The 7 College Basketball Teams That Were Unranked At Start Of A Season That Ended With Them Winning A Title

There are hundreds of college basketball teams that theoretically have a chance to win a national championship each year, but history has shown that your chances of winning a title are pretty low if you don’t start the season in the Top 25. However, there are more than a few schools that have managed to defy those odds.

These are the basketball teams that managed to win a national championship after starting the season unranked

The Associated Press started conducting a poll to evaluate the best college basketball teams in the country for the 1948-49 season. It was initially a Top 20 and was reduced to a Top 10 between  1960 and 1969 before reverting back, and the Top 25 Era began ahead of the 1989-90 campaign.

In the vast majority of cases, the schools that end up winning the NCAA Tournament (which became the standard metric for determining a national champion in the 1950s) have started the season with a number next to their name. However, there have been some exceptions to that rule—all of which have come courtesy of men’s teams.

UCLA—1964

Before we dive in, I should note the first two entries on this list do warrant a slight asterisk, as there were only 10 teams officially listed in the poll at the start of the seasons where they ended up winning a title.

John Wooden took over as the head coach at UCLA the same year the AP Poll was introduced, and the Bruins immediately transformed into contenders under his watch. The team went 20-9 during the 1962-63 season, but there were some concerns about their lack of size when they kicked things off in 1963.

That also marked the first year Wooden instituted a full-court press, which turned out to be a very wise move when you consider UCLA did not lose a single game en route to finishing at 30-0 while beating Michigan in the national championship.

That victory also ushered in an unparalleled dynasty that saw Wooden lead the Bruins to ten titles in the span of 12 years.

UTEP—1966

UTEP was still known as “Texas Western” when the Miners won their first (and only) national championship in 1966. The team was two years removed from a Sweet Sixteen appearance, but they’d finished with a relatively disappointing 16-9 record the previous season.

However, the squad that served as the basis for the movie Glory Road ended up making history as the first school with a starting lineup that consisted entirely of Black players to win a national championship—a feat they secured with a 72-65 win over a still-segregated Kentucky team in the title game.

Villanova—1985

We had to wait a while for another unranked team to prove the doubters wrong,  as there weren’t many people who believed in Villanova heading into the 1984-85 season following a 19-12 showing the previous year.

That was still the case when the regular season wrapped up, as the Rollie Massimino-led Wildcats were sitting at 19-10 and still unranked when they punched their ticket to March Madness as an eight-seed.

However, they ended up mounting one of the biggest Cinderella runs in history by dispatching five teams to earn the right to face off against a top-ranked Georgetown squad led by Patrick Ewing before pulling off a wildly unlikely upset with a 66-64 victory

Syracuse—2003

The 2002-03 season marked Jim Boeheim’s 19th year as the head coach at Syracuse, and the Orange were hoping to rebound after missing the NCAA Tournament for just the fifth time during his tenure with the 23–13 record that forced them to settle for the NIT.

They were able to do that with the help of freshman sensation Carmelo Anthony, who emerged as the star of a team that revolved around a core of underclassmen that also included March Madness legend (and fellow freshman) Gerry McNamara. Syracuse entered the NCAA Tournament as a three-seed, and they ultimately triumphed over Kansas with an 81-78 win in the national championship game.

Florida—2006

It’s kind of hard to believe Florida wasn’t ranked heading into the season in 2005, as they’d gone 24-8 the previous year while the country got its first look at Al Horford and Joaquim Noah,  a couple of freshmen who’d end up doing pretty well for themselves.

The Gators were initially nowhere to be found in the AP Poll. However, they debuted at #13 in Week 2 after getting off to a 4-0 start and ultimately won 17 games in a row before Tennessee handed them their first loss of the season.

Billy Donovan’s team had slid to #16 by the time they entered the NCAA Tournament as a three-seed, but they won the first of what ended up being back-to-back championships by beating UCLA by 16 points in the title showdown.

UConn—2011

UConn is responsible for the last two entries on this list, and the first comes courtesy of the title they won after Jim Calhoun’s squad had an uncharacteristically mediocre season by going 18-16 during the 2010-11 campaign.

Kemba Walker had shown a fair amount of promise during what was otherwise a fairly forgettable season, and he had a breakout year as a junior while leading a backcourt that also featured freshman standout Jeremy Lamb.

The Huskies were 26-9 and a three-seed when March Madness got underway, and Calhoun got his third and final championship as their head coach with a 53–41 win over Butler in the national championship.

UConn—2023

It took Dan Hurley a few years to find his footing after replacing Kevin Ollie as the head coach at UConn in 2019, and the Huskies were heading in the right direction after going 23-10 during the 2021-22 season. However, it still seemed like he had some work to do in his quest to return to its former glory.

It didn’t take long for UConn to land in the Top 25 once the season got underway, and they got off to a 14-0 start before earning a March Madness bid as a four-seed that was 25-8 when the NCAA Tournament began. They ended up dispatching every team they faced off against with ease before doing the same to San Diego State, which was handed a 76-59 loss in the title game.