Happy (Belated) College Basketball Season: A *Slightly Late* 24/25 Season Introduction
HELLO, my friends and fellow College Hoops Fans!
(Sorry we’re a couple days behind on sharing this, but BracketBound had some family obligations to attend to, and we (me) here at BracketBound are all about family - can’t ever say otherwise. Anyway, LET’S GET TO IT!)
Welcome BACK to another season of college basketball, and to another year of coverage of this glorious sport by yours truly, BracketBound. I’m excited to bring another full season’s worth of weekly content - our 2nd in a row, after more intermittent coverage in previous seasons - to YOU, the beautiful fans who I get so excited to talk to about this glorious game. I’m grateful for any and all readership that you provide, and I hope you’ll interact with me via twitter, instagram, etc. - let’s make this a dialogue! I’m also very excited to expand the horizons of the content that we drop at your doorstep this year…more to come on that. But for right now, let’s talk about what brought you here: the 2024-2025 College Basketball Season.
Let’s pick up right from the point where we left off: the end of last season. UCONN won their second consecutive National Championship, stopping Purdue just short of capping off their March Madness redemption tour with a title of their own. Even though the game wasn’t all that exciting, we got the matchup that the college basketball universe wanted: a clash of the best team vs. the most dominant player. Dan Hurley is undoubtedly the best coach in college basketball at the moment, and while he lost 4 starters to the NBA, his team will retain the talents of Alex Karaban, who is likely to lead next year’s team as one of the best players in the country. And while it seems, on paper, as though UCONN may finally be due for a minor regression, the general sentiment among college basketball media seems to be that UCONN is a preseason Top 5 team because Hurley deserves the benefit of any potential doubt after the last two years…not exactly how I feel, but that’s hard to argue. The Zach Edey era has finally come to an end, and with it goes the “is he good or just tall” debate…I’m personally so grateful to be done with that. Purdue’s clutches on the Big Ten - which continues its title drought for the 25th straight year - may finally be loosened, giving the other 17 out of 10 teams a chance to win the league. All of that is a long way of getting to the point that UCONN’s potential (minor) decline and Edey’s transition to the NBA leave a bit of a power vacuum in college basketball. Is there an obviously dominant SUPERTEAM set to take over the game and start the season at #1? Not really…we’ll get into that. But that makes things even more interesting…so, let’s explore all the excitement that this season has to offer.
The two best returning guards and the best returning center - all part of preseason Top 10 teams - are the odds-on Naismith Player of the Year favorites: 23-24 First Team All-American RJ Davis from North Carolina, 23-24 Second Team All-American Mark Sears from Alabama, and fellow 23-24 Second-Teamer Hunter Dickinson from Kansas. All are preseason All-American First Team selections, with other popular picks including Cooper Flagg, Ryan Kalkbrenner, Johni Broome, and Caleb Love.
Kansas and Alabama are the most popular picks as Preseason #1 teams, with Houston and UCONN as more rare selections - in looking at the recently released AP Top 25 poll, this tracks: Kansas is 1, Alabama is 2, UCONN is 3, and Houston is 4. Rounding out the Top 10 are Iowa State (5), Gonzaga (6), Duke (7), Baylor (8), North Carolina (9), and Arizona (10). I already released my Top 40 rankings, and I had a slightly different order…and of course, I’m already questioning my own rankings. Look, the beauty of preseason rankings is that they’re all going to be wrong - they’re *meant* to be wrong. No one thinks anyone is going to correctly rank all the teams before any of them have played a game with their full teams - but what’s IMPORTANT in these lists, what people are really looking for, are the most accurate takes about which teams are going to be REALLY good.
When I assembled my rankings, I think I was looking for the most complete, experienced rosters with players that have awesome stats…but it seems like most of those teams have a pretty obvious flaw: Kansas’ starts a 4 who can’t shoot, Bama’s defense might still be bad, Houston is replacing Jamal Shead with Milos Uzan, Gonzaga’s / Baylor’s defenses might be brutal again (based on Monday, Baylor’s definitely is), as might Iowa State’s offense, and so on and so forth. The teams that are actually the best this season will be well-rounded - they’ll include any of the aforementioned teams that addressed their weakness(es), or other teams that are among the best of the best on both sides of the ball. Who could that be? Kansas *could* be one of those teams - they brought in lots of shooting/scoring talent, but they still don’t have a ton of obvious NBA-level talent and/or athleticism (like some of the other Top 10 teams), and DaJuan Harris makes me nervous. Alabama’s offense was good enough to hide their defensive deficiencies and take the Tide to a Final Four last season, and their defense HAS TO improve with Big Cliff defending the rim. Houston could be really good on both ends, but I think their offense will be worse without Shead. What about outside the preseason Top 5? It pains me to say, but I think Duke could not only be more talented than every other team, they might also already be a Top 3 basketball team, with room to improve (this is where I would mention that they beat Arizona State by >50 pts in a scrimmage, if scrimmages mattered). I’m torn on Auburn - they ended the season #4 overall in KenPom’s rankings…but one could make a strong case that the Tigers were analytics darlings at best and frauds at worst. That said, they return some very important parts of last year’s team - including All-American center Johni Broome - and added sufficient talent for me to think that they could be better than they were last season. I’m not saying they’re definitely a serious contender, but I’m saying it wouldn’t surprise me at all. Alright, that’s a lot on the Top 10 teams, let’s zoom out and take a wider lens view of the college hoops landscape this season.
