The Most Underachieving College Basketball Teams so Far in 2016-17

Just a few short weeks ago, Connecticut, Syracuse and Texas were comfortably ranked in the Top 25 and expected to compete for their various conference titles.

If only we had known how disappointing they would be.

Some of these teams have been ravaged by injuries. Others have played well, though not well enough to live up to the hype. But several of these teams are just plain bad.

Rankings for the following slides were determined by comparing current* KenPom.com rankings to each team's preseason ranks on KenPom and CBS Sports. Those differences from expectations were used as a guide to determine which teams have most let down the college basketball nation.

*Current through the start of play on Tuesday, Dec. 13.

Honorable Mentions

Jessica Hill/Associated Press

E.C. Matthews and Rhode Island have already suffered four losses.

Rhode Island Rams

Since scoring a quality win over Cincinnati and giving Duke a battle on a neutral floor, things have gone downhill in a hurry for Rhode Island. The Rams have lost three consecutive road games to Valparaiso, Providence and Houston by a combined margin of 11 points. They're playing well, but they don't have the NCAA tournament resume to match.

Vanderbilt Commodores

I thought Vanderbilt would be the fourth-best team in the SEC this year. Instead, the Commodores have more losses than any other team in that conference, including a home loss to Bucknell and blowout losses to Marquette and Middle Tennessee. And that's with Riley LaChance shooting 67.6 percent from three-point range. If he has the type of dreadful January and February he had last year, Vanderbilt might not win a single SEC game.

Michigan State Spartans

Though they have four losses, it's hard to argue that the Spartans have been too disappointing. They're young. They've dealt with several tough injuries. And the four losses were away from home against the teams that are currently ranked Nos. 4, 5, 6 and 19.

Oregon Ducks

A Dillon Brooks foot injury is largely to blame for their slow start, but that doesn't change the fact that the preseason No. 5 team is just now back up to No. 22 in the AP poll after six consecutive wins.

Dartmouth Big Green

Not that anyone was picking the Big Green to win the national championship, but they were supposed to be marginally below average. KenPom had them at No. 216 in the preseason. CBS had them at No. 212. But after an 0-8 start that includes losses to Longwood, Maine and Marist, Dartmouth is currently No. 312 on KenPom, and that might even be too optimistic.

9. Penn State Nittany Lions

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Shep Garner and Penn State are struggling to win games yet again.

Preseason KenPom / CBS Sports Rank: 97 / 64

Current KenPom Rank: 123

Record: 6-5

Two Best Wins: vs. Georgia Tech (67-60); at George Washington (74-68)

Three Worst Losses: vs. Albany (81-87); vs. George Mason (66-85); vs. Pittsburgh (73-81)

This was supposed to be the year that Pat Chambers finally took root in State College.

After a couple of brutal years to begin his tenure, the Nittany Lions were back to making a little bit of noise in the Big Ten. They went 50-50 over the last three seasons, including 17 conference wins. And now that Chambers' recruits are coming from higher up the national rankings, a leap at least into the middle tier of one of the nation's best conferences seemed inevitable.

That line of thinking went up in smoke when Penn State lost its home opener to Albany and was destroyed again after a recent blowout loss to George Mason.

What might be worst for Chambers' hopes of hanging onto the job for one more year is that the freshmen are playing well, and it hasn't made a difference. There are five Nittany Lions averaging at least 10 points per game, three of which are the key freshmen added to this year's mix.

But Penn State is getting annihilated on the glass and isn't shooting well at all. Say what you will about the meaninglessness of rebounding margin, but they were a combined negative 46 in that category in the losses to Albany, George Mason and Cincinnati while shooting just 42.0 percent from inside the arc.

The Nittany Lions have more talent than usual, but they haven't had enough size in the paint to beat quality teams—or to even consistently beat average ones. Unless something significant changes, Penn State would be lucky just to match last year's 16-16 record.

8. Georgetown Hoyas

Mitchell Layton/Getty Images

Underachieving is nothing new for Georgetown.

Preseason KenPom / CBS Sports Rank: 30 / 33

Current KenPom Rank: 57

Record: 6-4

Two Best Wins: vs. Oregon (65-61); vs. La Salle (93-78)

Three Worst Losses: vs. Arkansas State (72-78); vs. Oklahoma State (70-97); vs. Maryland (75-76)

One of these years, we'll stop being surprised when Georgetown fails to meet expectations.

