Predicting the Most Improved College Basketball Teams in the 2016-17 Season

College basketball's cyclical nature makes it so even the most downtrodden teams one season have as good a chance as any to be competitive the following year. And there are plenty of different ways to achieve this improvement.

Freshmen become sophomores—if they don't turn pro—and so on up the chain, while recruiting from the high school and junior-college ranks (as well as via the transfer market) can help fill the gaps in between. New coaches can breath life into a program, while injured players' returns can also boost a team's overall performance.

Every year we have a handful of teams that vastly improve their records, sometimes parlaying that into postseason berths. Who could that be in 2016-17? Follow along for our predictions.

Harvard Crimson

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2015-16 record: 14-16, 6-8 Ivy League

Harvard won four consecutive Ivy League titles from 2012-15, reaching the third round of the NCAA tournament twice in the process. A five straight NCAA bid seemed possible last season until guard Siyani Chambers tore knee ligaments in September 2015—an injury that forced him to withdraw from school in order to retain his final year of eligibility.

What resulted was the Crimson's first losing season since 2007-08—six of their eight conference losses by double digits.

With Chambers back this year, the Crimson are poised not just to bounce back but possibly have their best team yet under coach Tommy Amaker. He landed the nation's 24th-ranked recruiting class—an unheard of haul for an Ivy team headlined by 4-star prospects Bryce Aiken and Chris Lewis. Four players are rated among the top 134 players in the 2016 class.

"Amaker has been able to make the prospect of competing in the Ivy Group an attractive one," SB Nation's Tessa Yesselman wrote.

Illinois Fighting Illini

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2015-16 record: 15-19, 5-13 Big Ten

John Groce has recorded fewer wins in each of his four seasons at Illinois, from 23 in 2012-13 (including an NCAA tournament victory) to last year's first losing record for the program since 2007-08 and its worst mark since 1998-99. But last season was more a matter of injuries than performance, with guard Tracy Abrams missing a second consecutive season and forward Mike Thorne Jr. limited to eight games.

Both are back, as sixth-year seniors, and if healthy they'll allow the Fighting Illini to maximize a roster that has five seniors and several talented underclassmen. The veterans are led by guard Malcolm Hill, the top returning scorer in the Big Ten at 18.1 points per game, while Jalen Coleman-Lands' 10.3 points per game in 2015-16 were the most by an Illinois freshman in six years.

With teams like Iowa, Maryland and Michigan State losing several key contributors, the path is there for Illinois to jump from its 12th-place finish in 2015-16 back into the upper half and possibly higher. It hasn't finished better than seventh in the Big Ten since ending 2010-11 in a four-way tie for fourth.

North Carolina State Wolfpack

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2015-16 record: 16-17, 5-13 ACC

Mark Gottfried averaged 23 wins in his first four seasons at North Carolina State, twice making the Sweet 16, making last year's 13th-place finish in the ACC a major step back. It was even more disappointing when it coincided with Cat Barber's outstanding individual performance.

Barber's play was also part of the problem, since no one else on the Wolfpack seemed willing to step up and complement him on a consistent basis. Three other players averaged 11.5 points per game or more but the trio of forwards Abdul-Malik Abu and Caleb Martin and guard Maverick Rowan all struggled with their shooting.

Caleb and twin brother Cody Martin have transferred to Nevada and Barber turned pro, but the new arrivals (and one player coming back from injury) figure to make for a much more balanced attack. Gottfried signed the No. 4 recruiting class led by point guard Dennis Smith, who joined the program in January after graduating early in order to rehab torn knee ligaments.

Smith is one of four top-60 prospects in the class, with Omer Yurtseven and Ted Kapita joining Abu and BeeJay Anya in what should be a formidable frontcourt. Joining Smith and Rowan in the backcourt is Terry Henderson, a West Virginia transfer who played only seven minutes in 2015-16 before going down with a season-ending ankle injury.

Northwestern State Demons

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2015-16 record: 8-20, 5-13 Southland

Small-conference schools are far more affected by the loss of a major star than those from the power leagues, but Northwestern State had two such standouts and figured to be able to get by last season with only one. It was dead wrong.

Jalan West injured his knee in the Demons' season opener last November, leaving fellow guard Zeek Woodley to carry the mantle the rest of the year. What resulted was an 11-game drop in wins and eight fewer in the weak Southland Conference, even with Woodley averaging 22.2 points per game.

The Demons' uptempo system didn't work without West scoring and dishing, as he did the previous two years, including in 2014-15 when he led Division I at 7.7 assists per game while scoring 20 per night.

West and Woodley will both be seniors this season, West earning a sixth year of eligibility since he missed his first season because of NCAA clearinghouse issues. The Southland Conference is ripe for the taking with perennial power Stephen F. Austin losing its coach to Oklahoma State and its top three scorers.

Oklahoma State Cowboys

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2015-16 record: 12-20, 3-15 Big 12

Travis Ford's eight-year tenure in Stillwater ended with a thud—the program's first 20-loss season since 1986-87 and fewest conference wins in 31 years. The season was already headed downhill when promising freshman Jawun Evans was shut down in early February because of injury, but without him available the Cowboys lost 10 of their final 11 games.

