The 10 NCAA Basketball Programs That Have Declined the Most in the Past Decade

For 10 college basketball teams, things have gone severely downhill since the 2003-04 season. After all, not all programs can be as consistently dominant as their blue-blood counterparts.

Just 11 years ago, Georgia Tech played for a national championship. But the Yellow Jackets have a 56-70 record over the past four seasons. Yet that precipitous fall from grace wasn't even enough for them to earn a spot in the top 10. Not when there are much better candidates within their own conference like Boston College and Wake Forest.

The schools on the following slides are listed in alphabetical order.

Boston College Eagles

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The Eagles were never particularly elite, but they were above average in the early stages of this millennium with Al Skinner coaching.

Troy Bell finished his four-year career in 2003 with 2,632 points scored. Shortly thereafter, the Eagles made a seamless transition from the Big East to the ACC thanks in large part to the play of Craig Smith and Jared Dudley.

They didn't have a ton of success in the NCAA tournament, but at least they were invited six times between 2001-07.

The past three years, however, have been a train wreck. And with Ryan Anderson and Joe Rahon transferring away this summer, Boston College won't be getting any better this year, either.

In two of the past three seasons, the Eagles have won fewer than 30 percent of their games played. From 1945-2011, that happened just four times.

Illinois Fighting Illini

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From 2000-06, not many teams in the country were better than Illinois.

During that six-year stretch, the Illini went 167-40 and advanced to the Sweet 16 four times—including their trip to the title game in 2005.

We wouldn't say they've been terrible since then, but a 164-113 record over the past eight seasons is a far cry from where they were during the days of Deron Williams, Dee Brown, Luther Head and Brian Cook.

Since that trip to the 2005 championship game, Illinois hasn't advanced past the round of 32 and has missed the NCAA tournament four times.

The Illini haven't finished any of the past eight seasons ranked in the AP Top 25.

They won at least a share of four Big Ten regular-season championships between 2001 and 2005, but they have a 56-70 record in conference over the past seven years.

Maryland Terrapins

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Just 13 years ago, Maryland won a national championship.

It was the Terrapins' second consecutive trip to the Final Four and one of five times in a span of six years that they advanced at least as far as the Sweet 16.

They're still a very competitive team—they haven't finished a season below .500 since 1993—but this is nothing close to the program it was a decade ago.

Back when Juan Dixon and Lonny Baxter were setting the world on fire, high school kids couldn't wait to come play for Gary Williams. Nowadays, Mark Turgeon can't even convince players to stay in College Park. Five of last year's eight leading scorers transferred away this summer.

The Terrapins went to 11 straight NCAA tournaments from 1994-2004. Their last dance came in 2010.

Mississippi State Bulldogs

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As recently as three years ago, Mississippi State was actually pretty good. The Bulldogs spent 12 consecutive weeks ranked in the AP Top 25 during the 2011-12 season.

But you wouldn't guess from watching them play over the past two seasons that this is a team that went to six NCAA tournaments and won a share of five SEC regular-season titles from 2001-10.

They went 25-2 during the 2003-04 regular season and earned a No. 2 seed in that year's tournament after opening the season on a 13-game win streak.

Fast forward to 2013-14 and you find a team that has had a 13-game losing streak in consecutive seasons.

So, yeah, things have taken a turn for the worst for Mississippi State.

Penn Quakers

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Before Harvard became the king of the Ivy League, it was Penn who sat proudly upon that throne.

From 1999 through 2007, the Quakers played in seven of nine NCAA tournaments. They went a whopping 0-7 in those appearances, but they routinely won 20-plus games per season. They won at least 69 percent of the games they played in those tourney-bound seasons.

The past five seasons, however, have been downright dreadful.

In three of those five years, Penn failed to win 30 percent of its games. You have to go back to 1957 to find the last time the Quakers had a winning percentage that low in any season, but now it's becoming second nature for them.

They have won at least a share of 13 Philadelphia Big 5 championships since 1962, but they have gone 2-26 against La Salle, Saint Joseph's, Temple and Villanova over the past seven years.

Southern Illinois Salukis

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Between 2002 and 2007, everyone learned what a Saluki is.