You may have noticed that there are 5 Big 12 teams in the Top 10, which is an indication that this conference may very well be the best in college basketball, once again. After those 5 teams, the Big 12 has another 1 in the Top 25 (Cincinnati), and 4 more that received AP Poll votes: Texas Tech, Kansas State, BYU, and Arizona State.
The SEC is on the same tier, and will very likely be either the best or 2nd best conference, as it boasts 9 teams in the preseason AP Top 25: Alabama, Auburn, Tennessee, Texas A&M, Arkansas, Texas, Florida, Kentucky, and Ole Miss. Mississippi State got a few AP votes, too! I think the Big 12 continues to be elite because it has the highest concentration of top-level coaches in the game, but the SEC has a formidable mix of high-end coaching talent and big boy budgets. I expect the SEC to continue to be a Top 2 basketball conference in coming years, possibly #1 if some of the Big 12 coaches retire. A tier below those two conferences are the Big Ten and the Big East, followed closely by the ACC.
As of now, the Big Ten is probably the most wide open of all the leagues - it’s the only conference mentioned thus far without a Top 10 team. Purdue is a popular pick to win that league again, but I think they’re being a bit overhyped - I could see scenarios for at least 5 different teams - including Indiana, UCLA, Oregon, and Illinois - to win the conference. Big Ten conference play is going to be pandemonium…looking at KenPom’s preseason rankings, 17 of the 18 teams rank between 23rd and 75th. Now, those rankings don’t mean a lot right now, but the general message is that the ceiling is low, but the floor is high, which should make for lots of very close, competitive games (which is a good thing for us fans!)
The Big East is still considered UCONN’s to lose, but I think it’ll be much more competitive at the top than last season, when the Huskies won the conference by 4 games. Creighton and Marquette should be able to put up more of a fight this season - and don’t be surprised if Xavier and/or St. John’s are contenders, as well. The Big East should generally be a bit more balanced this season - there’s more parity at the top, the teams in the middle (Villanova, Providence, Butler, Seton Hall) should be fighting for bubble spots, and the teams at the bottom should be much improved this season, with Georgetown’s roster improving and DePaul hiring Chris Holtmann, formerly of Ohio State.
The ACC is probably sick of being picked on, especially after sending 3 teams to the Elite 8 last season, but in all likelihood, this is still a conference with 2 real contenders, and those are the same two teams who will likely go head-to-head for the conference title…yes, you guessed it, Duke and North Carolina. Clemson, Wake Forest, Miami, and Louisville also received Top 25 votes - I expect the first two to finish Top 4 in the conference. I think Louisville may surprise some people and potentially make a push for the NCAA Tournament field. Miami, Pitt, and NC State are mystery bag teams who I could see potentially landing in bubble territory, but the rest of the ACC don’t impress me much. That said, it could absolutely be a better overall league than the Big East if some of those non-UCONN teams aren’t as good as they look to be.
And of course, the mid-majors have some bright spot teams who will bring the heat. The Mountain West is expected to be the premier mid-major league yet again - the top half of that conference is expected to be fairly competitive: Boise State, San Diego State, New Mexico, Utah State, Nevada, and Colorado State. The WCC’s two feature teams - Gonzaga and Saint Mary’s - are expected to be tournament teams once again. And there are a host of other mid-majors scattered across the remaining conferences that are expected to be pretty frisky: Dayton and VCU (A10), Memphis (AAC), Grand Canyon (WAC), Princeton (Ivy), McNeese (Southland), and several more!
Alright, so that should give you a decent feel for which teams are expected to be good, and which ones have…*lower* expectations. What else is important to think about, to keep in mind before diving head first into this season like Scrooge McDuck into a vault of gold coins?
