’s sky-high upside is a major reason for the Buffaloes getting plenty of preseason acclaim, giving a roster with several key returners a major talent injection.

87. Stephon Castle (UConn): With Andre Jackson Jr. and Jordan Hawkins gone, there’s a hole in the backcourt for the defending national champions. Enter Castle, a long, athletic combo guard whose vision and scoring ability made him a top-10 player in his class. Castle, Tristen Newton and Rutgers transfer Cam Spencer is a talented backcourt trio.

88. DeShawn Harris-Smith (Maryland): Kevin Willard’s early success recruiting in the DMV area is most clearly illustrated by landing Harris-Smith, a high-scoring wing who is already on NBA radars as a potential one-and-done. Expect a big role from Day 1 in College Park.

89. D.J. Wagner (Kentucky): Wagner isn’t the transcendent prospect he appeared to be early in his high school career, but there’s still a ton to like here as a scoring combo guard who looked comfortable helping run a team during Kentucky’s international trip. He’s an essential part of the Wildcats’ new-look backcourt.

90. Elliot Cadeau (North Carolina): The Tar Heels are so high on Cadeau as a distributor that they seem intent on moving star guard R.J. Davis off the ball to allow Cadeau to play point guard. The history of point guards reclassifying up a year is mixed at best, but Cadeau will have a big say in how good North Carolina is in 2023–24.

91. Mackenzie Mgbako (Indiana): The Hoosiers reeled in Mgbako this spring after he decommitted from Duke. There may not be a more naturally gifted player in the class than Mgbako, a big wing with high-end shot-creating ability. How he fits in on an Indiana team that lacks floor spacing around him will be a fascinating Big Ten story line.

92. Andrej Stojaković (Stanford): Stojaković may well be Stanford’s last hope of an NCAA tournament appearance under Jerod Haase. The son of former NBA sharpshooter Peja Stojaković, Andrej is a young talent on a veteran Stanford group that is getting one more year to turn things around after not dancing in Haase’s first seven seasons on the job.

93. Elmarko Jackson (Kansas): The Jayhawks used the portal to get older, but there’s still a need for shotmaking in the backcourt. Enter Jackson, whose ability to get downhill and make tough shots popped on the Under Armour circuit last summer. He could be Bill Self’s sixth man this season.

94. Jared McCain (Duke): Already a star due to his massive TikTok following, McCain now gets a chance to make a name for himself on the floor at the highest level. He should add more firepower to a Duke backcourt that brought back Jeremy Roach and Tyrese Proctor.

UConn winning the title in 2022–23 is a good sign for the Big East Conference.

Bob Donnan / USA TODAY Sports

7 story lines for 2023–24

95. Purdue looks to bounce back from March embarrassment. The Boilermakers were on the wrong side of the biggest upset in March Madness history. What’s next? Virginia won the national title the year after losing to UMBC, and with Zach Edey, Braden Smith and Fletcher Loyer back, the Boilermakers have the pieces to do the same. But can Matt Painter break through in March?

96. Can FAU recreate its dream season? The Owls won 35 games a year ago, went to a Final Four and now bring everyone back. Is it fair to expect this group to be a top-10 team? Roster-wise, that answer is no. But Dusty May found the right mix a year ago, and this team boasts rare levels of experience and continuity in this day and age.

97. The heat keeps ramping up at Kentucky. The Wildcats haven’t made the second weekend of the NCAA tournament since 2019. The last five-year drought between Sweet 16 trips got not one but two Kentucky coaches run out of Lexington (Tubby Smith and Billy Clyde Gillispie). That’s not to say John Calipari is necessarily on the hot seat given his massive contract buyout, but with a monster recruiting class incoming, the pressure is on to win big this season.

98. The influence of transfers keeps growing. Evan Miyakawa’s analysis indicates a strong chance that 2023–24 will mark the first time transfers score more than half of all points scored in Division I. Just five years ago, that number was 17%.

99. The Big 12 gets even tougher. The league has been historically good lately, and now adds what has been a top-10 program under Kelvin Sampson in Houston along with three others (Cincinnati, UCF and BYU) from the AAC. Wins will be hard to come by in this 14-team behemoth of a basketball conference.