NCAA Basketball Teams That Have Improved the Most Since the 2014-15 Season Began

The regular season in college basketball has largely been rendered moot by the postseason extravaganza that is the NCAA tournament. That doesn’t mean the regular season is worthless, per se.

It has its purpose.

For 30 or so games, teams that underperformed early in the season have slowly improved game-by-game and month-by-month. They've now reached a point where those shortcomings are easily forgettable—some, anyway.

They needed jumper cables.

Many of these teams struggled to gain traction in the first few months, but with wins against—or competitive losses to—ranked teams in the last half of the season, these teams have used the entirety of the year to improve.

Some have been good all along and still managed to find room for improvement.

Read on to see a sampling of teams on the rise heading into March Madness.

All stats and records are current as of March 7.

Purdue

Michael Conroy/Associated Press

The Purdue Boilermakers (11-6, 19-11) were supposed to be the sludge of the Big Ten. The conference was always going to be a one-horse walkover for Wisconsin, but the 13 teams under the Badgers had a whole lot to fight for.

Purdue wasn't forecast to be anywhere near the top in the Big Ten. In fact—and this is no knock on him— CBS Sports' Matt Norlander had Purdue beating just one team: lowly Rutgers.

Now, with a team powerfully led by A.J. Hammons, Purdue ranks 57th in offensive efficiency, according to KenPom.com and boasts wins over No. 22 Indiana and No. 20 Ohio State.

ESPN.com’s Seth Greenberg said this:

"

Think about where they were at the beginning of the season. Where they were at the beginning of the season was predicated on [head coach] Matt Painter trying to figure out his basketball team. Who needs to play with whom. They’re back to their culture. You are who you are. They’re physical. They defend. They pound it inside.

"

Purdue has lost tough back-to-back games late against Ohio State and Michigan State by 10 points combined, but the Boilermakers are a team that can wear you down and cause mismatch problems down low.

Michigan State

Al Goldis/Associated Press

Michigan State had a rough go of it in the first half of the season with games against Duke, Kansas, Notre Dame and Maryland. The Spartans lost all those games and are currently 0-6 against Top 25 teams.

Head coach Tom Izzo’s squad earned tough wins against No. 23 Ohio State and a much-improved Purdue team. This season has been—how should we say?—a grind for the Spartans.

“This team isn't really as gifted as some we've had," Izzo said in the Detroit Free Press.

Who wants to play an Izzo-coached team? Not many people do, if you’re being honest with yourself. This team has played in six overtime games to date, losing four. That win against Purdue and its subsequent victory at Indiana proved that this team is on the rise—winning six of its last eight games.

Shawn Windsor of the Detroit Free Press wrote, “Then remember how difficult the journey from November to March truly is. And how, in some years, it's the journey that matters.”

Yes, the Spartans are in a bit of a down year, but it's not bad to be tied for third in the Big Ten when little was expected to begin with.

Pittsburgh

Keith Srakocic/Associated Press

The first half of the season saw Pitt lose to Hawaii, North Carolina State and Clemson. A three-point loss to Virginia Tech followed excusable losses to No. 5 Duke and No. 10 Louisville.

Pitt, to its credit, ranks 15th in offensive efficiency and earned a win apiece over No. 8 Notre Dame and No. 12 North Carolina as well as two over a stingy Syracuse team late in the season.

Head coach Jamie Dixon said this, per Ron Cook of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette:

"

Our goal always has been and always will be to win six games in a row at the end. It's not about getting to the Final Four. Winning the national championship is the separator.

It takes a lot of things. The right team. The right guys. The right time. Matchups. Health. But I definitely believe it can happen here. We've been close. Absolutely, I believe it will happen here.

"

That team won’t be this one. Putting early losses behind it and bouncing back has been the hallmark of this Panthers team.

With a record of 2-5 against Top 25 teams, Pitt could be dangerous in the tournament for a game or two.

Wichita State

Stephen Haas/Associated Press

The Shockers may not be unbeaten this season, as they were a year ago, but they may be better this year—despite losing to Illinois State in the final game of the season. They’ve won 18 of their last 20 games, with the other loss coming to No. 18 Northern Iowa.

Wichita State avenged that loss with a 14-point victory over a Northern Iowa team that had jumped eight spots to No. 10 in the rankings. Seth Greenberg of ESPN.com said this:

"

They are going to be a tough out in the tournament. Their backcourt is as good as any in college basketball. Fred VanVleet is playing at an extremely high level. Coming off the ball screen making plays. Making good decisions in transition. Ron Baker is as good as any player off the ball in the country. Tekele Cotton is a perfect blend guy. He is a lockdown defender. Wichita State might be better than last year and because of the seeding, I think they go farther. I think they go to the second week.

"

Baker, VanVleet and Darius Carter are all averaging double-digit points per game, and VanVleet adds 5.4 assists per game to the mix.

Will Wichita State be the 2014 UConn of this year’s tournament? That may be a stretch, but the Shockers could sneak into the Sweet 16 and even the Elite Eight if they catch fire.

Georgetown

Michael Conroy/Associated Press

The Hoyas are in a three-way tie for second place in the Big East after a clutch win against No. 21 Butler.

"Butler is a team that does not make mistakes. They don't hurt themselves. You have to come into this place and find a way," John Thompson said in an Associated Press story (h/t ESPN.com). "Every time we would get up on them, they would make a run. But I thought we responded.”

That has been key for the Hoyas late in the season.

