Sustaining success in college basketball is harder than ever right now. The transfer portal has essentially made every player a free agent at the end of each season, and fundraising for an NIL war chest suddenly feels more important than genuine human connection on the recruiting trail. Pay-for-play is the new standard around the country, and it wrecks any form of continuity for all but the top programs.<\/p>\n
Teams can disappoint in college basketball for a variety of reasons. Sometimes the roster mix thrown together in the transfer portal just doesn\u2019t work. Sometimes a key player taking up most of the NIL budget gets injured and leaves their team without an insurance plan. Sometimes your rivals are just better, and there\u2019s nothing you can really do about it.<\/p>\n
With March here and the 2026 NCAA tournament around the corner, here\u2019s a look at the most disappointing teams in men\u2019s college basketball for the 2025-26 season.<\/p>\n
Oregon\u2019s chances took a huge hit before the season even began when star junior point guard Jackson Shelstad broke his hand in training camp. Shelstad missed the season opener, returned to play the next 12 games, then suffered another hand injury that ended his season. He was expected to be one of the best point guards in college basketball this year coming off a Third-Team All-Big Ten season as a sophomore, and without him, the Ducks immediately looked cooked. Senior big man Nate Bittle has picked up playmaking duties in Shelstad\u2019s absence, but it\u2019s taken him away from where he\u2019s best patrolling the paint on both ends of the floor. As Bittle\u2019s scoring efficiency has suffered without Shelstad, the offense has struggled mightily to score all year. Oregon ranks No. 126 in offensive efficiency so far thanks to a ton of turnovers (18.2 percent turnover rate, No. 277 in America), poor finishing, and terrible outside shooting. The Ducks make just 50.5 percent of their two-pointers (No. 234 in DI) and 32.6 percent of their three-pointers (No. 249). The ball moves, but the shots don\u2019t go in. With Shelstad seeking a medical redshirt, it\u2019s possible the Ducks can rebuild next year, though they will have to do it without Bittle. Head coach Dana Altman has won 20+ games in all 15 of his seasons at Oregon, but that streak will be snapped this year as the team fights to just stay out of the cellar in the Big Ten. This has been one of the most consistent programs in the country, but this season shows that just about everyone in college hoops is susceptible to a down year.<\/p>\n
Auburn had a special campaign a year ago by winning the SEC, spending most of the regular season ranked No. 1 in the polls, and then reaching the Final Four. Things were always going to be different this year without All-American big man Johni Broome around, but the Tigers never could have anticipated how much things would change. Despite losing their entire starting lineup from last year, Auburn suffered its biggest loss when head coach Bruce Pearl decided to quit just before the season and hand the job to his son. Steven Pearl wasn\u2019t just the youngest coach in the SEC at 38, he also had never coached anywhere without his father and was only a decade removed from a medical sales career. The younger Pearl has actually produced an excellent offense (No. 12 overall) so far, but the defense ranks only No. 122, and things have gotten ugly in SEC play as of late. Auburn has enough good wins to put itself on the bubble with victories over St. John\u2019s, NC State, Arkansas, at Florida, and Kentucky, but it\u2019s now 6-10 in SEC play and sinking fast. Tahaad Pettiford stunned the country by deciding to bypass the NBA Draft for his sophomore year, but he\u2019s regressed this season against increased defensive attention and may be regretting his decision. Prized D2 transfer Elyjah Freeman has been solid but hasn\u2019t quite lived up to the hype from his biggest believers, while Keyshawn Hall has put up big numbers on offense but also contributes to the team\u2019s defensive shortcomings. Pearl will very likely get another season after signing a five-year deal this summer, and Auburn\u2019s typically deep NIL pockets will help him rebuild this offseason. Even if the Tigers do make the NCAA tournament, this season has clearly been a bust from the start.<\/p>\n
There was real optimism for UCLA entering the season. The Bruins started the year at No. 12 in the AP Poll after an offseason that saw them land a star point guard in the transfer portal in Donovan Dent while also retaining their top player in junior forward Eric Dailey. A November loss to Cal showed some early warning signs, and the team just hasn\u2019t found its groove all season against a tough Big Ten schedule. The offense struggles to generate threes or rim attempts, and often settles for tough mid-range looks late in the shot clock. The defense has been picked apart by ball movement all season, and gives up a ton of looks from three. Dent has struggled to adjust to Big Ten life as he\u2019s watched his true shooting percentage dip from 58 percent to 48 percent, while Dailey has dropped nearly 10 percentage points as a three-point shooter. UCLA\u2019s home wins over Illinois and Purdue should get them in the tournament, but this season feels destined to mostly be remembered for Mick Cronin\u2019s odd blow ups<\/a>. After three consecutive trips to the second weekend of the tournament (including a Final Four) to start his tenure, Cronin has to ask if his heart is still in it, and if so, how he\u2019s going to get this program out of the mud next year.<\/p>\n Baylor suffered its biggest loss of this season at the end of last year\u2019s transfer portal window when starting point guard Robert Wright III bolted to BYU for a fat NIL offer<\/a>. With the loss of Wright, Baylor\u2019s entire rotation was gone from last season, returning 0 percent of minutes from last year. Head coach Scott Drew did his best to rebuild on the fly, and that included landing two likely first-round NBA draft picks in McDonald\u2019s All-American wing Tounde Yessoufou and Tennessee transfer Cam Carr. Baylor\u2019s biggest problems have come on the inside without anyone taller than 6\u20199, which has killed their defensive rebounding and rim protection. Drew got so desperate that he convinced former NBA draft pick James Nnaji to make a controversial return to school<\/a>, but he hasn\u2019t really had an impact since joining the team midseason. An 0-3 start in Big 12 play turned into 1-7 and then 4-11. Drew hasn\u2019t been able to recapture the heights of Baylor\u2019s 2021 national championship in the seasons that have followed, but he has at least won a game in the NCAA tournament every season since. The Bears won\u2019t come close to making the dance this year, and Drew will likely again be tasked with rebuilding the majority of the roster, if not quite all of it.<\/p>\n It\u2019s impossible to replace a program legend like Ryan Kalkbrenner, a three-time Big East Defensive Player of the Year and immediate NBA contributor for the Charlotte Hornets, but it felt like Creighton still gave themselves a chance to succeed this year with a nice transfer portal haul. The Bluejays entered the season at No. 23 in both the preseason AP Poll and Coaches Poll, but they quickly had two major injuries to deal with early in the season. Kalkbrenner\u2019s replacement, Iowa transfer Owen Freeman, tore his meniscus in summer workouts and has barely made an impact this season. Highly-touted sophomore forward Jackson McAndrew also was lost for the year early with a foot injury. The defense has really struggled without anything resembling Kalkbrenner\u2019s rim protection from the last few years, and the offense just doesn\u2019t have the firepower to make up for it. Creighton will enter the Big East tournament below .500 on the year with more losses than wins in conference play. After five straight NCAA tournament appearances, the Bluejays finally had a down year.<\/p>\n