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Myron MedcalfOct 15, 2025, 09:00 AM ET
- Myron Medcalf covers college basketball for ESPN.com. He joined ESPN in 2011.
Over the past six months, college basketball has once again experienced another offseason full of coaching changes, staff moves, portal action and recruiting gains and losses. As a result, the landscape is stacked with teams that have seemed to master the new Moneyball approach to restructuring teams every spring and summer. There are others who did not make the improvements they may have anticipated, which means there are winners and losers in this conversation.
Our 2025-26 superlatives list attempts to make some sense of what just unfolded and sort the victors from those who might have missed out this offseason.
Best overall offseason
After winning the national title, Todd Golden lost the best backcourt in America. Departures included the NCAA tournament's Most Outstanding Player in Walter Clayton Jr. and two more players who were selected in the 2025 NBA draft (Alijah Martin and Will Richard) -- but that's only part of the story. The return of Golden's frontcourt wasn't a guarantee as key players flirted with the NBA draft.
But the Gators enter the season with a strong case to be the No. 1 team in the country after securing the returns of Thomas Haugh, Alex Condon and Rueben Chinyelu. They also added former five-star recruit Boogie Fland and all-Ivy League guard Xaivian Lee. In this turbulent climate, few teams have managed to lose the core of a championship squad and bounce back the way this team has ahead of the 2025-26 campaign. Florida won't look exactly like the title-winning team did, but it will be similarly equipped to chase another ring.
The chemistry the Gators foster over the course of the season will matter the most. Lee and Fland will have to share ballhandling responsibilities. Golden wants Haugh to be an inside-outside threat. And Condon is an SEC Player of the Year candidate who will have to deal with the pressure that comes with that attention. These are all good problems to have because it means Florida has the pieces to be the best team in America again.
Strongest overall transfer class
Rick Pitino made New York City fall in love with St. John's basketball again with a run to the Big East conference and tournament championships last season. The Red Storm shouldn't lose any ground as a result of Pitino again hitting the reset button in the portal, with a transfer class headlined by Ian Jackson (North Carolina), Bryce Hopkins (Providence), Oziyah Sellers (Stanford) and Joson Sanon (Arizona State) -- all of whom averaged double figures at their previous stops.
Now, there are questions. Will Jackson be a consistent presence this season? He demonstrated his ability to impact a game at a high level only in spurts at North Carolina. Will Hopkins stay healthy? He has battled injuries in recent years. Will Sellers and Sanon continue to build on strong seasons a year ago? It certainly seems possible. But the questions don't supersede the potential for this stacked group of transfer talent to excel under Pitino.
There's also Dylan Darling -- a star at Idaho State who scored 35 combined points between matchups against UCLA and USC last season -- could be a hidden gem. And Dillon Mitchell is a veteran at his third school.
Pitino won big with a similar group a year ago. The same thing could happen in 2025-26.
Most impactful transfer commitment
Last year, Will Wade won 28 games at McNeese State and led the Cowboys to the second round of the NCAA tournament before he left for NC State -- his first power conference job since being fired by LSU in 2022 as a result of recruiting violation allegations. He hit the ground running in Raleigh by adding some of the best players in the portal, including Williams.
The former Texas Tech star scored 23 points as the Red Raiders nearly knocked off Florida in the Elite Eight. Averaging 15.1 points, 5.5 rebounds, 3.6 assists and 1.3 steals in 2024-25, Williams is one of America's most versatile players. His arrival gives Wade a chance to put his team in the NCAA tournament conversation a year after the program won just 12 games.
Biggest transfer portal loss
P.J. Haggerty, from Memphis to Kansas State
Penny Hardaway had his most successful season as coach at Memphis when Haggerty -- an Associated Press second-team All-American and AAC Player of the Year -- helped the Tigers win 29 games en route to capturing the regular-season and conference tournament championships in 2025-26 while averaging 21.2 PPG.
Haggerty isn't the only star that the Tigers lost in the portal, but he is the most pivotal prospect who departed. Now a Memphis team that ended last season as a trendy pick to reach the second weekend of the NCAA tournament -- until a foot injury that Tyrese Hunter sustained during the AAC tournament changed the Tigers' outlook -- will have to rebuild without one of the country's top returning players.
Strongest recruiting class
Cameron Boozer is the obvious headliner for Jon Scheyer's program, but Duke is stacked with young talent that will once again put the Blue Devils in the Final Four conversation.
Boozer, a 6-foot-9 do-it-all talent, is a two-time Gatorade National Player of the Year who could be the most polished freshman in the country. His twin brother Cayden Boozer could also leave his mark on this program. Nikolas Khamenia, a top-15 prospect, had a great offseason on the USA Basketball circuit. And Dame Sarr is a 6-foot-8 former EuroLeague standout who could be a major addition, too -- he was ranked as a lottery pick in ESPN's latest NBA 2026 mock draft.
With 6-foot-8 Sebastian Wilkins -- who reclassified from the 2026 class to the 2025 class -- also in the fold, the Blue Devils will have the size and versatility to compete with any team in America. Yes, they are young, but they won't have talent disparities against most opponents.
Best freshman*
*after top-three recruits AJ Dybantsa, Darryn Peterson and Cameron Boozer
Nate Ament, Tennessee Volunteers
Since 2019, Rick Barnes has coached 11 players who were drafted by NBA teams. He knows talent. And he called five-star freshman Ament, a 6-foot-11 small forward, the "No. 1 player in the class" this past April.
Ament is not as physically ready as the three players ahead of him -- Peterson, Dybantsa and Boozer -- in ESPN's latest 2026 NBA mock draft. But Ament's ceiling is high in a scheme that has produced elite players such as Dalton Knecht, Chaz Lanier and Grant Williams in recent years. Ament is big, can play and guard multiple positions, and will continue to grow throughout the season as he begins to understand this level of basketball. His coach will help him get there.
Barnes has shown a willingness to adapt by allowing his elite players to get the shots they want when they are on the floor, rather than being married to a system. That's how Knecht earned SEC Player of the Year honors two years ago before he was selected 17th overall by the Los Angeles Lakers in the 2024 draft. Ament could follow the same path.
Most surprising recruiting miss
Darius Acuff Jr. choosing Arkansas over Michigan
The No. 7 recruit in ESPN's 2025 rankings is the top-rated point guard in the class, and was also a high school superstar in the state of Michigan until he ended his prep career at IMG Academy in Florida. The Detroit native had three great choices for the next chapter of his career, ultimately selecting Arkansas over Kansas and Michigan, in part because John Calipari has produced a fleet of high-level point guards who became standouts in the NBA (John Wall, De'Aaron Fox, Derrick Rose).
Bill Self had already landed Peterson, who is in the running to be the No. 1 pick in the 2026 draft, but Dusty May missed a chance to turn the in-state star into the next great point guard for the Wolverines. Michigan is still a threat to reach the Final Four, of course. With Acuff, however, May's squad would have been in a different tier entering this season.
Highest-upside coaching hire
Sean Miller, Texas Longhorns
During a 20-year coaching career that includes two stints at Xavier and a stop at Arizona, Sean Miller has won at least 20 games in 15 season (or 75% of his coaching tenure). That consistency over a stretch that includes the most transformative chapter in college basketball history with the introduction of NIL deals, revenue sharing and the transfer portal has demanded consistency that is difficult to attain. Yet, Miller managed to lead three different programs to the Sweet 16 or beyond.
At Texas, Miller's standards and expectations will remain. While the SEC has been one of the country's strongest conferences in recent years, Miller has proved that he can elevate the Longhorns to the same heights Arizona once reached under his watch.
