College Basketball Teams Poised for Bounceback Years in 2017

With the possible exception of Kansas and Duke, every college basketball team has a lean year now and then. The mark of a strong program is its ability to rebound after a poor season or two with a good season before losing becomes a habit.

From a practical standpoint, a head coach can't withstand too many bad seasons before he gets fired. From an image standpoint, a school can't have a series of down years before it loses its reputation as a strong basketball program.

Several teams that had disappointing seasons in 2014-2015 or have had a few subpar seasons in a row seem poised to bounce back with strong seasons in 2016-2017.  We picked out eight such schools, and the pressure is on each to produce a successful team this coming season.

Rhode Island

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After going 23-10 overall and finishing tied for second place in the Atlantic 10 with a 13-5 mark in 2014-15, Rhode Island was picked to finish second in the 2015-16 preseason conference poll. 

However, the high hopes were erased quickly when E.C. Matthews, a preseason all-conference selection, suffered a torn anterior-cruciate ligament in the season opener and was lost for the season. The Rams' other preseason all-conference player, Hassan Martin, had ankle and knee issues that caused him to miss a number of games, according to Jon Rothstein of CBS Sports.

The Rams limped in with a 17-15 overall record, 9-9 in the conference.

However, everything points to a return to excellence in 2016-17. In fact, expectations for this coming season are even higher than they were prior to last season.

Matthews (pictured above) will return this coming season, and John Rothstein of CBS Sports reported in early June that Matthews is expected to be cleared for all basketball activities by September. Martin is also back and healthy, and those two standouts join three other returning starters: Jarvis Garrett, Jared Terrell and Kuran Iverson to form a roster that could be top-25 material.

The most important returning person may be coach Dan Hurley, who turned down an offer from Rutgers to stay at Rhode Island, per Gary Parrish of CBSSports.com. He no doubt realized that the Rams have a good chance to get to the NCAA tournament for the first time since 1999.

Georgetown

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Big things were expected of Georgetown last season when they were picked to finish second in the Big East coaches' preseason poll.

However, a loss to Radford in the season opener provided an indication that this would not be a successful season for the Hoyas. Georgetown did beat Syracuse and had a road win against Xavier, suggesting Georgetown had enough talent to do well. But the Hoyas fizzled down the stretch, losing 10 of their final 12 games to finish 15-18 overall and 7-11 in the Big East. The poor finish left the Hoyas in eighth place in a 10-team conference.

Not only was it just the third time in the past 11 years that the Hoyas failed to reach the NCAA tournament, it was the first time in John Thompson III's 12 seasons at Georgeotown that the Hoyas finished with a losing record. The only other seasons since 1973 that the Hoyas finished with losing records were 1998-99 and 2003-04, and Craig Esherick was fired after the latter.

It's almost unimaginable that Thompson would let Georgetown go through something like the 2015-16 season again.

The Hoyas did lose their best player from last year's team, D’Vauntes Smith-Rivera, a second-team all-conference selection. However, every other key player returns, and that includes 7' center Bradley Hayes, the team's leading rebounder who broke his hand in February and was granted another season of eligibility, according to Scott Phillips of NBCSports.com.

Guard L.J. Peak and forward Isaac Copeland, both of whom averaged double figures in scoring, are back. Georgetown will add 6'5" Rodney Pryor, a graduate transfer from Robert Morris who averaged 18 points and 8 rebounds last season.

Thompson and the Hoyas will be motivated to put the embarrassing 2015-16 season behind them. They should produce an NCAA tournament team.

Florida State

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Florida State missed the NCAA tournament for the fourth straight season in 2015-16 after making it four years in a row from 2009 to 2012. Perhaps worse was the fact that the Seminoles finished tied for 11th place in the tough Atlantic Coast Conference.

And for a few weeks after the past season ended, the Seminoles were concerned that next season's team would slide further down the ACC pecking order.

Leonard Hamilton's three best players—freshmen Mailk Beasley and Dwayne Bacon and sophomore Xavier Rathan-Mayes—declared their intention to enter the NBA draft. Beasley made it clear that he would remain in the draft, according to Safid Deen of Tallahassee Democrat, but Bacon and Rathan-Mayes did not hire an agent and remained undecided.

Ultimately Bacon, who had been selected to the ACC's All-Freshman team, opted to return to Florida State for his sophomore season, according to Eamonn Brennan of ESPN.com. Later, Rathan-Mayes also decided to come back, per the Associated Press.

What had the potential to be a disaster for Leonard Hamilton's program turned out rather well, with the Seminoles stocked with two of their top three scorers from last season, both of whom have NBA potential. Bacon led the team in both scoring (15.8 PPG) and rebounding (5.8 RPG) last season, while Rathan-Mayes was the Seminoles' top assist man (4.4 APG) while averaging 11.8 points.

