Dribble Handoff: Picking college basketball's best surprises -- with a nod to March Madness legends

By mid-January, surprising starts for college basketball programs can no longer be written off as anomalies rising from a small sample size. While there is still plenty of time in league play for teams like Nebraska and Vanderbilt to cool off, they have inarguably proven themselves to be better than expected at this point.

A year ago, Maryland and St. John's stood out as two of the sport's top surprises as both improved their win totals by 11 games from the 2023-24 season and checked off significant accomplishments. The Terrapins reached their first Sweet 16 since 2016 while St. John's won the Big East regular season and tournament titles. Not bad for two programs that entered the season unranked in the AP poll.

Only time will tell if this season's top surprise teams can hold it together to cap their campaigns with such noteworthy achievements. In the cases of Vanderbilt and Nebraska, winning a conference title or advancing in the Big Dance would absolutely constitute a breakthrough of historic proportions. 

Regardless of how things play out from here, there are some teams that deserve some flowers for what they've done up to this point. For this week's Dribble Handoff, our writers are picking their favorite surprise teams of the 2025-26 season to date.

Vanderbilt

The timing here is unfortunate -- Vanderbilt's perfect start to its season finally hit a road bump with a road loss on Wednesday to drop the Commodores to 16-1 overall -- but the sentiment that this team is a surprise of the most pleasant variety stands. 

Mark Byington has the Commodores off to their best start since 2007-08 and they are positively fun to watch, to boot. They rate No. 10 in adjusted offensive efficiency margin at KenPom, No. 40 in adjusted tempo and top-20 in 2-point shooting percentage. In terms of total offense, this team is seventh in points per game and a high-scoring, high-flying spectacle that is not only playing a fun brand of ball -- but also winning while doing it, too. Byington would be on the short list of Coach of the Year candidates if I had to submit a ballot today for those reasons, but perhaps most impressively because of this: The Commodores were picked to finish 11th in the SEC preseason poll and now rank higher (No. 10) in the latest AP Top 25 poll. -- Kyle Boone

Seton Hall

Seton Hall landed dead last in the Big East preseason coaches poll after a 7-25 (2-18 Big East) season. But the Pirates have already doubled last season's win total and would be an NCAA Tournament team if the season ended today. A vicious defense is to credit for the program's resurgence under fourth-year coach Shaheen Holloway -- and yeah, it's already been four years since Holloway's Saint Peter's Peacocks made a ridiculous Elite Eight run as a 15-seed. 

Seton Hall ranks in the top 20 nationally in opponent field goal percentage, steals per game and blocks per game. The result is a defense that ranks in the top 15 at KenPom. 

The Pirates aren't a great offensive team, but they are significantly better than they were last season, when they ranked 356th nationally in field goal percentage at 40%. Led by relentless undersized attacker Adam "Budd" Clark, who eschews 3-pointers, Seton Hall gets a ton of paint touches and free-throw attempts. This squad embodies the grit and personality of Holloway in way that makes them a likable underdog. Seton Hall is clearly the Big East's most surprising team. -- David Cobb

Nebraska

In our Big Ten preseason expert picks, Nebraska was picked to finish 14th in the league just ahead of Northwestern, Minnesota, Rutgers and Penn State. After defeating Indiana last weekend in a thrilling comeback win, the Cornhuskers moved to 16-0 and 5-0 in conference play. If the season ended today (and there's still a long way to go) Fred Hoiberg should be the National Coach of the Year.

The Cornhuskers are the only power conference team that has never won an NCAA Tournament game. Nebraska is 0-8 all-time in the NCAA Tournament, with the last loss coming in 2024. Nebraska is on the verge of potentially breaking the record for wins in a season and securing its first tournament win in program history. Nebraska forward Rienk Mast is one of the best stretch bigs in the sport. He is averaging 16.1 points per game and is ahooting 35.6% on 5.4 attempts. Not many people outside of the Nebraska program saw this coming. What an incredible coaching job by Hoiberg and his staff. -- Cameron Salerno

George Mason

Coach Tony Skinn -- who was a standout on George Mason's magical 2006 Final Four run -- lost all nine players who suited up for George Mason in the A-10 tournament championship game last year to the transfer portal, an injury or exhausted eligibility. And yet, the Patriots are 17-1 and 5-0 in the A-10? 

This is remarkable work for one of the rising coaches in college basketball. Presbyterian transfer Kory Mincy has been a revelation, but Skinn's ability to scan the portal and find this many hits from places like Samford, Mount St. Mary's, Ball State and Northeastern is superb.

I knew Saint Louis would be one of the A-10's best teams. I didn't know that it would be George Mason who emerged as maybe the Billikens' biggest challenger. Skinn is well on his way to beating his preseason KenPom projection for the third year in a row. Absolute stud. Now can he guide the Patriots to their first NCAA Tournament since 2011? -- Isaac Trotter