44. Houston
2017 Ranking: 27. After taking over as head coach in the summer of 2010, Todd Whitting quickly built Houston into a national contender, winning 48 games and reaching super regionals in 2014, then hosting a regional in a 43-win campaign a year later. Since then, Houston has remained competitive but hasn’t been able to get back to super regionals. The Cougars made hosted another regional in 2017, made a regional final in 2018, then were one of the first four teams out of the field of 64 in 2019. Four postseason appearances in six years is still a nice track record, but the Cougars need to make more of a splash to get back into the top-25 programs discussion. There has been some churn on the coaching staff in recent years, but the constant is Whitting, whose recruiting chops are undeniable. As a public school located in one of the nation’s most fertile recruiting grounds, a good fan base and quality facility, Houston has everything it needs to make a jump back into the 20s when we conduct this exercise again in two years.— Aaron Fitt