Our 2023-24 Top 40 Countdown!

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Our one-stop hub for this year’s Top 40 countdown! Full listing of teams included, plus links to each daily tweet thread inside.

The matinee undercard in this epic Final Four was all about Kansas. Sorry, Nova nation.

Here’s Jim’s attempt at processing the insanity that was Duke and North Carolina on Saturday night. It lived up to everything we could have hoped for and then some, but in the end, the Tar Heels were the ones left standing.

From sweet to elite to final, the Jayhawks reigned supreme at the Midwest Regional in Chicago

Gonzaga is once again the tournament’s top overall seed and slotted out west. Can the Bulldogs run through this region as they did in 2021? Or will Coach K’s last hurrah be the prevailing storyline?

Arguably the softest region, the Midwest is stacked with teams shouldering a billion question marks. Can Kansas roll through a seemingly easy draw?

Baylor. Kentucky. Purdue. UCLA. There’s plenty of beasts in the East - can any giant killer derail one of these Goliaths?

Gonzaga was dominant again, so a 31-3 Arizona squad got shipped to the South region. Kerr Kriisa’s ankle injury looms large, and the other high seeds here are no joke.

Rutgers and Notre Dame, surprise inclusions? Maybe, but that doesn’t matter. They square off in Dayton on Wednesday night with a highly entertaining 16-seed undercard between Bryant and Wright State on tap, as well.

Texas Southern and Texas A&M Corpus Christi square off for the honors to face Kansas in the Midwest Region. Indiana goes to toe-to-toe with Wyoming in a battle between the two final squads included in the NCAA Tournament.

Get ready for another H-Town showdown. Texas Southern and Prairie View A&M are set on a collision course for the SWAC crown, again, after the Tigers got the better of the Panthers last year.

The Southland is now an 8-team league following the departure of four Texas schools and Central Arkansas. Nicholls is the heavy favorite to repeat as champs and win the auto-bid, but SLU and UNO lurk in the shadows.

The MEAC watched three teams exit this offseason, leaving a streamlined league competing for the precious NCAA Tournament bid. Powerhouses Norfolk State and North Carolina Central should be right back in the hunt, but Morgan State’s renaissance continues under Kevin Broadus…

Look out Vermont, the America East is coming. COVID constricted the Catamounts’ chemistry last season. Now, they’ll have to overcome a loaded field that stockpiled talent and experience over the summer.

Colgate still reigns supreme in the Patriot. Can the Raiders get back to their third Dance in four seasons? Or will Boston U avenge its lost 2020 Tourney berth?

Mike Jones and Pat Kelsey left for greener pastures, leaving a potential power vacuum at the top of the OVC totem pole - can anyone not named Winthrop or Radford rise to the occasion?

And then there were 10… Two less challengers won’t make it any easier for teams not named Belmont, Morehead State and Murray State, the clear cut top-3 with a 2022 OVC crown in their sights.

The CAA is wide open this season with as many as seven teams capable of winning the league and crashing the Field of 68. James Madison, Northeastern, and Hofstra lead the way.

The turbo-charged Bryant offense took the country by storm last year, but it was Mount St. Mary’s oversized, methodical style that earned the NEC’s auto-bid. Will one of those two reign in 2021-22? Plenty of challengers lurk if not…

Get the popcorn ready, Horizon League superfans. A 5-star show is coming to a theatre near you. Wright State and Cleveland State are old, deep, and really good but can Patrick Baldwin Jr. leapfrog Milwaukee ahead of last year’s co-champions?

The Flames keep burning at Liberty as the ASUN’s NCAA representative returns several key weapons. But OVC defectors Jacksonville St. and Eastern Kentucky will compete right away, and FGCU, Bellarmine, Stetson, and Lipscomb all have major reasons for optimism.

Rick Pitino brought his chessboard to the MAAC’s game of checkers. Can anyone stop the Gaels?

The UC schools dominated the Big West last season and look poised to do so again in 2021-22. Irvine and Santa Barbara lead the way with a feisty Riverside nipping at their heels.

The Big Sky is loaded at the top with several strong contenders hoping to fill the vacancy left by Eastern Washington’s exodus. Will Southern Utah’s experience prevail over Montana’s developing roster and Weber State’s array of talent? Will another emerge to defeat all three?

He’s baaaack… Max Abmas tugged on our heartstrings last March. To replay that magic in 2022, the Golden Eagles will have to outlast the ‘Dakota States’, who return everyone of relevance from a year ago.

The WAC grows to 13 teams this year with the addition of the Southland Four. With hot new contender SFA in the mix, can New Mexico State and Grand Canyon maintain their dominance?

After a year hiatus, the Ivy is a mystery box. Every team has two classes of players we’ve never seen before, and the ones we are familiar with haven’t hooped in 20 months. Still, the top four looks like the top four once again…

The Mean Green of North Texas stunned Purdue in March, and Conference USA has multiple teams with the talent to pull off a similar shocker in 2022. Two teams seem to have elevated themselves at the very top of the league, but there’s no shortage of challengers lurking behind them…