With Wednesday marking exactly two months until Selection Sunday, we're getting to the point in the season where preseason expectations are removed from a team's evaluation. No longer can we simply expect teams that were hyped before or in the early parts of the season to "figure it out." At some point, they are who they are and dramatic improvements are unlikely to happen.
Take the 10 teams that were ranked in the preseason AP poll that are currently unranked in this week's edition. Among those are San Diego State and Villanova, a pair still comfortably in the NCAA tournament, and Saint Mary's, which has won 10 of its past 11 and could be the West Coast Conference favorite. Removing those three, we're left with Michigan State, Gonzaga, Arkansas, Texas A&M, Miami, Texas and USC. Let's also throw in UCLA, which was just on the outside looking in in the preseason. And none of these eight were even close to being ranked this week.
Are any of these eight underperforming teams poised to turn things around? Which ones should already start planning their offseason roster overhauls? We reached out to opposing coaches and dug into the numbers to get a quick rundown on what's gone wrong with these teams and how, or if, they might be able to improve.
Michigan State Spartans (10-7)
AP preseason ranking: 4
Current ranking: Unranked (0 votes)
What's gone wrong?
A potential Final Four team entering 2023-24, the Spartans haven't been able to generate consistent momentum through the first half of the season. They lost at home to James Madison in their opener and have been up and down since: a 4-5 start followed by five straight wins, followed by losses to Northwestern and Illinois before beating Rutgers last weekend.