Hamilton will need help from his strong incoming-freshman class to get an NCAA tournament bid next season, but several of those recruits are capable of making significant contributions. Small forward Jonathan Isaac, who is rated the nation's No. 12 overall recruit by ESPN.com, is the one most likely to have an immediate impact, but guard Trent Forrest, who is ranked No. 45 on the ESPN.com list, should provide assistance as well.

A victory over Virginia as well as late-season wins over Syracuse and Notre Dame last season indicated the young Seminoles had enough talent to compete in the ACC despite their final 8-10 conference mark. The return of Bacon and Rathan-Mayes provides the experience needed to make a major improvement next season.

Ohio State

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Ohio State was one of the youngest teams in the country last season and it played like it, struggling on the road and getting pounded by the top teams in the Big Ten. The Buckeyes finished 21-14 overall and 11-7 in the conference, leaving them in seventh place.

They failed to make the NCAA tournament for the first time since 2008, and finished unranked for just the second time since 2009. 

A number of players from last season's prized freshman class have transferred out, according to Bill Landis of Cleveland.com, including Austin Grandstaff and Daniel Giddens—the team's leading shot blocker. Nonetheless, Ohio State will return its top six scorers from last season, and they will carry an additional year of experience that should pay dividends.

The team will be built around guard JaQuan Lyle—the only remaining member of the freshman class of 2015—and forwards Marc Loving, Keita Bates-Diop and Jae'Sean Tate. Lyle showed his versatility with a triple-double against Rutgers and should be better as a sophomore. Loving was the team's leading scorer at 14 points per game and showed his improvement over the final seven games when he averaged 19.4 points.  Bates-Diop and Tate had nearly identical numbers, averaging just under 12 points a game and 6.4 rebounds per contest.

Incoming freshmen Derek Funderburk and Micah Potter should help, but the nucleus will be the returning players. The Buckeyes figure to play small ball, using their experience to avoid the mistakes that characterized last season's squad.

Thad Matta's Buckeyes finished ranked in the top seven four consecutive years from 2010 through 2013. While next season's squad may not match those results, it may be the most improved team in the Big Ten.  As C.L. Brown of ESPN.com noted, "Inexperience should no longer be an issue for Matta." 

Florida

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Mike White's first season as Billy Donovan's successor was not a good one. Florida had reached the NCAA tournament 17 times in the preceding 20 seasons, had won national championships in 2006 and 2007 and had been ranked No. 1 in the final regular-season poll of 2014 when the Gators reached the Final Four.

Finishing tied for eighth in the Southeastern Conference and landing a berth in the NIT in 2015-16 were not what Florida fans had in mind when White was hired from Louisiana Tech.

However, Florida's disappointing 21-15 record disguises the fact that the Gators were much closer to an NCAA tournament berth than the record suggests. Nine of their 15 losses were by two possessions or fewer, and according to ESPN.com's C.L. Brown, that shortcoming in close games could be overcome with better free-throw shooting. The Gators ranked 323rd in the nation in foul shooting last season, hitting just 64.7 percent.

Things should be significantly better for Florida in 2016-17, especially if the Gators can make some free throws. For one thing, Florida should be better acquainted with White's system in his second year. After all, White took over a team that went just 16-17 in Donovan's final season, so he was not given a finished product when he arrived.

More significant is the fact that every key contributor other than leading scorer Dorian Finney-Smith returns next season. Guard KeVaughn Allen, the team's second-leading scorer last season as a freshman, should be a more polished player as a sophomore, and guard Kasey Hill, who has shown steady progress in his three seasons at Florida, averaged 15.4 points over his final five games last season.

Forward John Egbunu showed considerable improvement from his freshman to sophomore seasons, and may jump another notch as a junior.

The key addition is graduate transfer Canyon Barry from College of Charleston. Barry is the son of NBA Hall of Famer Rick Barry, and he averaged 19.7 points last season in just 13 games before suffering a shoulder injury.

The one drawback is that Florida will be without a true home court until late December as the O'Connell Center undergoes a $64.5 million renovation, as noted by C.L. Brown of ESPN.com. The Gators should be able to overcome that.

Clemson

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Midway through last season it appeared Clemson had emerged as an Atlantic Coast Conference title contender. After a mediocre nonconference season, the Tigers won five games in a row, including consecutive victories over Syracuse, Louisville, Duke and Miami. They were 5-1 in conference play and looked very much like an NCAA tournament team.

Things disintegrated from there for Brad Brownell's team, however, and Clemson limped home, losing four of its final five games. The Tigers finished 17-14, and they failed to reach the NCAA tournament for the fifth straight year even though they finished ahead of two teams in the standings (Syracuse and Pittsburgh) that did get NCAA tournament bids.

