Ball Handling: Oregon, Rutgers, Arizona State Among Most Disappointing College Basketball Teams

We’re only a few weeks into college basketball season, but there’s been a lot of chaos between non-conference games and early-season tournaments. ONE Duke the team that started the season 9th had risen to 1st place a short while before Purdue, who placed 7th last season, won the first 1st place in school history this week and Arizona The team that didn’t start out at the top is now ranked 11th. However, the biggest surprise might be State of Iowa the team that drew 2-22 (0-18 Big 12) last season started 8-0 and ranked 17th with wins Oregon State, Xavier and Memphis.

On the other hand, there are also a lot of disappointments, like nine Teams that started the season in the Top 25 AP were eliminated. Even some of the teams that followed closely in the polls struggled with each other late in the hour, raising questions about the real national order outside of the obvious top teams.

But not all early-season losses are created equal. Some failures, such as those caused by Villanova in close fashion against UCLA and Purdue, can exhibit positive qualities. Others, such as Oregon’s Losses come after-No. twelfth BYU and number 15 Houston, which can cause concern.

For this week’s edition of dribble, our writers are picking out their most disappointing teams of the 2021-22 season so far.

Oregon

Obviously there’s still time to figure things out, but Oregon is off to an incredible start. And it wasn’t just the Ducks who lost 5-4 and 0-3 on aggregate to top 75 KenPom after starting the season ranked in the top 15 of an Associated Press Top 25 poll. Those were three of those losses that were double digits, and two of them were outright losses. BYU beat Oregon with a score of 81-49. Houston then beat Oregon with a score of 78-49. Before this season, the Ducks haven’t lost a game by at least 20 points since February 2019. Last month, they lost 2 games with 29. So Dana Altman has some real work to do. A few weeks ago, Oregon competing for a third consecutive Pac-12 title seemed like a possible scenario. Now, not so much. – Gary Parrish

Guys, I have to say that I have no room to prepare for the possibility that Rutgers will return to Rutgers as we have known Rutgers for most of our lives. This still has to be a quality team, and I want to see at least another year of good emotions coming from Piscataway. After two years of racing that saw Steve Pikiell lead the Scarlet Knights to a 36-23 record, there is a NCAA Tournament groups both seasons (with RU doing the NCAAs in 2021 and ending the 30-year program term) and brings more optimism to that part of New Jersey than it has seen in decades, now We have the potential for Rutgers not to be all good again. A team that is considered the best in the top 50 pre-season in the eyes of many is 4-4, they have recently been down 3 points in a row DePaul, Lafayette and UMass. Fortunately it beat Clemson last week, but after Friday’s loss at Illinois The RU’s case as a whole is in near despair less than a month later. – Matt Norlander

For that top scorer Remy Martin, Alonzo Verge and Josh Christopher continue after last season’s 11-14 record, it’s not reasonable to expect Arizona State to shoot on all pylons in November. But at 3-6, the Sun Devils reinforced how they have fallen since scoring three straight 20 wins in the 2018-20 season. Last season was a disappointment, and it almost looked like the 66-65 loss to UC-Riverside on November 11 through a ridiculous banging buzzer posited a “here we go again” mentality. Since then, ASU has lost five of its last seven games, including a 51-29 loss to Washington state. Yes, you read that right. There’s still time for a rally, but it will need to be a feat for the State of Arizona if the Sun Devils are to regain the momentum they had at a point created under Hurley, who is currently in the seventh season. Have a health Marcus Bagley Being healthy will help, but ASU will also need a marked improvement in defense and toughness to turn the tide this season. – David Cobb