Conference realignment changes are upon us yet again…and more are on the horizon
Texas and Oklahoma are officially part of the SEC, where it will be similarly difficult for them to succeed in basketball, as it has been in football (OU’s chances of success are roughly the same: LOW)
Washington, Oregon, UCLA, and USC have all moved to the Big Ten, which improves the Big Ten’s chances of bringing home a National Title by *looks at numbers*...0%
Utah, Arizona, Arizona State, and Colorado have joined the Big 12…that’s right, The Holy War is back in the same league, The Duel in the Desert remains intact, and the Prodigal Buffs return from whence they came. Word on the street was that the Big 12 was also trying to poach UCONN, but they’ll remain in the Big East…for now.
Cal, Stanford, and SMU are now part of the ACC, naturally. Nothing says Atlantic Coast like acquiring 2 schools within a stone’s throw of the Pacific Ocean and a big-money private school in Texas.
And the Mountain West is officially in its second-to-last season, as the Pac 12 is striving to stay alive by poaching some of the Mountain West’s best teams. Utah State, Boise State, Colorado State, Fresno State, and San Diego State are all set to help the 2-PAC expand to the PAC 8 in 2026. Gonzaga is also ditching the WCC to join the new PAC8, I guess?
We are entering the golden age of non-conference play…the non-con slate is INCREDIBLE. I’ve seen some outlets putting out lists of their Top 10 non-conference games - that’s not gonna cut it. I had to cut my list to a Top FIFTY (50) because there are just so many good games before we even get to conference play. Check out the 50 best non-con games of this season below (and I dare you to tell me one of these isn’t going to be a fun game)
November
Nov 4th: Texas vs. Ohio State (Ohio State wins, 80-72)
Nov 4th: Baylor vs. Gonzaga (Gonzaga wins, 101-63)
Nov 8th: North Carolina @ Kansas
Nov 9th: Tennessee @ Louisville
Nov 9th: Baylor @ Arkansas
Nov 9th: Auburn @ Houston
Nov 12th: Michigan State vs. Kansas (Champions Classic)
Nov 12th: Duke vs. Kentucky (Champions Classic)
Nov 15th: Alabama @ Purdue
Nov 15th: Ohio State @ Texas A&M
Nov 16th: Wake Forest @ Xavier
Nov 19th: Purdue @ Marquette
Nov 20th: Illinois @ Alabama
Nov 21st: Baylor @ St. John’s (Continental Tire Baha Mar Championship)
Nov 22nd: Duke @ Arizona
Nov 25th: Memphis @ UCONN (Maui Invitational)
Nov 25th: Auburn vs. Iowa State (Maui Invitational)
Nov 26th: Oregon vs. Texas A&M (Players Era @ Vegas)
Nov 26th: Houston vs. Alabama (Players Era @ Vegas)
Nov 26th: Duke @ Kansas (Vegas)
Nov 27th: Louisville @ Indiana
Nov 27th: Texas A&M vs. Creighton (Players Era @ Vegas)
Nov 27th: Rutgers vs. Alabama (Players Era @ Vegas)
Nov 28th: Florida vs. Wake Forest (ESPN Events Invitational)
Nov 28th: Arkansas vs. Illinois (Kansas City)
December
Dec 3rd: Kentucky @ Clemson (ACC / SEC)
Dec 4th: Baylor @ UCONN (Big 12 / Big East)
Dec 4th: Alabama @ UNC (ACC / SEC)
Dec 4th: Marquette @ Iowa State (Big 12 / Big East)
Dec 4th: Kansas @ Creighton (Big 12 / Big East)
Dec 4th: Auburn @ Duke (ACC / SEC)
Dec 7th: Kentucky vs. Gonzaga (Seattle)
Dec 8th: Kansas @ Mizzou
Dec 8th: Texas Tech @ Texas A&M
Dec 8th: UCONN @ Texas
Dec 8th: Duke @ Louisville
Dec 10th: Michigan @ Arkansas (MSG)
Dec 14th: Texas A&M @ Purdue (SEC / Big Ten)
Dec 14th: Ohio State @ Auburn
Dec 14th: Xavier @ Cincinnati
Dec 14th: UCLA @ Arizona
Dec 14th: Louisville @ Kentucky
Dec 14th: Tennessee @ Illinois
Dec 14th: Gonzaga vs. UCONN (MSG)
Dec 14th: Creighton @ Alabama
Dec 17th: UNC vs. Florida (Charlotte)
Dec 21st: UCLA vs. UNC (MSG)
Dec 21st: Purdue @ Auburn (Birmingham)
Dec 21st: Ohio State vs. Kentucky (MSG)
Dec 28th: UCLA vs. Gonzaga (LA)
Let’s talk about the big new addition to the College Basketball non-conference schedule:
The Players Era Tournament
Apparently the company behind the event, EverWonder Studio, is also planning to expand the “Festival” to 18 teams in 2025. The larger field will include Gonzaga, Michigan, Syracuse, Saint Joseph’s, and St. John’s. For this season, the current field will be divided into 2 groups - the Impact Division (Houston, Alabama, Rutgers, Notre Dame) and the Power Division (San Diego State, Creighton, Oregon, and Texas A&M). Aside: those division names kind of suck. Anyway, the teams will play their first 2 games within each group on Tuesday, Nov 26 and Wednesday, Nov 27 - those are already scheduled - and the outcomes will determine seeding for “Championship Day” on Saturday, Nov 30th. Each team will receive $1M in NIL funding for dispersal among the team for participating in “NIL events” outside the games, and more money from “additional NIL opportunities” will be available for the teams competing in the 1st and 3rd place games immediately following Championship Day. The estimated payouts are $500K for the First Place Team, $250K to Second Place, $125K to Third Place, and $100K to Fourth.
