We learned a few things about a few teams and individuals in college basketball over the twelve months of 2023. We learned – as though anyone could forget – that Virginia never has a boring time at the NCAA Tournament; that Kenny Payne has extraordinary luck on employment saving throws, and that Major League Baseball’s hot stove league has got absolutely nothing on early spring in the transfer portal era of college basketball. Now that we’ve entered a new year, it’s time to recap some of the exciting highlights, sublime achievements, and lessons learned over the past year.
2023 was the Year of San Diego State
Though it was delayed by a couple of years, the Aztecs figured it all out in 2023. The school on The Mesa has become one of those programs which remains, from season to season, not just good but excellent. The Aztecs’ run to the nation title game last year was their breakout, but it’s been coming for awhile. The year Covid-19 shuttered the NCAA Tournament, SDSU was a 30-2, top-10 ranked juggernaut at both ends of the floor. Over the past 13 years, San Diego State has been to 10 NCAA Tournaments, and won the Mountain West regular season and/or tournament title 12 times. All of which is to say, the Aztecs had been due for a final-weekend moment.
So not only did they make a run to the title game: they won a pair of contests in the final seconds, one of them on a genuine, come-from-behind buzzer-beater of the sort that every kid has dreamed of hitting.
To no one’s surprise, on the other side of their incredible year, the Aztecs are maintaining their now-predictably excellent level of play.
Last year’s top reserve, Jaedon LeDee, has morphed into an All-American-type centerpiece who puts up 20 & 10 on the regular. The team’s veteran guard duo of Lamont Butler and Darrion Trammell continue to make key contributions, and the few forays that head coach Brian Dutcher makes into the transfer portal keep on coming up big. Last year, he added LeDee and Micah Parrish, who’s grown into an important scorer. This year, Jay Pal has brought needed length and versatility up front, while Reese Waters is the team’s new second-leading scorer and a dangerous perimeter complement to LeDee’s outstanding work in the lane. Youngsters Elijah Saunders, Miles Byrd, and Miles Heide have assumed valuable roles, and should be keys in league play. The Mountain West is showing its quality this season, with plenty of Top 25 programs and a half-dozen contenders to make the Big Dance. Even so, the Aztecs are looking strong to repeat as champs. LeDee is a true star to rely upon, Waters has cut his teeth against high major competition, and in both the Elite Eight and Final Four, Trammell and Butler proved to be money in the bank when the lights shone brightest. San Diego State is a program which has climbed to a new Mesa of success, and there’s nothing to indicate that they won’t stay on top for the foreseeable future.
2023 was also quite a year for James Madison
The Dukes’ tremendous success on the gridiron has been one thing, but JMU also had a standout calendar year on the hardwood. Last season, the Dukes won 22 games before being upset in the Sun Belt tournament and seeing their campaign end. This time around, JMU has taken absolutely no prisoners. They truly stepped into the spotlight with a statement overtime win in East Lansing, and the Dukes followed it up with an exhilarating double-OT win in their second game. Since then, they’ve piled up the victories while beating the nation’s leading scorer, Xavier Johnson from Southern Illinois, along the way. Entering the new year, James Madison remains one of just three unbeaten teams in America, and the Dukes have been pummeling their opponents by an average of 15.5 points per game.
Led by veterans Terrence ‘Fatt’ Edwards and TJ Bickerstaff – who are combining to average 33.4 points, 13.5 rebounds, and 4.7 assists per game on 55.1% shooting – James Madison has both star power and considerable depth. Michael Green III is a good, proven point guard, and both he and experienced sharpshooter Noah Freidel bring the Dukes plenty of outside shooting. JMU ranks sixth in the nation in scoring average, and are allowing opponents just a 29.9% rate from downtown and coming up with 9.3 steals per contest. Their out-of-conference resumé is now set and Sun Belt play will only afford JMU so many more opportunities to enhance their at-large chances for March. Still, the Dukes have already planted their flag in the nation’s consciousness, and need only to continue winning. They’ve already shown themselves to be a team capable of March-style heroics, and absolutely nobody is going to want to see James Madison on their schedule come tournament time.