Clemson used to be a regular NCAA tournament team, getting there four years in a row from 2008 through 2011, and it should regain that status in 2016-17.

That January winning streak demonstrated what this team is capable of accomplishing, but Clemson's hopes for big things next season would have vanished if its star player, forward Jaron Blossomgame, had remained in the NBA draft. 

On May 25, Blossomgame announced he was withdrawing from the draft and would return to Clemson for his senior season, as noted by the Associated Press (h/t USA Today). Having Blossomgame, a first-team all-ACC selection as a junior, back in the fold instantly made Clemson a factor in next season's ACC race.

Point guard Avry Holmes and forward Donte Grantham, the team's second- and third-leading scorers last season, also return. The Tigers will benefit from the addition of three transfers: Marcquise Reed (from Robert Morris), Shelton Mitchell (Vanderbilt), and Elijah Thomas (Texas A&M).

The Tigers did not have their traditional home court available last season, as Littlejohn Coliseum was undergoing a renovation that began in May 2015. The arena is scheduled to be ready this fall, according to David Hood of TigerNet.com, and that should boost Clemson's chances as it tries to bounce back from last season's disappointing finish.

Oklahoma State

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Oklahoma State had one of the steepest one-year declines in the country last season. After reaching the NCAA tournament for the third straight year in 2015, the Cowboys tumbled to an embarrassing 3-15 conference record in 2015-16 that landed them in ninth place in the 10-team Big 12.  The 12-20 overall record and the seven-game losing streak to end the season were enough to get coach Travis Ford fired, per Gary Parrish of CBS Sports.

The addition of Brad Underwood as the new head coach is just one reason Oklahoma State is a strong candidate to rebound nicely from its worst season since 1986-87. Presumably, Underwood had to be doing something right to produce an 89-14 record, including 53-1 in the Southland Conference, while reaching the NCAA tournament all three of his years at Stephen F. Austin.

And Underwood will have some talent with which to work, including guards Phil Forte III and Jawun Evans. Much of Ford's problems last season stemmed from the fact that Forte played just three games before being lost for the season with an elbow injury. An excellent outside shooter, Forte had been the Cowboys' second-leading scorer in 2014-15, averaging 15 points per game, and was a third-team all-conference pick that season.

Things got worse when Evans suffered a shoulder injury and missed the final nine games of last season. He had been the Cowboys' leading scorer in Forte's absence and was named the Big 12 Freshman of the Year despite his late-season absence.

Evans should be ready to go next season, and Forte confirmed soon after Underwood was hired that he would return to Stillwater, Oklahoma, for one more season, as reported by John Helsley of the Oklahoman. Forte and Evans will give the Cowboys one of the strongest backcourts in the conference, if not the country. Forwards Leyton Hammonds and Mitchell Solomon also return after being starters last season, and Hammonds was the team's leading rebounder (5.1 RPG) while averaging 10.6 points per game in 2015-16.

The Big 12 is a difficult conference in which to make huge advancements, but the Cowboys have the ingredients to get back to the NCAA tournament.

UCLA

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UCLA slipped about as far as a team with its basketball tradition can slip last season.

After reaching the NCAA tournament Sweet 16 in his first two seasons as the Bruins head coach, Steve Alford saw the bottom drop out in year three. The Bruins' 15-17 overall record represented just their fourth losing season since 1948, and their 10th-place finish in the Pac-12 was their worst ever.

Early-season success faded into an embarrassing finish, as the Bruins lost their final five games, including a 24-point loss to archrival USC in the first round of the conference tournament.

The pressure is on Alford to produce a winner in 2016-17, and he should have the weapons to do it. The Bruins will return every significant player from this past season except Tony Parker, the team's third-leading scorer and second-leading rebounder last season.

Isaac Hamilton, Bryce Alford, Thomas Welsh and Aaron Holiday all averaged double-figure scoring last season, and all four return next season.

The victories over Kentucky, Gonzaga and Arizona last season showed UCLA has enough talent to compete for a Pac-12 title. The one noticeable shortcoming was inconsistent point-guard play, with Bryce Alford more adept at scoring than playmaking. The Bruins may have solved that issue with the addition of freshman Lonzo Ball, rated the nation's No. 4 overall recruit and No. 1 point guard by ESPN.com. Ball is just what the doctor ordered to transform a talented but inconsistent team into a talented, consistent team.

UCLA also added incoming freshman T.J. Leaf, a 6'9" power forward who is the No. 13-ranked recruit and can do some of the heavy lifting inside.

Despite UCLA's horrible 2015-16 season, many early preseason rankings for 2016-17 have the Bruins in the top 25. CBSSports.com has the Bruins at No. 11 in its preseason rankings.

Everything suggests the Bruins will have a bounce-back season in 2016-17.