The 2013–14 NCAA Division I men's basketball season began on November 8, 2013 and ended with the 2014 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament, whose Final Four was played at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas, on April 5, 2014, followed by the national championship game on April 7.

Season headlines June 11 – The NCAA releases its annual Academic Progress Rate report. Three Division I men's basketball programs will be ineligible for postseason play in 2013–14; three others are ineligible pending appeals and NCAA review of data. The penalized programs are: Arkansas–Pine Bluff (pending review) FIU Grambling State Mississippi Valley State (pending review) New Orleans Southern (pending review) November 4 – The Associated Press preseason All-America team is released. Oklahoma State guard Marcus Smart was the only unanimous choice, gaining all 65 votes. He was joined by Doug McDermott of Creighton (63 votes), Louisville guard Russ Smith (52), Kansas freshman Andrew Wiggins (42) and Michigan forward Mitch McGary (34). November 12 – Freshmen and transfers are eligible for the preseason Wooden Award watch list for the first time in the trophy's history. Nine freshmen made the 50-member list, including three each from Kentucky (Andrew Harrison, Julius Randle and James Young) and Kansas (Andrew Wiggins, Wayne Selden, Jr. and Joel Embiid). Jabari Parker of Duke, Aaron Gordon of Arizona and Noah Vonleh of Indiana were the other three freshmen named. February 27 – Shortly after the end of Utah Valley's 66–61 home win over New Mexico State in a battle between the WAC co-leaders, NMSU guard K.C. Ross-Miller throws a basketball at Utah Valley's Holton Hunsaker (son of UVU head coach Dick Hunsaker), hitting him in the leg. The incident triggers a brawl between players and fans who had stormed the court, with video later showing that at least one NMSU player threw a punch, and another had to be forcibly pulled from the melee by staff. The next day, the WAC suspends two NMSU players—Ross-Miller for two games and Renaldo Dixon for one—for their involvement in the brawl. In addition, UVU announces that it was reviewing tapes of the incident to determine whether to take further action against its own students and fans who were involved. March 26 – South Florida, which had reached an agreement in principle with Manhattan coach Steve Masiello to fill that school's head coaching vacancy, rescinds the agreement after it discovers that Masiello lied on his résumé about graduating from the University of Kentucky. A UK spokesperson confirmed that Masiello attended for four years but did not receive a degree. April 7 – Manhattan announces that it will retain Masiello as head coach, contingent on him earning his bachelor's degree from UK. At the time, he was about 10 credit hours short of a degree, and was expected to complete the needed courses during the summer term. UK announced on May 29 that Masiello had completed the required coursework and would receive his degree in August. April 9 – UMass sophomore guard Derrick Gordon becomes the first active Division I men's college player to come out as gay.