Aside from getting caught off guard by a better-than-anyone-thought Arkansas State and committing 28 turnovers in a blowout loss to Oklahoma State, the Hoyas haven't actually been that bad. They upset Oregon in the opening round of the Maui Invitational. They hung with Wisconsin for a bit longer than they probably should have. And it's only because of an epic, last-minute meltdown that they lost by one to Maryland.

In other words, they aren't nearly as far up the NCAA tournament bubble creek without a paddle as some of the teams on this list are.

But Georgetown was supposed to be a fringe Top 25 team and a legitimate contender for a top-three finish in the Big East. Instead, the Hoyas are near the bottom of that conference's pecking order and have as many wins against teams in the KenPom Top 100 as they have losses to teams outside the Top 150—one of each.

Despite a roster loaded with big men—one less big man now that 6'9", 220-pound Isaac Copeland has announced he's transferring, per Gene Wang of the Washington Post—interior play has been the problem for the Hoyas. They're allowing way too many offensive rebounds and have been out-shot 56.4 percent to 45.4 percent from inside the arc in their four losses.

Rodney Pryor (6'5", 205 lbs) and L.J. Peak (6'5", 215 lbs) have been great as wings, but they desperately need more from bigs like Bradley Hayes (7'0", 275 lbs), Marcus Derrickson (6'7", 250 lbs) and Akoy Agau (6'8", 235 lbs) if they expect to make any noise in Big East play.

7. South Dakota State Jackrabbits

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South Dakota State already has as many regular-season losses as it had in 2015-16.

Preseason KenPom / CBS Sports Rank: 113 / 140

Current KenPom Rank: 200

Record: 5-7

Two Best Wins: vs. Idaho (80-77); vs. Milwaukee (81-58)

Three Worst Losses: at Idaho (89-96); vs. UC Irvine (52-63); at UC Irvine (58-73)

After earning a No. 12 seed and nearly upsetting Maryland in the 2016 NCAA tournament, expectations were a bit too high for South Dakota State. The Jackrabbits lost four of their six leaders in minutes played from last season and didn't add much other than a graduate-transfer from Southern Utah (A.J. Hess) to replace them.

Their two key returnees have been great. Mike Daum has improved upon his sensational freshman season and is currently averaging 20.8 points and 8.6 rebounds per game. And Reed Tellinghuisen is making more of an overall impact while putting up 11.5 points, 4.2 rebounds and 2.1 assists per game.

But it isn't nearly enough, as South Dakota State has been a disaster on the defensive end of the floor. Opponents are averaging 12.0 made three-pointers per game against the Jackrabbits, even though they play at a below-average tempo. SDSU is averaging 27.0 three-point attempts per game while its opponents are averaging 30.8 and shooting at a higher percentage. Last week, Northern Iowa shot 20-of-37 against SDSU in a 86-58 rout.

(This comes in stark contrast to last season when the Jackrabbits ranked in the top 100 in defensive three-point percentage with opponents taking long-range shots at a rate well below the national average.)

Because of their porous perimeter defense, they have already suffered as many losses this season as they did in the entire 2015-16 regular season. Once heralded as the preseason favorites to win the Summit League, they're looking like the fifth- or sixth-best team in the eight-team conference.

6. Washington Huskies

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It's going to be a long year for Markelle Fultz

Preseason KenPom / CBS Sports Rank: 78 / 44

Current KenPom Rank: 97

Record: 4-5

Two Best Wins: vs. Long Beach State (94-88); vs. Western Kentucky (86-47)

Three Worst Losses: vs. Yale (90-98); vs. Nevada (85-87); vs. TCU (80-93)

Thanks to stud freshman Markelle Fultz, preseason expectations for Washington were all over the map, as evidenced by the gap of 34 spots between the KenPom and CBS Sports rankings.

The Huskies lost more than 50 points per game in Andrew Andrews, Dejounte Murray and Marquese Chriss, but Fultz is so special and surrounded by enough role players that many of us were tricked into believing that, sure, this team could make the NCAA tournament.

Instead, Washington is so bad that it has already become painful to watch the projected No. 1 pick in the 2017 NBA draft.

Led almost entirely by freshmen and sophomores, the Huskies are surprisingly efficient on the offensive end. Then again, when one guy is averaging 22.8 points, 6.9 rebounds and 6.1 assists per game, it'd be hard not to put up a ton of points.

Rather, it's on defense where Lorenzo Romar's club makes us want to gouge our eyes out. The Huskies have allowed 82.6 points per game—92.4 in their five losses. Outside of a couple of good shot-blockers, they don't even bother expending any energy on defense, which leads to situations like Gonzaga's 7'1", 300-pound center Przemek Karnowski beating their entire team down the court for a fast-break dunk.

