When Florida was scouting the portal last spring, it knew that its perimeter defense was not good enough. It needed an alpha guard stopper, so it went out and landed a defensive menace in Alijah Martin, who helped change the tenor for the eventual national champions. Texas Tech doesn’t erupt into an Elite Eight team and one of the Big 12’s best clubs without understanding that it needed to hit big at point guard and big man in roster-building. All the complementary pieces made way more sense when they were settling in next to Elijah Hawkins and JT Toppin.
Self-scouting has become essential. Weaknesses can become strengths with the right transfer portal addition or smart player development. The contrary is possible, too. Now more than ever, strengths can become weaknesses in a heartbeat, just due to the avalanche of roster changes.
Let’s dive into five positional groups (one from each of the five biggest conferences in college basketball) that will look vastly different in 2025-26.
Trending up: USC’s rim defense
Big Ten foes shot a horrifying 70% at the rim against USC last season. That rated in the third percentile nationally, per CBB Analytics. It was a major stumbling block for a Trojan club that finished 5-17 against top-100 teams last season.
Eric Musselman did something about it in free agency. USC has bolstered its interior defense significantly with a wave of newcomers. Musselman has a little bit of everything at his disposal. Virginia transfer Jacob Cofie is a 6-foot-10, 230-pound big man who is mobile, athletic and a stout on-ball defender. Cofie has a chance to be one of the Big Ten’s best defenders next year. Amarion Dickerson, the reigning Horizon League Defensive Player of the Year, might only be 6-7, but the long-armed, fiery forward is a menacing weak-side rim protector who notched a block percentage that ranked among the top-35 nationally, per KenPom.com.
Utah transfer Ezra Ausar isn’t much of a shot-blocker, but he’s physically down to tango with the brutal 4s that are littered across the Big Ten. USC’s defense will need that oomph. Oh, and the Trojans have a 7-5 (!) weapon in Youngstown State transfer Gabe Dynes, who ranked third in Division I with an eye-popping 14.4% block rate. Dynes has lots to improve on, but blocking shots is his specialty. His go-go gadget arms help eradicate wide-open layups.
Some combination of Cofie, Dickerson, Ausar or Dynes will be on the floor at all times. It’s a polar-opposite reality for Musselman this year to go along with the perimeter positional size that he craves, thanks to big portal splashes like Auburn’s Chad Baker-Mazara and Maryland’s Rodney Rice. Baker-Mazara’s defensive impact will be noticeable, too. The former Auburn wing has some absolutely disrespectful chasedown blocks in his portfolio, and he owns terrific defensive instincts both on and off the ball. Baker-Mazara even defended Purdue’s Braden Smith very well for stretches and could unlock the ability for USC to trot out some hellacious defensive lineups with Baker-Mazara (6-7), Rice (6-5), Dickerson (6-7), Ausar (6-9) and Cofie (6-11) on the floor at the same team. That’s a switchable five-man group with good-to-great defenders at all three levels off the floor.
USC’s defense finished 88th nationally and 14th in Big Ten play in efficiency last season, according to KenPom. It’s primed to go from a weakness to a major strength in 2025-26. A top-25 defense is firmly in play because the interior defense no longer resembles a sieve.
USC PROJECTED STARTING LINEUP
- G Jordan Marsh
- G Rodney Rice
- G Chad Baker-Mazara
- F Ezra Ausar
- F Jacob Cofie
Trending up: Virginia’s offensive ethos
The decline of Virginia basketball has centered around an offense that has fallen off a cliff from the glory days. Here’s where UVa’s offense has finished in ACC play in the last seven seasons:
- 2019: First
- 2020: 14th
- 2021: Third
- 2022: Eighth
- 2023: Ninth
- 2024: 13th
- 2025: Eighth
Thankfully, the days of scoring 52 points at home against SMU are very likely over.
New UVa coach Ryan Odom has built a roster from scratch that has serious potency offensively, and the method behind the madness isn’t hard to spot with each addition.
- Point guards: BYU veteran Dallin Hall and incoming top-60 freshman Chance Mallory will handle most of the traditional point guard duties. Hall is a career 35% 3-point shooter who can be a bit of a gunslinger in pick-and-rolls. The turnovers will be there, but the risk is usually worth the reward. Mallory is an undersized, highly skilled 5-9 firecracker who can fill it up from downtown or the midrange, all while running a team adeptly. He’ll fit like a glove.
- The dude: San Francisco transfer Malik Thomas is a proven bucket. He’s the best bet to lead this team in scoring with his barrage of 3s and a knack for getting to the charity stripe. Thomas, a fifth-year senior, will be one of the oldest players in the ACC. He won’t be overwhelmed by anything he sees, and Thomas has so many outs. He hunts buckets in transition. He’s an excellent slasher, especially attacking long closeouts, and he’s drained over 39% of his triples in back-to-back years while showing the ability to score at all three levels.