Since Georgetown’s 69-53 loss to No. 7 Villanova back on Feb. 7, the Hoyas are 6-1, with that lone loss coming at St. John’s—a game in which the Hoyas shot an icy 37.9 percent from the field.

In Georgetown’s impressive win over Butler, it shot 46.5 percent from the field while holding Butler to 35.3 percent shooting.

Georgetown will need to compete at that kind of level if it expects to challenge Villanova in the Big East tournament and earn an at-large bid into the NCAA tournament.

Oregon

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The Oregon Ducks have been one of the more surprising teams in the second half of the season. The Ducks never could threaten Arizona this year, losing their two games by a combined 52 points, but that didn't clip their wings at all.

The Ducks closed out the regular season winning five games in a row, including a key win against No. 9 Utah. Given where the Ducks were back on Jan. 18—when they had lost three of four games—this team has put it together.

Tyson Alger of The Oregonian wrote:

"

Wherever the Ducks end up, it's a dramatic change to the narrative. Just a month ago, it seemed like a long shot that the Ducks would end up in the tournament. The NIT seemed more like their postseason destination. But since dropping games to Washington State and Washington on the road, Oregon has won 10 of 12, including four road wins in six tries. 

"

Utah lost—in upset fashion—its last game against Washington and tied Oregon for second in the Pac-12.

That's not bad, given where the Ducks were back in mid-January.

Oregon ranks 24th in offensive efficiency—but only 126th in defense. In Oregon’s case, the best defense is a good offense.

Davidson

Bob Leverone/Associated Press

Watch out for Davidson.

In the first half of the season, the 22-6 Wildcats lost to No. 6 UNC, No. 3 UVA and No. 20 VCU. Those are not bad losses—except for the UNC one back in November, an 18-point loss.

Once in conference play, Davidson heated up, first beating No. 22 Dayton. The Wildcats then rocked a nine-game winning streak to close out the regular season, which included a smashing 82-55 win against VCU.

“It makes a big statement,” Davidson guard Tyler Kalinoski said, per David Scott of The Charlotte Observer. “(Beating VCU) was a huge win for the program, the team, the school. It’ll be a big-time win for (our chances) for the NCAA tournament.”

Davidson’s RPI ranks 30th, and its record against Top 25 teams (1-3) is better than that of Michigan State, Tulsa and Texas A&M.

UCLA

Mark J. Terrill/Associated Press

UCLA is on the move up the list of potential teams that could sneak into the NCAA tournament. A late-season push with wins against No. 11 Utah and an improved Oregon team helped. But two two-point losses to Cal and Arizona State have made life difficult for the Bruins.

UCLA swept the season series against Stanford and split with Oregon and Oregon State. The Bruins closed out the regular season with style, winning their final three games by an average of 12.7 points.

“We've still got work to do, just like a lot of teams in the country,” head coach Steve Alford said in the Los Angeles Times. “You can't stop.”

After losing key players from a year ago, UCLA went from cub to bear late in the season. As Zach Helfand of the Los Angeles Times wrote, the Bruins are a vastly improved squad.

"

One thing in UCLA's favor, Powell and Alford agreed, is the team is playing as well as it has all season. The Bruins have won three consecutive games. Against the Trojans, the defense lapsed, at times, but the offense popped.

"

That’s an offense that ranks just 50th in efficiency—but an offense that is playing some of its best basketball when it matters most.

Texas A&M

Rob Foldy/Getty Images

It’s easy to overlook just about every team in the SEC not named Kentucky this year. Flying below Lexington’s radar is Texas A&M.

Lest we forget, it was the Aggies that nearly beat Kentucky on Jan. 10. It took two overtime periods before the Wildcats finally pulled away.

"I'm crushed that we didn't win ... but I'm proud of the way we competed and gave ourselves a chance to win," Texas A&M coach Billy Kennedy said in an Associated Press story (h/t ESPN.com).

What the Aggies did after that loss has been commendable. They’ve won 11 of their last 15 games. However, none of those wins were against ranked teams. In fact, the Aggies' only game against a ranked opponent (after Kentucky) came on Feb. 24 against Arkansas, an 81-75 loss on the road.

The Aggies aren’t worldbeaters, but after losing five of their first 14 games, they then won 10 of 12.

Granted, the SEC isn't exactly the Big 12 or the ACC, but the Aggies could be worse.

They could be Missouri.

Kentucky

Rogelio V. Solis/Associated Press

Hold on, wait—what? Kentucky is on this list? The same Kentucky that has trounced the entire world? The same Kentucky that could, conceivably, defeat a team of cartoon all-stars led by none other than six-time NBA champion Michael Jordan?

Yes, that Kentucky.

All year, the Wildcats have been a smothering defense. They rank second in defensive efficiency behind only Virginia. Kentucky has always been able to out-athlete you, and now its offense has caught up to its defense.

ESPN.com's Seth Greenberg said, "Everyone said when their offense catches up to their defense, watch out. Well their offense has caught up to their defense. He’s running set plays. Trey Lyles moves to the four and makes him tough to match up. He’s shortened his rotation a little bit.”

Head coach John Calipari basically used eight players in a win against Arkansas (three others played just one minute apiece). It looks like that platoon system used early in the season has left a lot of reserve fuel in the tank for these elite college players.

Now with the NCAA tournament coming and history on the line, this team has evolved into an unstoppable force and an immovable object.

At this time, the only team that can beat Kentucky is Kentucky.