While Ohio State has outperformed expectations to emerge as one of college basketball’s best teams this season, most of the sport’s traditional powerhouses have fallen well short of expectations.
Duke and Kentucky both currently have losing records and will almost certainly need to win their conference tournaments just to make the NCAA Tournament. Michigan State is also currently excluded from most bracket projections, while North Carolina is hovering near the bubble.
One particularly striking illustration of how much the sport’s blue bloods have struggled this season: None of college basketball’s 13 all-time winningest programs were included in this week’s AP Top 25.