By Jonathan Lidskin
We are finally here! Or, at least one day away from being finally here. My Top 100 (and my co-host Mr. Federman’s) will debut with Team #100 tomorrow. We will go from #100 all the way until #1 on the day before the regular season begins and while Sam and I will do podcasts to discuss a lot of these teams, I will be writing an article every 5 days during the countdown to talk about the teams that I recently ranked, but before we get to any of the actually ranked teams, let’s talk about some honorable mentions (these are not necessarily in order).
Towson - CAA
2024 Final KenPom Ranking: 146
After a solid season last year, Towson ranks 5th in returning minutes according to Torvik. The Tigers enter Pat Skerry’s 14th season coming off their third straight 20 win season in which they won 11+ CAA games in each of those seasons. The top of the league has been super competitive in past seasons and I don’t think this upcoming season will be any different.
The reason Towson didn’t quite make the Top 100 is the loss of Charles Thompson. Thompson was nationally ranked in both offensive and defensive rebounding rate and was also a menace on the defensive end. The Tigers also lose Messiah Jones who was another key reason why they finished #2 nationally in offensive rebounding.
However, there’s a reason I’m projecting a 40 spot KenPom jump and that reason is internal development. Down the stretch, Thompson was the only key scorer that was consistently starting. Dylan Williamson and Tyler Tejada were both double figure scorers last year as freshmen and I expect Mekhi Lowery to have more of an impact this season. Christian May also returns as the team’s leading scorer from a year ago.
The bottom line is this was not a good offensive team last season, but with some internal development, they can negate the losses of Thompson and Jones and potential win the CAA.
Charlotte - AAC
2024 Final KenPom Ranking: 120
Aaron Fearne’s first season went about as well as you could’ve hoped for given who the 49ers lost from the season before. Despite a 6-7 start, Charlotte rattled off 13/17 to close to regular season before being upset in the American Conference Tournament. The 49ers lost some key pieces to high-major programs, but with their activity in the portal, I have more confidence that they can be just as good if not slightly improve on last season.
Let’s start with the negatives: The top three scorers from last season are all gone and transferred up. Lu’Cye Patterson, Igor Milicic Jr. and Dischon Jackson will all be playing for high-major teams next season with the latter two playing on teams with Final Four aspirations. While those three guys also carried a lot of the load offensively, Milicic and Jackson were the best rebounders and defenders that the team had.
However, like I said, Fearne and his staff did a very good job bringing in 1-for-1 replacements. Giancarlo Rosado comes in from Florida Atlantic after a couple seasons of helping to anchor the Owls’ defense. Kylan Blackmon is another guy that can make a difference a more stable situation and frankly much better offense as a scorer and Nika Metskhvarishvili can certainly help fill the gap with rebounding and low post scoring.
Charlotte will come into the year as one of the oldest teams in the entire country. They could theoretically go 10 deep and not have a single underclassman in the rotation. Finally, it’s ridiculous that it took me this long to mention him, but Nik Graves is back as the starting point guard. Charlotte played at one of the slowest paces in the country last year and if they want to replicate that, having your starting point guard back is a good place to start.
Cornell - Ivy
2024 Final KenPom Ranking: 103
Last year, Cornell was a really fun team to follow. They had nine guys that got legitimate run (and sometimes more) and they shot a ton of threes. I still expect them to shoot a lot of threes this season, but if they want to maintain that depth, internal development under new Head Coach Jon Jaques is needed. The good news on that front is that Jaques was an internal hire in a program that was already good at developing.
The Big Red lost a couple of key rotation players from a season ago, but one of the fun things about Cornell is that no one on the team played 25 minutes a game. In terms of key returners, Nazir Williams, Guy Ragland Jr., Cooper Noard and AK Okereke all played key roles last season. I would expect Noard and Okereke continue to progress as players as sophomores with bigger roles.
I mentioned how often this team shot threes earlier, but another reason that they had a Top 60 offense is that they were extremely efficient from two (#2 in the country). Okereke, Ragland and Williams were all nationally ranked in two-point field goal efficiency so I expect the Big Red to shoot twos at a high percentage again.
There are a lot of certainties with Cornell, but if this team is just as good or better than last year, it’ll be because of the bench. Watch out for potential breakouts from sophomores Jake Fiegen, Jacob Beccles and DJ Nix. We’ll get to Princeton later in the Top 100 and there are obviously other good teams in the league, but Cornell will again be near the top of the conference in Jaques first season.
Saint Joseph's - A10
2024 Final KenPom Ranking: 99th
There are many people who think that St. Joe’s has a chance to contend and win the A10 this season. I’m not ready to quite go there yet, but it’s undeniable that this team has talent and it might be the best in the league. With that talent, this is absolutely a prove it year for Billy Lange.
Last season, even with an early season loss to Texas A&M-Commerce, St. Joe’s 9-2 start caught some eyes including the Brackets, Bubbles and Bid Stealers podcast. The Hawks won the Big 5 classic, beat Princeton and took Kentucky to overtime at Rupp Arena. The problem was that once conference play came around, it all came crashing down. The Hawks finished 8th in the A10 and 9-9 in the league overall.
This season, a lot of the talent they had last year is back and the Hawks in my mind have the bast backcourt in the conference with Erik Reynolds ll, reigning A10 Rookie of the Year Xzayvier Brown and Rutgers transfer Derek Simpson. Is another season of having three ball-dominant guards going to work is my only question about this backcourt.
In the frontcourt, losing Christ Essandoko was huge, but the Hawks did a nice job replacing him with 6’10 grad transfer Justice Ajogbor from Harvard. Ajogbor averaged 8 points and 6.5 rebounds last season, but his big use will be the rim protection he proves (2.9 blocks per game last season). In addition, Rasheer Flemming is back as the 5th starter as well as some sophomores that saw some, but not many minutes last season. Finally, I will always take the chance to highlight mid-major freshmen when I know them and St. Joe’s has a 7-footer from La Lumiere named Steven Solano that everyone should know. I don’t know what his numbers will look like as a freshman, but Solano is enormous and I’m sure will find a way to get on the floor when Ajogbor needs a rest.
Troy - Sun Belt
2024 Final KenPom Ranking: 132
Troy is another one of those teams that will have really good roster continuity next season. The Trojans return nearly 73% of their minutes from last season including a couple now sophomores that are bound to take leaps. Myles Rigby, Victor Valdes and Thomas Dowd all started double digit games last year and had very promising freshmen seasons.
While Christyon Eugene and Aamer Muhammad are both gone, I believe Troy can effectively replace their production with expanded roles for guys on the roster as well as one sneaky transfer addition that I like in Cobi Campbell. Campbell will handle the ball at times for Troy, but what he mainly does is shoot. In addition to scoring 17 points per game last year at North Idaho College, Campbell shot 52% from three. Eugene shot 43% from three last year so that’s a good one-for-one replacement in terms of skillset.
Scott Cross has done a good job since getting to Troy with consistently improving the program. They have been hovering right around 130 in KenPom the last two seasons and with some internal development as well as returning veterans like Tayton Conerway and Jackson Fields, I believe this team can take another step forward this season.