Ranking the 25 best college basketball teams of the 2000s: Which blue blood comes out on top?

The Athletic is ranking the top 25 men's college basketball teams from the first 25 years of the 2000s. Selection involved crowd-sourcing and applying five main criteria: Overall record (only one team lost more than five games); KenPom net rating (most teams exceeded the elite threshold of +30, with only two narrowly below); Conference championships (regular season and/or tournament); National championships (acknowledged as a marker of greatness despite the single-elimination format); and Historical relevance (a more subjective measure). The process resulted in seven national champions being excluded and seven non-champions included, with some seasons having multiple teams on the list.

The article begins the rankings with the 2019-20 Kansas Jayhawks at #25. Key players included Devon Dotson, Udoka Azubuike, Ochai Agbaji, and Marcus Garrett. Their season ended without an NCAA Tournament due to the COVID-19 pandemic. With a KenPom rating of 30.23, they were considered the favorites before the shutdown. The team featured a potent duo in Dotson and Azubuike, plus key role players who later formed the core of Kansas's 2022 championship team. Their three losses were extremely close (two by a combined three points, one to fellow top seed Baylor). While their 3-point shooting was questioned, their championship potential remains unknown.

Ranked at #24 is the 2022-23 Purdue Boilermakers. Their top talents were Zach Edey, Braden Smith, and Fletcher Loyer. They reached the national championship game but lost to UConn 75-60. They achieved a KenPom efficiency rating of 30.62.