Yahoo's Jeff Eisenberg wrote after the Gonzaga loss, "No Washington team in the Romar era has ever looked quite as clueless as this one does on defense. The Huskies were 204th nationally in points per possession surrendered entering Wednesday’s game, numbers that only got worse after Gonzaga shredded them for 98 points on 53.8 percent shooting despite pulling its starters early."

Fultz deserves better. At this point, we're left to wonder whether Washington will get more Pac-12 wins or Fultz triple-doubles the rest of the way.

5. San Diego State Aztecs

Rich Pedroncelli/Associated Press

Trey Kell and Zylan Cheatham haven't had much to smile about this season.

Preseason KenPom / CBS Sports Rank: 46 / 34

Current KenPom Rank: 67

Record: 5-4

Two Best Wins: vs. California (77-65); vs. San Diego (69-59)

Three Worst Losses: at Grand Canyon (72-76); at Loyola-Chicago (59-65); vs. Arizona State (63-74)

Take out the neutral-court win over a California team playing without Jabari Bird and playing an injured Ivan Rabb and Grant Mullins and San Diego State doesn't have a single victory over a KenPom Top 275 team.

Unlike several of the teams at the top of the list, the Aztecs can't even blame their struggles on injuries. They were at full strength in their consecutive losses to Loyola-Chicago, Grand Canyon and Arizona State. 

They just straight up haven't played well.

Missouri transfer Montaque Gill-Caesar hasn't had anywhere near the impact that was expected, accounting for a total of four points in 29 minutes in those three losses. Washington State transfer Valentine Izundu hasn't been any better, outside of the occasional blocked shot or offensive rebound. And Malik Pope is well into year No. 3 of his refusal to live up to the hype that was generated early in his high school career.

Offense has never been the key to San Diego State's success, though. Defense has been this team's calling card for the better part of the past decade, but that hasn't been the case this year. Both Grand Canyon and Arizona State scored at will against the Aztecs, who simply don't have the same interior presence we're used to seeing.

It was never likely that the Mountain West would send multiple teams to the NCAA tournament, but with the Aztecs playing this poorly, it's already impossible to see this being anything other than a one-bid league.

4. Texas Longhorns

Tony Ding/Associated Press

The young Longhorns look...well...young.

Preseason KenPom / CBS Sports Rank: 45 / 17

Current KenPom Rank: 72

Record: 5-4

Two Best Wins: vs. Alabama (77-68); vs. Long Beach State (71-65)

Three Worst Losses: vs. Texas-Arlington (61-72); vs. Colorado (54-68); vs. Northwestern (58-77)

Despite a great recruiting haul and a head coach who has averaged 26.1 wins per season in his career, lack of experience was always a major concern for the Longhorns. They have the talent to eventually be special, but how long will it take to come together?

We're still waiting for the answer to that question, as Texas is currently the worst team in the Big 12 by a significant margin.

Sophomore shooting guard Eric Davis Jr. is largely to blame for the early struggles. He was supposed to be one of their leaders, but he's shooting 9-of-48 (18.8 percent) from three-point range and had a grand total of 22 points on 39 field-goal attempts in the four losses. Davis did finally have a good game this past weekend against Long Beach State, but he has already been removed from the starting lineup.

Aside from leading scorer Tevin Mack, the whole team is a complete disaster from the perimeter. Mack is 19-of-44 (43.2 percent) while the rest of the roster is a combined 34-of-140 (24.3 percent).

The Longhorns defense hasn't been much better, either. Aside from occasional blocked shots by Jarrett Allen and the general ability to avoid putting teams on the free-throw line, they have struggled to slow down their competent opponents.

Texas should eventually bounce back. It struggled early last season before scoring wins over North Carolina and Oklahoma and sweeping West Virginia. But that team didn't get blown out by Colorado, Northwestern and Texas-Arlington. There's a lot of work to be done here.

3. Syracuse Orange

Mike Stobe/Getty Images

A double surrender cobra from Tyus Battle and Tyler Lydon during the loss to Connecticut.

Preseason KenPom / CBS Sports Rank: 12 / 21

Current KenPom Rank: 27

Record: 6-3

Two Best Wins: vs. Monmouth (71-50); vs. Boston (99-77)

Three Worst Losses: vs. Connecticut (50-52); vs. South Carolina (50-64); at Wisconsin (60-77)

The 2016-17 season has been a tale of two Oranges.

In wins, Syracuse looks great. It blew out Monmouth and has averaged 86.8 points, winning by an average margin of 27.2. Led by Nebraska transfer Andrew White III, the Orange have shot 68-of-148 (45.9 percent) from three-point range in their wins, including four games with at least 13 made triples. Overall, they shot 51.7 percent from the field in those six games.

