2023-2024 Mid-Major Men's Basketball Preview

The 2023 NCAA Tournament featured some of the biggest and most upsets in the history of the tournament.

The Mid-Majors put the madness into March last season.

Florida Atlantic moves to the American Athletic Conference from the Conference USA. Some people may consider that conference to be a part of the “Power 6.”

However, the Owls are still technically a mid-major. The biggest news they received this offseason is that Dusty May decided to return on a 10-year contract extension.

Typically when a team like FAU makes a big run to the Final Four, a lot of players tend to leave to transfer to a bigger school. For the Owls that was not the case.

Every player eligible to return to the team returned, ignoring the transfer portal and potential NIL deals.

The Owls will look to make another big run in the NCAA tournament with the same team as a year ago.

Some people may forget that Gonzaga is technically a mid-major. The Bulldogs have been so consistent for years that it’s surprising that they haven’t tried to move to a bigger conference, especially with all of the realignments happening.

The Bulldogs lost fan-favorite Drew Timme after dominating the paint for three seasons.

However, they picked up a transfer in former Creighton star Ryan Nembhard. Nembhard averaged 12 points per game over two seasons with the Blue Jays. He will look to remind Bulldog fans of his older brother Andrew Nembhard.

Gonzaga’s WCC counterpart Saint Mary’s has continued to improve over the past couple of seasons.

The Gaels will look to compete with the Bulldogs in the WCC again this season. They get key returning production in Adian Mahaney, Alex Ducas and Mitchell Saxen, who all averaged over 10 points per game last season.

A big non-conference game for the Gaels is against Boise State on Dec. 1.

The Broncos return almost all of their talent from a team that went to the NCAA tournament as a No. 10 seed.

The big returner is 6-foot-7 do-it-all forward Tyson Degenhart who averaged 14.5 points per game a year ago. He will be key to another big season for the team from Idaho.

The Ivy League always gets a great representative in the tournament. This season Yale will look to get the bid over Princeton from a year ago.

The Bulldogs defeated Princeton twice during the regular season and they will return most of their production.

Key games for Yale will be at Gonzaga and at Kansas, both before the year turns. These games will show how real the Bulldogs are this season.

The big team from the Atlantic 10 this season is Dayton. Dayton lost to VCU a year ago in the Atlantic 10 championship game. However, VCU’s top players followed head coach Mike Rhoades to Penn State.

Dayton returns star big man DaRon Holmes II. Holmes averaged 18.5 points per game a year ago and will have a healthy lineup around him to help him out this season.

Dayton’s major matchups will be against LSU and Northwestern.

Other teams to look out for in the mid-majors are Charleston and Drake. These teams are both mainstays at the top of their conference and are consistently the automatic bid into the NCAA tournament.

The Mid-Majors will look to improve upon the madness they created in last year’s tournament with an even more impressive run in the tournament this season.

Andrew Deal is a first-year majoring in broadcast journalism. To contact him, please email asd5765@psu.edu.