Top college basketball moments in 2023: Down goes Purdue!

College basketball is already in the midst of another season, but this past year was a busy one for the sport.

From a dominant national title run, huge coaching changes and a bit of déjà vu in the NCAA tournament, here are the biggest moments in men's college basketball over the past 12 months:

[More top moments from 2023: NFL, NBA, WNBA, MLB, CFB, WBB, golf, soccer, all of sports]

UConn rolls to national title

Dan Hurley and UConn went on a wild run last spring, which makes this a great place to start.

UConn cruised to an easy national championship in April, which marked the fifth the program has won since 1999. The Huskies rolled over San Diego State by 17 points in the title game, which capped their perfect NCAA tournament. The team won all six games in the tournament by an average of 20 points, which made them just the fifth team since 1985 to win every game in the event by double digits.

That run was part of a much larger record streak for the program, too. UConn won 24 consecutive non-conference games by double digits over the past two seasons, which set a new NCAA record and surpassed North Carolina’s mark in 2008 and 2009. That streak was snapped, however, after the Huskies fell to Kansas earlier this month.

As far as dominant college basketball teams go, UConn was right with the best of them.

Hurley is now attempting to run it back, something no program has done since Florida won back-to-back national championships in 2006 and 2007. The Huskies have been ranked in the top 10 all season and have started out 11-2 while picking up marquee wins over Texas, North Carolina and Gonzaga. Though Big East play is sure to take its toll, Hurley’s team is absolutely in a great position to defend their championship come spring.

No. 1 Purdue joins Virginia in NCAA tournament infamy

Hey, at least Virginia isn’t alone anymore.

Purdue joined the Cavaliers this past spring in NCAA tournament infamy. The top-seeded Boilermakers were upset by Fairleigh Dickinson in the opening round of the tournament, which made it just the second team in history that a No. 16 seed had knocked off a No. 1 seed in the first round.

“I don’t think the loss will stay with me through the year, I think it will stay with me forever,” Purdue head coach Matt Painter said in October.

While the Knights were then knocked off in the second round of that tournament, the damage was done. The upset more than paid off for FDU, too. The school has since raised $500,000 to upgrade the team’s facilities — which will finally allow them to stop watching film in an old community shower — and both undergraduate applications and online apparel sales skyrocketed.

For the Boilermakers, things seem to be working out. They’re back at No. 1 in the rankings this season with reigning National Player of the Year Zach Edey back for a final run, and they’ve started out the year on an 11-1 tear after winning the Maui Invitational. If history repeats itself — Virginia won the national title the year after it lost as a No. 1 seed — Purdue could be a real threat come March. If the Boilermakers can pull that off, the pain of the FDU loss will be behind them for good.

Jim Boeheim retires

Though his exit was a bit strange, Jim Boeheim officially wrapped up his coaching career this past spring.

Boeheim left Syracuse after the Orange’s loss in the ACC tournament, and was replaced by associate head coach Adrian Autry. That ended a 47-year run in Syracuse for Boeheim, who is undoubtedly one of the best coaches in the sport’s history.

Boeheim got his start at Syracuse in 1976, when the school was still independent. He made 35 NCAA tournament appearances, reached the Final Four five different times and won a national title in 2003 with Carmelo Anthony on his roster. He most recently reached the Final Four in 2016 when Syracuse was a No. 10 seed. He also won 10 regular season conference titles and five conference tournament titles, all of which occurred in the Big East.

Boeheim finished with 1,015 career wins, which is the second-most all-time in Division 1 basketball. Only longtime Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski has won more. Boeheim, 79, now works at ESPN as an analyst.

Boeheim is the latest legendary coach to step down in recent years. Both Roy Williams, at North Carolina, and Krzyzewski retired in 2021 and 2022, respectively.

Rick Pitino returns to Big East

Rick Pitino is back.

The longtime coach returned to the Big East earlier this year and took a job at St. John’s, marking his comeback after a very tumultuous exit at Louisville in 2017. The Hall of Famer spent the past three seasons at Iona, where he led the Gaels to a pair of MAAC tournament titles and NCAA tournament appearances.

Pitino left Louisville amid the massive federal investigation into college basketball, and was long considered a centerpiece in that scandal. He was eventually exonerated in the case, but the damage was done. So the 71-year-old flew to Greece to lead a professional team there for a few years before he resurfaced at Iona in 2020.

Pitino first won a national title with Kentucky in 1996, and then lost in the championship game the following year. He reached the Final Four a third time and then the Elite Eight twice with the Wildcats before making the jump to Louisville, where he spent 16 seasons. He reached the Final Four twice and won another national championship in 2013.

Pitino, who also led both the New York Knicks and Boston Celtics briefly, was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2013.

Now, Pitino is tasked with turning around St. John’s. The Red Storm has made it to the NCAA tournament just three times in the past 21 seasons, and they’ve not made it out of the first weekend of the event since 1999.

While this will likely be Pitino’s last coaching stop, he’s got an opportunity to revive a once-dominant Big East program back home in New York.

Bronny’s cardiac arrest, return

Bronny James’ college career didn’t get off to the start he or his father expected.

LeBron James’ oldest son collapsed and experienced cardiac arrest during a basketball workout at USC in July, shortly after the four-star recruit first landed on campus. He was rushed to the hospital, was diagnosed with a treatable congenital heart defect and underwent surgery.

But then, just 139 days later, Bronny was back on the floor for the Trojans.

Bronny made his USC debut earlier this month in a game against Long Beach State, which marked an emotional return for the entire family. LeBron and his family were sitting courtside at a sold-out Galen Center not even 24 hours after LeBron and the Lakers won the NBA’s inaugural in-season tournament in Las Vegas. LeBron was taking photos and videos on his phone like any other parent throughout the game, too.

“It was everything for my family,” LeBron said. “It was just an emotional, draining day from the time we all woke up to the time the buzzer hit zeros … To see the first person out of our family, out of the James gang, to grace a college campus and a college floor, that was pretty cool.”

Bronny hasn’t played much for USC just yet. He’s on a minutes restriction and has averaged just 16 minutes per game through his first three with the team. He averaged five points and 2.7 rebounds in that stretch, too. But simply returning to the floor just a few months later is a massive win for the freshman and his family.