After a fascinating four-quarter weeks, we finally got our collective breath to evaluate the 2024-25 men's college basketball season.

We will rate each team in a series of transcripts released every Wednesday for the next five weeks: Big East (pictured below), ACC (May 7), Big Ten (May 14), Big 12 (May 21) and SEC (May 28).

Part of the process is simple: A good team as good as a good team will get great results, and a team as good as a bad team won’t. But this can be complicated for some teams. Some people have the dream of winning. Others hope to win only one game. Either way, we judge each team’s season based on preseason expectations while providing grace for any unfortunate mid-time game on a case-by-case basis.

We will include some other well-known teams in this debut edition - Gonzaga, Memphis and St. Mary - and we won't be hitting the big East team in full swing. Let's get started.

Note: Teams listed alphabetically under each hierarchy layer. Non-large eastern troops have asterisks.

Jump to the team: Housekeeper | Creighton | Depaul | Georgetown | Gonzaga* | Marquette | Memphis* | Providence | Seton Hall | St. Mary* | St. John | UConn | Villanova | Xavier

score

grade: one

Greg McDermott's excellent efforts should attract more attention. Pop Isaacs, who was then a star transfer from Texas Tech (now heading to Houston), was injured in early December. But Creighton still managed to win 25 games, finishing second in the Big East, behind St. John's strong team and won the top 50 points in adjusted offensive and defensive efficiency. Under McDermott, Ryan Kalkbrenner joined Patrick Ewing as the only player to win the Big East defensive player of the year four times.

The Blue Jays had already sorted out a great season when they lost to Auburn in the second round of the NCAA Championship.

grade: one

Prior to the 2024-25 season, turbulence largely defined Penny Hardaway's tenure in Memphis - NCAA violations, major departure events and a series of shortages. But Hardaway made the best coaching effort this season, leading the Tigers to the regular season and championships of the U.S. Sports Conference.

The anchor point of Tyrese Hunter (All-AAC first team selection) and PJ Haggerty (Second Team United Press) were the Tigers won 29 games, the highest score under Hardaway. The Hunter's foot injury was a devastating development before the NCAA Championship, but the Tigers still managed to produce the best overall season of the Hardaway era.

grade: one

Randy Bennett won the West Coast Conference regular season championship in 2024-25 after Aiden Mahaney, the all-WCC first-team pick last season, entered the transfer portal. However, Bennett earned his abilities in college basketball. The growth of Mitchell Saxen (10.8 PPG, 7.9 RPG) and Augustas Marciulionis (14.2 PPG, 5.9 APG) helped Bennett win his sixth WCC title. Gales also beat Vanderbilt in the NCAA Championship after winning 7 seeds.

grade: one

St. John won the regular season and championships, driven by one of the highest defensive forces in the United States. RJ Luis Jr. won the Big Oriental Player of the Year, and Red Storm became one of the most seductive stories in the sport, proving their appearance on the Tonight Show starring Jimmy Fallon.

The second round loss to Arkansas suddenly ended a season, a team that entered the NCAA Championship, a serious championship contender, but was eventually selected to be fifth in the pre-season polls before making its debut at Big East Stand in more than 30 years of games.

grade: one

The return of Xavier, Zach Freemantle was helped and tied for Marquette for fourth place in the Big East with a record 13-7. Freemantle, who has not played the entire season due to injury since 2021-22, averaged 16.8 points and 6.8 rebounds, a team that beat 8-1 in the last conference game and scored 11 seeds in the NCAA Championship, 11 seeds in the NCAA Championship, beat Texas in the first four games, and then lost to Illinois in the opening game.

Sean Miller is now in Texas because of the way he has shaped an Xavier team that has 39.1% of its three-point attempt (fourth in the U.S.) and has finished in the top 50 with adjusted offensive and defensive efficiency.

Level B

grade: b

In his first season, Chris Holtmann won a Depaul team, won three games in 2023-24 and won 14 with four wins to avoid the expected last win in the Big East season poll. The Blue Demon also put Marquette and Creighton overtime.