Southern Illinois appeared in six consecutive NCAA tournaments and even earned a No. 4 seed in the 2007 tournament after finishing the season ranked No. 14 in the AP Top 25.

But the Salukis disappeared just as quickly as they arrived on the national scene.

They averaged 25.8 wins per season during that six-year stretch, but have failed to win more than 15 games in any of the past six years.

The lowest of lows came in 2011-12. The Salukis went 8-23 overall and even had the audacity to lose at home to D-II Ohio Dominican in their season opener.

Stanford Cardinal

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Kudos to the Cardinal for sneaking into the 2014 NCAA tournament as a No. 10 seed before pulling off a pair of upsets to make the Sweet 16, but that hardly makes up for a six-year stretch of incompetence.

In Mike Montgomery's final 10 years at Stanford from 1994-2004, the average record for the Cardinal was 25 wins and 6.6 losses. Under Johnny Dawkins, it was 19.5 wins and 14.5 losses.

Stanford appeared in 13 of 14 NCAA tournaments from 1995-2008. Last year was the first time the Cardinal danced since 2008—and they lost a good number of key seniors from last year's team.

From the beginning of the 1996-97 season through the end of the 2001-02 season, Stanford appeared in every single AP Top 25 ranking.

The last time the Cardinal appeared in the AP Top 25 was the final week of the 2007-08 season.

Utah Utes

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Most college basketball gurus are expecting a strong year for the Utes, but the past several seasons haven't been anything special.

Not when compared to where they were in the 1990s and early 2000s under Rick Majerus, at any rate.

Utah went to 10 of 11 tournaments from 1995-2005, including the national championship game in 1998. The Utes produced six NBA players during that time, including Keith Van Horn, Andre Miller, Michael Doleac and Andrew Bogut.

But they haven't had a single player go on to play a single game in the NBA in the past decade. They appeared in just one of the past nine NCAA tournaments and were blown out by No. 12 seed Arizona in the first round in 2009.

Only one time from 1994-2005 did they lose 10 or more games in a season, but they have lost at least 10 games in each of the past nine years. They lost at least 15 games in seven of those nine years.

Larry Krystkowiak appears to have them headed back in the right direction, but it sure got dark before the dawn.

Wake Forest Demon Deacons

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It's not hard to see why Wake Forest had some quality teams in the 1990s and 2000s. The Demon Deacons were spoiled with two of the greatest NBA players of the past 20 years in Tim Duncan and Chris Paul.

Even without those future All-Stars, they were able to put together a few good seasons here and there. It was only six years ago that they opened the season on a 16-game winning streak and ascended to the No. 1 spot in the AP Top 25.

In recent seasons, however, Wake Forest is lucky if it wins 16 games period.

The Demon Deacons finally showed a little spark this past season by going 17-16, but they were 34-60 in the previous three years combined.

They haven't signed a 5-star recruit since landing Al-Farouq Aminu in the summer of 2008. Their top 2013 recruit tore his ACL in January 2013 and may or may not even be ready to play this coming season. Their top 2014 recruit doesn't even crack the top 247 on 247Sports.com.

Long story short, Wake Forest has been bad for a few years, and there's no real reason to believe the Demon Deacons will be improving any time soon.

Quite the difference from the team that went to 12 of 15 NCAA tournaments from 1991-2005.

Winthrop Eagles

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Before Gregg Marshall became the head coach at Winthrop, the Eagles were a disaster. From 1990-98, they went a combined 65-155, failing to finish a single season at or above .500.

Marshall turned that basketball program around overnight.

In his nine seasons there, they went 194-83, won at least 57 percent of their games every year and went to seven NCAA tournaments.

After he left, though, it didn't take long for the Eagles to revert to their losing ways.

Despite playing in what is unquestionably one of the worst conferences in the country, Winthrop has a record of 89-100 over the past six seasons. The Eagles have been to just one NCAA tournament during that time, losing by 17 points in the 2010 opening-round game to an Arkansas-Pine Bluff team that entered the tournament without a single win against a team outside of the SWAC.

Winthrop won 20 games this past season and averaged 74.0 points per game—the first time since Marshall left for Wichita State that the Eagles eclipsed 66 points per game.

They might be on the comeback trail, but they've got a ways to go to get back to where they once were as a basketball program.