Biggest Surprises of the College Hoops Season

It is a really slow week for on-court action, so it seems like a good time for some a quick emotionless, objective, quantitative analysis of teams that have surprised in the first month of the college hoops season.  Based strictly on the KenPom rankings today compared to his preseason rankings, here are the biggest surprises (rankings represent KenPom’s rankings for today versus his rankings posted on 11/9 before the first games were played and indicate the sheer numerical difference between the two rankings.)

10 Most Improved College Basketball Teams

1. Illinois-Chicago
   currently #122 from preseason #289
2. Canisius
   #146 from #276
3. Utah
   #194 from #309
4. Eastern Kentucky
   #185 from #292
5. Gardner-Webb
   #145 from #240
6. Pepperdine
   #208 from #299
7. San Francisco
   #111 from #197
8. Boston U.
   #132 from #213
9. Bradley
   #154 from #234
10. Maryland/Wyoming (tie)
    MD: #56 from #135
    WY: #59 from #138

Obviously, because I simply used the discrete change in rankings, this list is somewhat biased towards those teams that were expected to be really bad and have proven barely mediocre.  That shows that the presence of Maryland and Wyoming in the #10 spot to be pretty impressive for those two teams and the starts they have had.  Teams like Charlotte, Middle Tennessee, North Dakota State, and Illinois State all went from “thought-to-be-decent” to “really good.”  And, Ole Miss, who has improved from #74 in the preseason all the way to #21 now probably has seen the most subjectively impressive rise in their ranking.

10 Most Disappointing College Basketball Teams

1. Missouri State
   currently #244 from preseason #123
2. Penn State
   #167 from #67
3. Old Dominion
   #226 from #132
4. Wisconsin-Milwaukee
   #291 from #200
5. Lamar
   #312 from #226
6. Marist
   #253 from #169
7. Delaware State
   #288 from #205
8. Mercer
   #158 from #82
9. Furman
   #314 from #258
10. IUPUI
    #300 from #229

The opposite bias holds here in that this list is catered more towards teams that were thought to be mediocre, but have been pretty bad.  Teams like Rice, Southern Utah, and Presbyterian are all really bad, when they were only considered to be slightly bad.  And, then there are teams like South Dakota State, Drexel, Vanderbilt, Marshall, and UMass, who all were supposed to be pretty good, but have all shown to be just mediocre thus far.