College Basketball Teams in Desperate Need of Star Power in 2014-15 Season

Missing: star power.

If found, call college basketball.

That’s right, with early departures for the NBA, college basketball just doesn’t have the amount of star power it did in years past. In fact, this was only the second time since 2003 that zero of the 15 players who were on the previous season’s Associated Press All-American teams returned to school.

Nicole Auerbach of USA Today passed along that fact and discussed the lack of star power at the beginning of season:

"

The season will begin, frankly, without much star power.

Between players leaving early for the NBA and a seemingly endless stream of transfers, there's more player turnover in college basketball than ever before. That leaves the sport in a constant state of flux.

College basketball has retained talent — plenty of it — and will boast some championship-caliber, veteran-laden teams — hello, Wisconsin — but it will have not nearly the player visibility and number of household names it's had in years past.

"

That’s not to say there isn’t any star power. Just look at Jahlil Okafor, D’Angelo Russell and half of Kentucky’s roster. There just isn’t as much of it across the country.

With that in mind, here is a look at some teams that could use some more star power for the rest of the season.

All statistics are current as of Friday, Feb. 13.

Cincinnati

Gary Landers/Associated Press

The Cincinnati Bearcats would make the NCAA tournament field if today was selection Sunday, and they should win enough games down the stretch where they don’t have much to worry about.

However, this team is a star away from being a real threat out of the American Athletic Conference. After all, it knocked off SMU twice this season and beat a dangerous San Diego State squad back in December.

It is the consistency that has been an issue in losses to mediocre teams such as Memphis and Connecticut and the inexplicable loss to East Carolina. It was also glaringly apparent that the Bearcats need more star power when they scored a whopping 47 points in a blowout loss at the hands of VCU.

Alas, Cincinnati’s leading scorer on the season is averaging only 10.2 points per game, and there is no real go-to guy in crunch time. That may prevent this squad from making serious noise come March.

Saint Louis

Jeff Roberson/Associated Press

Teams like Cincinnati need star power so they can jump from good to great, but squads like Saint Louis need star power just so they can be respectable again.

After all, it was only a season ago that the Billikens finished 27-7 and knocked off North Carolina State in the NCAA tournament. This year, they are a disappointing 10-14 and 2-9 in Atlantic 10 play and have zero chance at making the Big Dance unless they stun the league in the conference tournament.

No individual player averages more than 10 points a game for Saint Louis, and the result is an offense that ranks an abysmal 321st in the country in points per game. There is simply no firepower on this roster, and the days of challenging power conference teams in the NCAA tournament seem like they are in the distant past.

Michigan

Darron Cummings/Associated Press

Let’s get this straight with Michigan—had this been written at the beginning of the season, it wouldn’t be on the list.

Alas, Caris LeVert, who was largely considered the Wolverines’ best player heading into the season, is out for the year with injury. Throw in Derrick Walton Jr.’s lingering health concerns and the loss of Mitch McGary, Glenn Robinson III and Nik Stauskas from a season ago and Michigan’s roster is a shell of what it was in the recent past.

Coach John Beilein discussed Walton’s status, via Brendan F. Quinn of MLive.com:

"

We fully expect to have him back. We just don't know (when). When he can run pain-free, he's going to get back out there. Now obviously there's some rehab involved to just get his cardio back up. He can't do that yet. But when he can, two or three days later we'll put him in a game.

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Michigan needs Walton back because the result has been five losses in the last six games, three of which came in overtime.

Overtime is when the star players make winning plays, and Michigan just doesn’t have that at its disposal right now. The NCAA tournament seems like a long shot at this point.

USC

Marcio Jose Sanchez/Associated Press

This isn’t how it was supposed to go when Andy Enfield took over the USC basketball program after a Cinderella NCAA tournament run at Florida Gulf Coast.

The Trojans are an alarming 1-11 in Pac-12 play this season and have lost nine games in a row. The thing is, six of the past seven losses came by single digits, which implies that USC isn’t that far away from competing in the conference.

It just needs a star player to make the crunch-time plays with the game on the line.

There are a number of solid options on the roster, including Nikola Jovanovic and Katin Reinhardt, but no real superstar to take games over and rack up victories.

Georgia

David Goldman/Associated Press

Marcus Thornton is a formidable big man in the SEC and leads Georgia in points per game and rebounds per game, but he has not yet hit his stride again since he missed multiple contests with a concussion.

This is a Bulldogs team that is trying to make the NCAA tournament, and the addition of a star or two would greatly bolster those chances. Most of Georgia’s losses are nothing to be ashamed of (Kentucky, Arkansas, double overtime at LSU, Gonzaga and Minnesota), but Georgia would be much more dangerous against those teams with more star power.

In fact, it hung with the Wildcats without Thornton until late in the second half. If the Bulldogs had a superstar at their disposal, Kentucky may no longer be chasing an undefeated season.