In the span of just over one calendar year, Florida went from a No. 7 seed that was eliminated in the first round of the NCAA Tournament to a No. 1 seed hoisting the national championship trophy. The Gators’ year-over-year improvement brought an uptick in victories from 24 to 36 and also included an SEC Tournament title.
However, the Gators weren’t college basketball’s most-improved high-major team last season. That title goes to Louisville. Though the Cardinals suffered a disappointing 14-point loss to No. 9 seed Creighton in the first round of the Big Dance, it was nonetheless a tremendous season of progress. A year after limping to an 8-24 finish, the Cards immediately improved to 27-8 under first-year coach Pat Kelsey.
The Cardinals’ resurgence was highlighted by an 18-2 ACC record behind an offense that was unafraid to take and make a stream of 3-pointers. Major strides also came for programs like Missouri (8-24 to 22-12), Michigan (8-24 to 27-10) and Vanderbilt (9-23 to 20-13), just to name a few.
With rosters essentially finalized for most of college basketball, we are surveying the national landscape to assess which team could be in line to make a big turnaround in 2025-26. For this week’s edition of the Dribble Handoff, our writers made their picks for most-improved teams in the season ahead.
Memphis basketball fined, put on probation after NCAA finds softball players were paid to help with coursework
Robby Kalland
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