Milestones and records Oakland guard Travis Bader, Devon Saddler of Delaware, Anthony Ireland of Loyola Marymount, USC Upstate forward Torrey Craig, Bryant forward Alex Francis, Cincinnati guard Sean Kilpatrick, From "Research Notes" in sidebar: "With his 10th point of the game, Sean Kilpatrick became the second player in Cincinnati history with 2,000 career points, joining Oscar Robertson." Nevada guard Deonte Burton, Iowa State guard DeAndre Kane, Buffalo forward Javon McCrea and North Dakota swingman Troy Huff each passed the 2,000 point mark for their careers. November 19 – Wisconsin junior forward Frank Kaminsky broke the school's single-game scoring record. Kaminsky scored 43 points in a win over North Dakota. The previous record of 42 points was held by Ken Barnes and Michael Finley. December 14 – Aaron Craft broke Ohio State's career assist record (previously held by Jamar Butler) in a game against North Dakota State. December 18 – Texas Southern's Aaric Murray scored 48 points against Temple in the Liacouras Center, setting records for the most points scored against Temple by one player as well as a new arena record. January 25 – Duke head coach Mike Krzyzewski records his 900th career win at the school, becoming just the second Division I men's coach to achieve 900+ wins at one university (Jim Boeheim at Syracuse was the first; both were preceded in the women's game by Pat Summitt at Tennessee).Duke flushes Florida State to give Coach K his 900th school win. USA Today. Retrieved on January 30, 2014. Vermont forward Brian Voelkel became the first player in NCAA Division I history to record at least 1,000 career rebounds and 600 career assists. February 1 – Syracuse defeats Duke 91–89 in overtime before a record-setting crowd of 35,446, the largest basketball crowd in the Carrier Dome's history and an all-time NCAA record for an on-campus game. February 2 – Oakland's Travis Bader surpassed JJ Redick for the most NCAA Division I career three-point field goals made.Oakland's Travis Bader breaks Division I 3-point record. USA Today. Retrieved on February 2, 2014. Redick's 457 made three-pointers record had stood since 2007. He finished his career with 504. February 8 – Melvin Ejim of Iowa State scores a Big 12-record 48 points in an 84–69 win over TCU, surpassing Michael Beasley and Denis Clemente, both of Kansas State, who had 44 points in 2008 and 2009, respectively. February 10 – SMU enters the Associated Press Top 25 poll for the first time since the next-to-last poll of 1984–85, a span of 30 seasons.SMU Mustangs re-enter Top 25 after 30-year absence. ESPN.com. (February 10, 2014). Retrieved on February 10, 2014. February 21 – Oakland's Travis Bader eclipsed Keydren Clark's career three-point attempts record of 1,192, which was set in 2006, almost three weeks after setting the new career three-pointers made mark.Travis Bader sets another NCAA mark. ESPN.com. February 21, 2014. Retrieved on February 21, 2014. He finished his career with 1,246. March 1 – In his final college game, LIU Brooklyn point guard Jason Brickman became only the fourth men's player in Division I history to collect 1,000 career assists, finishing with 1,009. He also became only the second Division I men's player to average double figures in points and assists in the same season, after Avery Johnson of Southern in 1987–88. March 8 – Doug McDermott of Creighton became just the eighth Division I men's player to surpass 3,000 career points.Creighton's Doug McDermott goes over 3,000 career points in win. ESPN.com. Retrieved on March 8, 2914. He scored a career-high 45 points against Providence on Creighton's senior night to give him 3,011 at the time. He finished his career with 3,150, the fifth-most ever. March 9: Wichita State beats Indiana State 83–69 in the final of the Missouri Valley Conference tournament in St. Louis, becoming the first Division I men's team to enter the NCAA tournament unbeaten since UNLV in 1991. Coastal Carolina, led by head coach Cliff Ellis, beats Winthrop 76–61 in the final of the Big South Conference tournament. With the win, Ellis became just the 10th head coach to take four different schools to the NCAA tournament (he previously took South Alabama, Clemson, and Auburn). March 19 – East Carolina guard Akeem Richmond finished his career with 416 made three-pointers, good for sixth all-time in Division I history.

Conference membership changes

The 2013–14 season saw the largest wave of membership changes resulting from a major realignment of NCAA Division I conferences. The cycle began in 2010 with the Big Ten and the then-Pac-10 publicly announcing their intentions to expand. The fallout from these conferences' moves later affected a majority of D-I conferences. The most significant developments this season were: The original Big East Conference split into football-sponsoring and non-football conferences. The non-football league now operates as the newly chartered Big East Conference, while the football-sponsoring league operates under the old charter as the renamed American Athletic Conference (The American). With The American adding four members in 2013 and three more in 2014, all from Conference USA (C-USA), the latter league responded by adding eight members in 2013, plus one more in 2014. Four of the 2013 C-USA arrivals came from the Sun Belt Conference, which itself added three schools in 2013 and two more in 2014. The Western Athletic Conference saw near-total replacement of its membership. Only three schools that had been members in the 2012–13 season—Idaho, New Mexico State, and Seattle—remained in the WAC for 2013–14, and Idaho left for the Big Sky Conference after this season. The WAC's attempts to replenish its membership led to the demise of the Great West Conference.

In addition, four schools began the transition up from Division II starting this season. These schools were ineligible for NCAA-sponsored postseason play until completing their D-I transitions in 2017.