Freshman Dominance, Scandal, and Streaks: Five Storylines Defining College Basketball’s 2025-26 Season
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As the 2026 NCAA Tournament looms just two months away, the college basketball landscape is defined by a compelling mix of emerging talent, unsettling controversies, and historic droughts. The season, already captivating, is poised for a dramatic second half, with several key storylines demanding attention.
The Year of the Freshman
This college basketball season has undeniably become “The Year of the Freshman.” Across the nation’s top title contenders, members of the 2025 recruiting class are driving success at an unprecedented rate. Even with key players like Darryn Peterson of Kansas and Mikel Brown Jr. at Louisville sidelined by injuries, the impact of first-year athletes is undeniable.
Players like Cameron Boozer (Duke), A.J. Dybantsa (BYU), Caleb Wilson (North Carolina), Koa Peat (Arizona), and Darius Acuff (Arkansas) are leading their teams, while unexpected stars like Keaton Wagler (Illinois) and Ebuka Okorie (Stanford) – both initially ranked outside the top 150 recruits – are performing at an All-American level. While Name, Image, and Likeness (NIL) deals and the transfer portal continue to dominate headlines, the sheer brilliance of this freshman class deserves equal recognition.
The Search for a Cinderella
After a historically predictable March Madness, the question on everyone’s mind is: will a Cinderella team emerge this year? The 2025 tournament saw all four No. 1 seeds reach the Final Four – a feat accomplished only once before – and a shocking lack of upsets. Every top-four seed advanced in the first round for the first time since 2017, and the average margin of victory in the round of 64 reached an all-time high.
The dominance continued into the second round, with no team seeded higher than 10th reaching the Sweet Sixteen for the first time since 2007. Power conference teams comprised the entire Sweet Sixteen, representing a mere four conferences – the fewest in the modern era. The Big Ten achieved a perfect 10-0 record, and the SEC sent a record seven teams to the Sweet Sixteen. Was this a statistical anomaly, or a sign of a new, more stratified reality in college basketball? The coming months will provide a clearer answer.
Point Shaving Scandal Rocks the Sport
For the second consecutive year, college basketball is grappling with a widespread point-shaving scandal. An unsealed indictment earlier this month revealed charges against 20 individuals involved in a scheme impacting over 39 players across 17 teams and fixing more than 29 games. Notably, only one involved team, DePaul, competes in a major conference, and the Blue Demons finished with a dismal 3-29 record.
The pattern mirrors previous scandals: lower-paid NIL athletes on struggling mid-major teams were implicated in games with limited national attention. The critical question now is whether this marks the end of these incidents, or if a scandal involving high-profile players and major programs is inevitable. The potential fallout from such a scenario is a concern that no one wants to address at this moment.
Breaking the Championship Droughts
Two major conferences are facing extended championship droughts. The West Coast hasn’t celebrated a national title since Arizona’s upset of Kentucky in 1997, marking the last time a team from that region claimed college basketball’s top prize. Similarly, the Big Ten hasn’t produced a champion since Michigan State’s victory in 2000, despite eight appearances in the national title game since then – including recent near misses by Indiana, Illinois, Ohio State, Michigan State, Michigan, Wisconsin, and Purdue.
There’s a strong possibility one of these streaks will end in April. Arizona and Michigan have emerged as early season favorites, with Purdue, Gonzaga, and Illinois close behind. Teams like Michigan State, Nebraska, and Iowa also represent potential contenders capable of breaking these long-standing droughts.
The Coaching Carousel Continues
The pressures of the NIL era and the demand for immediate success have led to increased instability in coaching positions. A growing number of coaches are being dismissed despite previous success, while others are voluntarily stepping down rather than navigate the evolving challenges of the sport. This has resulted in back-to-back tumultuous coaching carousels.
Another cycle of change appears imminent. Coaches like Jeff Capel (Pitt), Jake Diebler (Ohio State), Earl Grant (Boston College), and Wes Miller (Cincinnati) are widely considered to be coaching for their jobs. The bigger question is whether one or more of the sport’s premier coaching positions will open up, sparking another wave of speculation and potentially leading fans to believe, as one observer noted, that Jay Wright is already house-hunting in their university’s city. We’ll find out soon enough.
