When we ranked all 353 teams in Division I college basketball and used it to shape our 2018–19 conference previews in October, there was a lot of projection involved. Projecting how certain players would improve from last season, how freshmen who had never played a collegiate game would develop, what kind of immediate impact coaching changes would have and more. As you may imagine, more than seven weeks into the season, some of our projections have panned out, well, better than others.
While it's still too early to be making conclusive statements on the vast majority of teams, we have a much clearer picture now on what to expect as the calendar flips to 2019 and conference play gets underway across the nation.