- Sweet-shootin’ role players: Sam Lewis (from Toledo) and Jacari White (from North Dakota State) are projected to be primarily off-ball spacers. Lewis shot over 52% on catch-and-shoot 3-pointers last year, and White was over 41% on catch-and-shoot 3-pointers on absurd volume (162 attempts, 89th percentile nationally). While they project to play off the ball, White and Lewis both notched over 100 ball-screen reps last year. Odom loves having a stable of capable guards who can run pick-and-rolls and make decisions. He has five (!) different guards who have proven they can handle the rock. That’s invaluable in this guard-friendly scheme.
- Fearsome Fours: Skilled 4s are essential for some of the best offenses, and Virginia has two of them. Thijs de Ridder is a 22-year-old Belgian who can make 3s and punish switches inside. Tillis is another fifth-year senior who was a key weapon of UC Irvine’s 32-win club. The 6-7 forward is a bootyball threat who can both invert the floor and operate as a spacer (39% from 3-point range on 3.3 attempts).
- Complementary centers: Johann Grünloh and Ugonna Onyenso build a center platoon that does opposite things well. Grunloh is a true stretch 5 who shot 34% from downtown on over 2.5 attempts (in just 22 minutes) in Germany last season. When he’s on the floor, Grunloh will pull would-be shot-blockers away from the rim. Onyenso is the opposite as a long-armed 7-footer who can operate as a rim-running, lob threat. Virginia can have two different looks depending on which center is on the floor. Those complementary skill sets are vital.
The verdict: Virginia should have four or five trustworthy shooters on the floor at all times with a sterling mix of creators, slashers, rim-runners and post-up threats. Virginia should be a top-five offense in the ACC for the first time since 2021, and it also has the upside to flirt with a top-10 offense nationally.
VIRGINIA PROJECTED STARTING LINEUP
- G Dallin Hall
- G Malik Thomas
- G Jacari White
- F Thijs de Ridder
- C Johann Grünloh
Trending down: Auburn’s interior fortress
Auburn’s defensive approach centered around the trio of Dylan Cardwell, Johni Broome and Chaney Johnson, who built an “enter at your own risk” barricade around the rim. Auburn was one of the best shot-blocking teams in America, and it seeped into everything about the Tigers’ defensive identity. Perimeter defenders like Chad Baker-Mazara, Denver Jones and Miles Kelly were weaponized to heat up the basketball even more and blanket 3-point shooters. Auburn rarely gave up treys and funneled everyone into the paint, where Cardwell or Broome would usually swallow ’em up.
Elite shot-blocking has been a staple of Bruce Pearl-coached teams for the better part of a decade, but it looks poised to come back down to earth a little bit in 2025-26 now that Cardwell, Broome and Johnson are off to chase their professional dreams.
As usual, the Tigers have a bevy of options. Emeka Opurum, a 7-footer from the junior college ranks armed with a 7-6 wingspan, has the tools to be a good SEC rim protector. He can help Auburn right away, but he’s expected to be more of a second-unit piece. Auburn seems headed to go all-in on the Keyshawn Hall-KeShawn Murphy, 1-2 punch as the featured frontcourt. They both have the same-sounding first name and excellent offensive games. Hall is a walking bucket, and Murphy’s slick handle and behind-the-back passes form a tantalizing combination. Even with so many new faces, Auburn has a chance to be excellent offensively with Tahaad Pettiford at the reins, paired with the Hall-Murphy duo.
It’s clear that Auburn has prioritized offensive skill with its highest-paid offseason additions, but defensively, the personnel just is not the same. Cardwell and Broome were excellent shot-blockers who were massive, thick and impossible to move. Murphy is a good rim protector, not a great one. Hall has not been an overly impactful defender throughout his college career. Murphy will redirect some shots in the paint, but his switchability on the perimeter is his superpower defensively.
Auburn went all-in with last year’s group and was rewarded with a Final Four appearance and one of the best seasons in program history. Some natural regression is expected when seven of the top eight players from a 32-win superteam depart, but the interior defense is where it could show up the most.
Auburn’s defense can still be solid with Kevin Overton hounding lead guards and Murphy being that switchable, mobile big fella, but the floor is significantly lower this year. Bart Torvik’s early 2025-26 projections have Auburn pegged around a top-25 defense. That’d be a huge win for this new-look group.
AUBURN PROJECTED STARTING LINEUP
Trending up: UConn’s point guard play
UConn’s collection of primary ball-handlers, namely Hassan Diarra, Aidan Mahaney and Liam McNeeley, combined to post the highest turnover rate in pick-and-rolls last year of any team in the Dan Hurley-UConn era.