The surpassing excellence of Isaiah Stevens
There are plenty of individual players whose play during the calendar year of 2023 is worth noting. Zach Edey went from being a big, talented youngster to a Naismith Award-winning legend, while guys like RJ Davis, Boo Buie, DaRon Holmes II, Kyle Filipowski, Dillon Jones, and so many more have done great deeds, set records which will endure, and won the hearts and respectof fans far and wide.
There may be no player in America, though, more deserving of a generous portion of the spotlightthan Isaiah Stevens. Over the past four years, Colorado State has won 20 or more games three times; and this season, they’re off to a 12-1 start and top 20 national ranking. The common denominator between all of those successful squads? Superstar point guard Isaiah Stevens.
A four-time All-Mountain West selection, Stevens is also, as of a week ago, the leading scorer in Rams program history. The clever veteran has facilitated for some of the best teams they’ve had in Fort Collins, and this season has Colorado State looking better than ever. His heroics have shown up in postseasons past for the Rams, and when last year it seemed like Stevens might miss most of the season, he still returned from a serious foot injury to play 26 games. Though small, he’s incredibly tough, and Stevens plays a complete game. With career averages of 15.4 points and 5.5 assists, Stevens also owns a shooting line of 47.1/39.7/85.4% over his 130 career contests. With the Rams’ success as a team, Stevens is finally starting to get the national recognition he’s long earned and richly deserved. Stevens has lived up to the Ram’s branding as a ‘stalwart’ all over the court, as well as off if it. In the current landscape of transfer portal lunacy, Stevens has remained true to the school he originally chose and ridden the waves in a tough league. He’s going to go down as one of the greatest players in Mountain West history, and Stevens is out to stamp his legacy with the winningest year of all in Fort Collins before he’s done.
Princeton can ball
Back in March, Princeton announced themselves to the nation with wins over Arizona and Missouri on their way to the Sweet Sixteen. Since then, some faces have changed. Not only is two-time All-Ivy League star Tosan Evbuomwan gone to the pro’s, but due to their Covid-year eligibility and conference rules, Keeshawn Kellman and Ryan Langborg have become important starters for Florida Gulf Coast and Northwestern, respectively. Thing about Princeton, though, is that they’ve been built for sustained success.
Young stars Caden Pierce and Xaivian Lee have stepped up to join fourth-year Matt Allocco in leading this year’s team. While Pierce played a prominent role during the Tigers’ run last year, Lee averaged just over 13 minutes per contest. These days, Pierce and Lee are looking like all-conference stars and averaging a combined 31.1 points, 13.8 boards, and 6.2 assists per game on 51.4% shooting. Allocco, meanwhile, has been a coach’s dream. The veteran is not only handing out a team-best 3.5 helpers per game, but he’s doing so while scoring a reliable 13.8 points on a slash line of 56.5/44.7/87.5% on two’s, three’s, and freebies. This group is winning, growing Princeton’s reputation, and doing it their way. The Tigers have been known for moving and scoring the ball precisely, unselfishly and efficiently for many years, and those qualities are hard-wired into this group. Though head coach Mitch Henderson’s group ranks 347th nationally with 65.9 possessions per game, Princeton is 106th in assist rate, 104th in assists per game. As ever, the Tigers also ranked 33rd in the land with a 1.495:1 team assist to turnover ratio. Yale, Harvard, and Cornell are all going to be tough outs in Ivy League play, but Princeton has big goals in mind yet again.
Programs who have learned to roll with the punches: Utah State, VCU, San Francisco
The list of programs and coaches who have demonstrated an ability to think on their feet and quickly adapt to big changes has grown long indeed over the past few years. Trying to rattle off all of the teams who deserve credit for achieving in the face of upheaval could become a tripping hazard – it is, after all, one core aspect of the job. A few people and programs deserve specific mention for their sustained success, though.
Utah State is on their fifth coach over the past decade, but you wouldn’t know there was such upheaval by the Aggies’ consistency in the standings. Since 2018 especially – three coaches ago – Utah State is 130-50, with three NCAA Tournament appearances in the past four which have been played. This time around, Danny Sprinkle’s first Aggies campaign is going extremely well as the team prepares for Mountain West play. Coming off of a 26-9 performance last year, the Aggies are 12-1 and have both a rising star in the post and three reliable guards who have taken turns leading the way offensively. Great Osobor is a legit Player of the Year candidate in the league, while Darius Brown II has been one of the nation’s most savvy and reliable point guards. Utah State has quickly adapted to a highly efficient offense which runs at nearly the same level the Aggies saw from Ryan Odom’s crew last season; the team currently ranks top 40 nationally in assists, assist to turnover ratio, and team shooting percentage. Utah State has played tight, physical defense since the glory days of Stew Morrill’s tenure, and that hasn’t changed. Having already gutted out wins on the road at Saint Louis and Santa Clara, the Aggies have also outlasted San Francisco and Akron on neutral courts. They’ve built an at-large type resumé, and Utah State seems to see no reason they ought not try for an MWC crown in their new coach’s premier run.