Enter Brad Underwood, who in three seasons at Stephen F. Austin lost a combined 14 games and twice made the NCAA tournament's round of 32, nearly getting to the Sweet 16 in March. Though the Big 12 is a major leap in competition from the Southland Conference, OK State hiring Underwood has been well-regarded as a boon for a program that had been trending downward for a while.

"He's considering by those within the fraternity to be one of the 20 or 25 best coaches in the game," CBS Sports' Matt Norlander wrote. "Underwood can win Big 12 titles and reach a Final Four with his setup."

Don't expect a 17-1 or 18-0 league record, like he had each year at SFA, but with most of the Big 12 (other than Kansas) ripe for a backslide, there's room to jump up the standings from ninth place.

Rhode Island Rams

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2015-16 record: 17-15, 9-9 Atlantic 10

Dan Hurley won 25 games in his second season at Wagner and improved from 8-21 to 23-10 in a three-year span with Rhode Island. Last year was when the Rams were expected to take the next step and get back to the NCAA tournament for the first time since the late 1990s, with stud guard E.C. Matthews leading the charge.

Then Matthews got hurt 10 minutes into the season opener, and all those plans were crumpled up and thrown into the trash bin. Rhode Island was lucky to still finish above .500 and get seventh in the Atlantic 10, but it never won more than three games in a row.

Hurley was a top candidate for the Rutgers opening but opted not to take what CBS Sports' Gary Parrish called "a third rebuilding job in seven years," especially when staying with Rhode Island meant getting back a healthy Matthews along with forward Hassan Martin, who also missed time because of injury last year.

Bleacher Report's Kerry Miller has the Rams projected as a No. 5 seed in the 2017 NCAA tournament, which would be their best seed in program history.

St. John's Red Storm

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2015-16 record: 8-24, 1-17 Big East

It would almost be more of an accomplishment if St. John's somehow had a worse year in 2016-17 than it just went through. Only a mid-February win over DePaul kept the Red Storm from a winless conference record in Chris Mullin's first season as coach but very little was expected of that initial team.

He inherited a shell of a roster, basically adding a whole new set of players including several at the last minute, and the dismal results were expected. Amid all that losing, though, was the play of some promising freshmen who figure to only get better as sophomores.

Italian point guard Federico Mussini, Malian forward Kassoum Yakwe and Spanish center Yankuba Sima combined to average 22.5 points, 11.1 rebounds, 3.4 assists and 3.9 blocks per game last year. They'll be joined by 6'10" Tennessee transfer Tariq Owens, 2015 signee Marcus LoVett (who was deemed academically ineligible) and a pair of key incoming recruits: combo guard Shamorie Ponds and junior-college wing Bashir Ahmed.

Doubling its win total won't put St. John's in contention for the Big East title or an NCAA bid, but it will put the Red Storm on the right path toward being competitive again.

TCU Horned Frogs

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2015-16 record: 12-21, 2-16 Big 12

Jamie Dixon took Pittsburgh to 11 NCAA tournaments in 13 seasons. If he manages to get TCU into the dance in 2016-17, it will be the program's eighth trip and first since 1998.

No power-conference team has been more abysmal the last four years than the Horned Frogs, going 8-64 since joining the Big 12 with a "high" of four league victories in 2014-15. Dennis Johnson couldn't make any progress in that time frame, but Dixon has already created positive momentum in Fort Worth.

A 64th-ranked recruiting class isn't normally something to brag about, but combining 4-star point guard Jaylen Fisher (who had previously pledged to UNLV) with rising juniors Vladimir Brodziansky and Malique Trent makes a strong corps to build around.

Like Oklahoma State, TCU has a chance to take advantage of some rebuilding Big 12 teams to pull off some upsets and league play and finish better than ninth place for the first time.

UCLA Bruins

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2015-16 record: 15-17, 6-12 Pac-12

The winningest program in NCAA history, at least in terms of national championships, UCLA is coming off its first losing season since 2009-10 and its worst conference record in 13 years. There was no lack of talent on the Bruins or shortage of scoring punch with five players averaging in double figures, yet Steve Alford's team was swept by rival USC, lost six times at home and finished with five consecutive defeats.

But now comes a monster recruiting class, one of six in the country with multiple 5-star prospects (point guard Lonzo Ball, forward T.J. Leaf) to go with four returning starters. That includes guards Bryce Alford and Isaac Hamilton—one of four duos in Division I to average 16 points, three rebounds and three assists last year.

UCLA figures to be so deep that guard Aaron Holiday, who averaged 10.3 points as a freshman, should be coming off the bench. An inability to at least get to 20 wins, if not 25 or more, will be considered a major disappointment and could lead to the Bruins' already criticized coach to catch even more grief.

"The Bruins have the potential to win the Pac-12 next season," NBC Sports' Rob Dauster wrote. “They also have the potential to totally implode. Pauley Pavilion certainly won’t be short on drama or storylines this season."

All statistics courtesy of Sports-Reference.com, unless otherwise noted. All recruiting information from 247Sports, unless otherwise noted.

Follow Brian J. Pedersen on Twitter at @realBJP.