By The college basketball offseason is officially in the books, and the verdict is in: Texas and Illinois are the big winners, while the NCAA itself had a summer to forget. With the season tipping off soon, here is who came out on top — and who took a beating.
College basketball under the bright lights (Credits: Our Insane Blogs)
Winners: Texas goes all-in
No program had a louder offseason than the Longhorns. Sean Miller and Texas added talent on top of talent, working both the transfer portal and a loaded freshman class to completely rebuild and revamp the roster into a national championship contender. On paper, they are loaded — and expectations on the 40 Acres are as high as they have ever been.
It is a remarkable turnaround for a program that snuck into the 2026 tournament as an 11 seed, survived the First Four, and crashed the Sweet 16 as the bracket’s only double-digit seed still standing.
Winners: Illinois runs it back
The Fighting Illini tasted the Final Four last season and have no intention of it being a one-off. Brad Underwood has reloaded with enough talent to make another deep run in March, keeping the core of a team that beat Houston in the Sweet 16 behind Keaton Wagler’s 25-point masterpiece.
Andrej Stojakovic’s bench heroics against Iowa — 17 points on 7-of-9 shooting — showed the depth Illinois is bringing back. Yes, UConn ended the run 71-62 in the Final Four, but the Illini are built to get back to the first Saturday of April and go further.
Losers: the NCAA
The biggest loser of the summer was not a team at all — it was the governing body. Eligibility chaos dominated the headlines, with fifth-year waivers and temporary restraining orders turning roster-building into courtroom drama. When players are suing for an extra season and coaches are scrambling to learn who is actually eligible, the system is broken.
Louisville, Will Wade’s new era, and the portal frenzy all added to the noise. Until the NCAA finds a coherent answer on eligibility, every offseason will feel like this one: thrilling for the winners, exhausting for everyone else.
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Source: ESPN — read the full story there.