Odom’s new gig is in Richmond, as the former Utah State boss is now in charge at VCU. Odom is the third new coach to lead the Rams in the nine years since Shaka Smart took off for Texas, but VCU has remained strong. They’ve made it to March Madness in five of the past eight seasons, and Odom has hit the ground running. Though the Rams don’t have the Atlantic 10’s best record, they’ve been good despite losing virtually all of last year’s roster to portal and being forced to play most of the non-league slate without two of the new team’s most important players. Now that Sean Bairstow has returned from injury and Joe Bamisile has been allowed to play after transferring, the Rams have additional and proven star power to pair with Max Shulga and Zeb Jackson. So far, Shulga and Jackson have been terrific as bookend lead guards; they’ve combined for 29.4 points, 9.4 boards, and 8.2 assists per contest through 13 games together. Odom has also gotten key and often exciting production from Toibu Lawal and Christian Fermin, a pair of virtually unknown quantities from last year’s roster who have stepped up to lead the Rams’ frontcourt. Now that Bamisile and Bairstow – who like Shulga is intimately familiar with Odom’s offense from their years together in Logan – have arrived to help share the scoring burden, everything should truly fall into place for the 8-5 Rams.
On the West Coast, San Francisco’s Dons have adapted well to life under their fourth coach in eight seasons. Second-year leader Chris Gerlufsen has put together an experienced bunch by the Bay, and has his group looking strong as they enter West Coast Conference play. Last season, Gerlufsen got things rolling with 20 wins – the sixth time in seven years that the Dons had achieved at least a score of victories. Though he’s had to replace just under 45 points per game after the departures of his first team’s top three scorers, Gerlufsen’s squad is in fact scoring a few more points on average – and this group has been flat-out locking people up defensively. San Francisco ranks among the nation’s top ten defenses in opponent scoring average, assists per game, assists per turnover, rebounds, and field goals allowed. The Dons have been playmakers on defense as well, coming up with almost 13 combined steals and blocks per game. They’ve been led in those efforts by dangerously versatile big man Jonathan Mogbo. The multi-faceted Mogbo is averaging a double-double to go with three assists, two steals, and more than a rejection per tilt just by himself. Marcus Williams, a support scorer on the Dons’ previous 2023 team, has become this group’s leading scorer and the Dons’ top assist man. Mike Sharavjamts has found a good fit as a super-sized guard and creative facilitator who can stretch the floor with an all-but unblockable jumper, and Malik Thomas has been lighting it up as a microwave scorer off the bench. Meanwhile, Ndwedo ‘Chips’ Newbury leads a group of versatile, energetic forwards who can each shoot the ball from the elbow out to the land of trey, helping to thwart zones and pull defenders away from the Dons’ star duo. With their depth, multi-skilled leaders, and excellent defense, San Francisco has a chance to challenge for a WCC crown this year.
In 2023, as much as anything else, the old lesson was underscored and emphasized that absolutely everything can happen in college basketball: and will. Florida Atlantic’s year in review is an extraordinary example. The Owls won their conference regular season and tournament titles, went to the Final Four, lost there on a legendary buzzer-beater, were tabbed as a Top 10 contender coming into the current campaign, have racked up multiple elite wins…and have a couple of the most baffling losses of any team in recent memory. FAU, it seems, is about pure, unbridled entertainment, whether they’re winning or losing. We’ve learned that even a legendary program like Louisville isn’t bullet-proof, and that whether or not ‘the U’ is back on the gridiron, Miami is well and truly a basketball town. We learned yet again that absolutely any team can, through tremendous effort and a commitment to working together, shake the world of college basketball and achieve mighty victories which will be remembered forever. Here’s to a 2024 which is every bit as entertaining, and then some!
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