In the three losses, however, they shot 32.0 percent from the field and 28.1 percent from three while averaging 53.3 points per game.

Granted, no team's offense is as good at Wisconsin as it is at home against the likes of South Carolina State and Colgate. Still, that is a startling difference in production when Syracuse isn't playing within the friendly confines of the Carrier Dome.

What the Orange need in order to turn things around is for Tyler Lydon to have the type of dynamite sophomore year we were all expecting.

He is exactly as effective on the glass as he was last season, but his shooting percentages and his contributions on defense are way down. This leaves White as the only go-to guy on the team right now, and opposing teams have already figured that out. White took 15 shots in each of the losses to Connecticut and Wisconsin while no teammate even took 10.

Syracuse opened the season at No. 19 in the AP Top 25 with hopes of returning to the Final Four for a second straight year. At this point, though, the Orange will need to do some serious damage in the ACC just to have a tournament-worthy resume. Without the quality neutral-court, nonconference wins over Texas A&M and Connecticut they got last November, a repeat of last year's 9-9 conference record likely wouldn't be enough.

2. Connecticut Huskies

Mitchell Layton/Getty Images

It's Jalen Adams or bust for Connecticut these days.

Preseason KenPom / CBS Sports Rank: 41 / 19

Current KenPom Rank: 77

Record: 4-5

Two Best Wins: vs. Syracuse (52-50); vs. Boston (51-49)

Three Worst Losses: vs. Wagner (58-67); vs. Northeastern (61-64); vs. Oklahoma State (90-98)

The Huskies wasted little time in revealing their disappointment to the world, suffering their two worst losses of the season in the first four days.

And that was when they still had Terry Larrier and Alterique Gilbert as healthy starters. Neither wing made it to Thanksgiving before suffering a season-ending injury, leaving an already offensively-deficient team grasping at straws.

By some miracle, though, Connecticut has actually been competitive and competent since about midway through the first half of its loss to Oregon in the fifth-place game of the Maui Invitational. The Huskies have buckled down on defense, allowing a stingy 0.84 points per possession over their last 150 minutes. This includes wins over Syracuse and Boston, in which Connecticut barely scored 50 points.

With guys like Amida Brimah and Kentan Facey playing a ton of minutes without much involvement on offense, these low-scoring affairs are Kevin Ollie's only hope for wins. Jalen Adams and Rodney Purvis are averaging a combined 36.8 points over the last six games, but they can only do so much.

Despite the nice win over Syracuse, those home losses to Wagner and Northeastern aren't going anywhere. Once ranked No. 18 in the nation in the AP poll, it's already looking like AAC auto bid or bust for the Huskies.

1. Oregon State Beavers

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Gary Payton II isn't walking through that door, and Oregon State is suffering for it.

Preseason KenPom / CBS Sports Rank: 81 / 77

Current KenPom Rank: 198

Record: 3-7

Two Best Wins: vs. Texas-San Antonio (72-64); vs. Prairie View A&M (78-58)

Three Worst Losses: vs. Savannah State (90-93); vs. Lamar (60-63); at Charlotte (66-69)

No team in the country misses a player from last season as much as Oregon State misses Gary Payton II.

Oregon State wasn't supposed to be anywhere near as good as Connecticut, Syracuse and Texas were expected to be, but that doesn't make the Beavers' disappointment any less extreme.

The injury bug isn't helping matters. Leading returning scorer Tres Tinkle has missed the last four games with a broken bone in his non-shooting wrist. Second-best returning scorer Stephen Thompson missed six games with a foot injury. Freshman power forward Ben Kone—no relation to Ken Bone or his red sweater—just returned to the lineup after missing nine games while recovering from a torn ACL. And center Cheikh N'diaye just went on the shelf with a shoulder injury.

The season opener against Prairie View A&M was the only time the Beavers had as many as three of those four key pieces on the floor on the same night.

But playing at less than full strength is no excuse for losing seven consecutive games against D-I opponents, including handing Savannah State its first ever win over a major-conference school.

We thought Oregon State might be a team that could sneak onto the fringe of the bubble conversation in the Pac-12's amorphous middle tier. Instead, the Beavers have yet to beat a team in the KenPom Top 300 and may well be the worst major-conference team in the nation.

Stats are courtesy of KenPom.com and Sports-Reference.com. Recruiting information is courtesy of Scout.

Kerry Miller covers college basketball for Bleacher Report. You can follow him on Twitter @kerrancejames.