The goal of this season is to get better after a disastrous sport. DePaul did it.

grade: b

Georgetown was a 15-10 team with a 6-8 meeting record before freshman Thomas Sorber (the all-out East Third) suffered a season-end injury. But Hoyas also suffered an ankle injury with Jayden Epps, losing five of the next seven games, ruining their chances of playing in the NCAA Championship. Still, they jumped from nine wins in 2023-24 to 18 wins in 2024-25, in their second season with their show.

C-level

grade: c

With the return of the first team of the All-West Sea Coast Conference, Graham Ike and Ryan Nembhard, Gonzaga seems to have the talent to chase Mark Mark's first national title. Instead, the Bulldogs ranked second in just the fourth of their careers.

For much of the season, a program with WCC doesn't look like a legitimate national championship contender. The Bulldogs played 1-4 against Baylor, Kentucky, UCONN, UCLA and West Virginia while losing losses from Oregon State and Santa Clara (at home) in league games. In the second round of the NCAA Championship, the thriller against national champion Houston was fascinating, but the Bulldogs were also 8 seeds, and there was a reason.

grade: c

With Kam Jones (19.2 PPG, 5.9 APG), the Golden Eagles ranked fourth in offensive efficiency and second in Big East Play's defensive efficiency. They also ranked fourth in the standings, where they expected in the pre-season poll. But after the 9-1 start of the game schedule, expectations rose until they stumbled 4-6 in the final 10 regular season games.

In the NCAA Championship, New Mexico's 10 seeds first-round losses - the third anniversary of four seasons exported by Shaka Smart - did not fully pierce the once more promising season end.

grade: c

UConn has tried to make history the first show to win three national titles since John Wooden's UCLA Bruis, but that's evident early in the season - see: The Huskys' 0-3 ending at the Maui Invitational in November - which is different from what we've witnessed in the previous two years.

The Huskimo ended up winning 8 seeds in the NCAA Championship due to 10 of 11 votes in the pre-season poll. The healthy Liam McNeeley (missed eight games) may have changed his fate - Dan Hurley's temperament and manners - but several players (such as Aiden Mahaney) have not improved since last season.

grade: c

After losing Colombia in November (the then Kenpom ranked 217th in the team), Kyle Neptune, a married man, told the media that Villanova's habits were not "where they needed it." Well, these trends have led to a series of struggles that have caused the Wildcats to miss their third NCAA Championship. They ranked second in the offensive efficiency of Big East Play and won three top teams (St. John's, Uconn, Marquette), finishing sixth in the standings after expecting to finish seventh. Still, with the nation’s leading scorer Eric Dixon (23.3 points), the Wildcats should have a stronger campaign.

Level D

grade: d

In his third season with Thad Matta at the helm, Butler seemed ready to take the next step – Patrick McCaffery (11.2 points, 42% of the arc surpassed ARC) moved from Iowa, with Matta returning to his top two scorers from last season, Pierre Brooks II II and Jahmyl Telfort. A promising 7-1 start in key Northwest and Mississippi State wins has fueled optimism, but Matta's side continued to lose 17 of the next 23 games.

grade: d

After recovering from an ACL injury, star Bryce Hopkins averaged 17.0 points in three games before being eliminated from the rest of the bone bruises this season. The 6-foot-7 striker could have been a full-time first-team for a Providence team that won 21 games in Kim English's first season in 2023-24. Instead, the monk collapsed.

Ranked sixth in the Big East season polls, they suffered four Kenpom losses below 100 with a record of 12-20 and 6-14 points in the conference game.

grade: d

Every coach who works hard to raise his team in the national hierarchy wants his team to reach the ceiling, but flirting with this potential can also lead to chaos. Last year, Shaheen Holloway won the right roster in her second season as head coach of her alma mater. The Buccaneers won NIT, but the program was eventually cleared last offseason, leading to a 2-18 finish in this season's conference game. Seton Hall doesn't look like a team that belongs to the Big East a year after Sunday's selection to become a strong bubble candidate.