A whopping 19.9% of UConn’s pick-and-roll possessions last season ended with a giveaway. That can’t happen anymore.
The turnovers were just part of the problem for UConn’s point guards. Diarra was excellent as a high-energy sixth man, but he wasn’t at his best as a late-clock, bucket-getter who could bail out possessions gone awry. Diarra’s inability to become a knockdown shooter made UConn a little easier to guard, too. Mahaney’s inability to defend exacerbated everything and bled into his confidence offensively. McNeeley, best-suited to be an off-ball wing, was thrust into even more of the ball-handling work out of pure necessity because of the other options.
Try as they might, UConn’s staff was rotating through a cast of point guards who all had one or two major weaknesses in their portfolios.
That should be much different in 2025-26. Georgia transfer Silas Demary Jr. was one of the most well-rounded lead guards in the portal. At 6-5 and a well-built 195 pounds, Demary has the positional size that UConn craves. He’s an excellent defender who smartly oscillates between scorer and distributor. Demary averaged nearly 5.0 free-throw attempts per game at Georgia, and he’ll give UConn’s offense a get out of jail free card that it desperately needs.
It’s not all on Demary’s plate, either. Dayton transfer Malachi Smith is a high-risk, high-reward playmaker who can shoot and also generates loads of paint touches. He’s a bit undersized (6-foot, 175 pounds), but Smith can heat up opposing ball-handlers for all 94 feet. He can be one of the elite backup point guards in college basketball, who can easily carve out 20+ minutes a night thanks to Demary’s versatility.
We’ll see how the rest of the preseason workouts shake out, but UConn should have four excellent options to play with at the three backcourt spots. Lineups featuring Smith (a high-feel initiator point guard), Demary (a scoring combo guard) and Solo Ball (a net-shredding sharpshooter) make plenty of sense. Hurley could also pair Demary with Ball and five-star freshman Braylon Mullins, who is another plus shooter. If Demary needs a blow, Smith-Mullins-Ball is a feasible trio as well.
UCONN PROJECTED STARTING LINEUP
- G Silas Demary Jr.
- G Braylon Mullins
- G Solo Ball
- F Alex Karaban
- C Tarris Reed
Trending up: BYU’s point of attack defense
BYU’s defense was blowtorched by lead guards all year long. BYU’s pick-and-roll defense against lead guards rated 353rd nationally in efficiency, only ahead of the likes of Chicago State, Gardner-Webb, Syracuse, Pepperdine and Central Arkansas.
It just was not a strength, and that showed up in the NCAA Tournament when Alabama’s Mark Sears and Aden Holloway combined for 16 triples and 57 points.
In an effort to keep his best offensive lineups on the floor, BYU coach Kevin Young didn’t have a ton of flexibility defensively. BYU was mostly passive, choosing to go under screens whenever possible. Alabama made Young pay like no other in the Sweet 16, but there wasn’t some easy adjustment BYU could have made. The personnel was what it was. It didn’t have that fleet-footed guard who could mirror those lightning-quick lead guards. It didn’t have great rim protection whenever Keba Keita needed a blow. Ultimately, it’s why BYU’s lightning-strike offense didn’t advance further in the Big Dance.
Overall, BYU’s defense allowed 118.0 points per 100 possessions in the 13 games against top-50 competition. Woooooof.
BYU wasn’t athletic enough. It didn’t have enough bite or defensive optionality.
Young, armed with one of the elite budgets in college basketball, has the roster to do things a little bit differently this year defensively. Make no mistake, BYU’s best defense will be an offense that forces opponents to take it out of the net, but Southern Illinois transfer Kennard Davis and five-star freshman AJ Dybantsa provide some semblance of athleticism and floor coverage that BYU just didn’t have last year. Baylor transfer Rob Wright was not a great defender as a freshman in the Big 12, but he’s extremely fast and can get skinny to dodge screens. With the right development, Wright should take another step in the right direction on that end.
Dybantsa’s defensive production tends to ebb and flow, depending on the night, but the tools are unquestionably noticeable. Dybantsa bounds across the floor and can plug gaps and provide a splash of secondary rim protection. Davis might be the most impactful addition for this defense. The 6-6, Southern Illinois product has serious potential as a lead guard stopper. When he’s dialed in, Davis mirrors drivers extremely well. With a smaller offensive burden at BYU, Davis should be unleashed to bring it even more defensively at BYU.
This team should simply be able to scramble, rotate, peel-switch and cover up hot spots way easier because of the boosted athleticism and speed that this roster has. Even a 6-8 athlete like Dominique Diomande can’t be overlooked in this equation.
The days of BYU rating 353rd against lead guards are over.
BYU PROJECTED STARTING LINEUP
- G Rob Wright
- G Kennard Davis
- G Richie Saunders
- G/F AJ Dybantsa
- F Keba Keita
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