I’m VERY interested to see how this event evolves - if they’re expanding that rapidly, I have to assume they’re going to continue to expand and/or add more events throughout the season. What’s the ceiling for this thing? It’ll obviously never replace the NCAA Tournament, but will this high-paying event, or events just like it, come to dominate the non-conference / MTE / Feast Week portion of the schedule, at the start of the season? Based on the first look at next year’s Maui Invitational field (headlined by Baylor, Oregon, Texas, and USC…no offense to those fans, but that’s kinda weak overall), it seems like traditional MTEs may need to increase their value propositions to attract the best programs. The target schools for the Players Era Tourney appear to be high-profile programs who may not have big Blue Blood bags, but are good enough to attract TV numbers and are willing to parade players around events in Vegas for the promise of more NIL money. I respect the innovation - I’m anticipating we’ll continue to see more of it pop up in coming years.
COACHING CAROUSEL - let’s take a look at the ever-shifting landscape of college basketball coaches, including recent coaching changes, coaches on the rise, coaches to keep an eye on, and of course, THE HOT SEATS
There are some coaches who got shiny new jobs…
Mark Pope to Kentucky (from BYU)
Calipari to Arkansas (from Kentucky)
Musselman to USC (from Arkansas)
Andy Enfield to SMU (from USC)
Jake Diebler to Ohio State (…after serving as interim head coach)
Chris Holtmann to DePaul (…after being fired as Ohio State Head Coach)
Kyle Smith to Stanford (from Washington State)
Kevin Young to BYU (from the Phoenix Suns coaching staff)
Dusty May to Michigan (from FAU)
Pat Kelsey to Louisville (from College of Charleston)
Darian DeVries to West Virginia (from Drake)
Steve Lutz to Oklahoma State (from Western Kentucky)
Danny Sprinkle to Washington (from Utah State)
David Riley to Washington State (from Eastern Washington)
Mark Byington to Vandy (from James Madison)
Josh Schertz to Saint Louis (from Indiana State)
Chris Mack to College of Charleston (from unemployment / Louisville)
Some Year 2 / Year 3 coaches who have some momentum and might make some noise…
Grant McCasland @ Texas Tech
Todd Golden @ Florida
Sean Miller @ Xavier
Rick Pitino @ Saint John’s
Chris Beard @ Ole Miss
Lamont Paris @ South Carolina
Thad Matta @ Butler
Some other coaches I have my eye on - depending on how their seasons go, some could be poached by better programs, some could slide into the hot seat, and some may have a shift in momentum for their program…
Fred Hoiberg @ Nebraska - could be poached
Rich Pitino @ New Mexico - could be poached
Bryce Drew @ Grand Canyon - could be poached
Mitch Henderson @ Princeton - could be poached
Leon Rice @ Boise State - could be poached
Bucky McMillan @ Samford - could be poached
Kevin Willard @ Maryland - hot seat potential
Mike White @ Georgia - hot seat potential
Matt McMahon @ LSU - hot seat potential
Johnny Dawkins @ UCF - TBD
Ed Cooley @ Georgetown - TBD
Micah Shrewsberry @ Notre Dame - TBD
Red Autry @ Syracuse - TBD
Mike Rhoades @ Penn State - TBD
Mark Madsen @ Cal - TBD
And lastly, some coaches might already be on the hot seat - but a tournament berth / win would probably save them
Kyle Neptune @ Villanova
Mike Woodson @ Indiana
Penny Hardaway @ Memphis
Greg Gard @ Wisconsin
Leonard Hamilton @ Florida State
Bobby Hurley @ Arizona State
Ben Johnson @ Minnesota
Porter Moser @ Oklahoma
Dennis Gates @ Missouri
Mike Young @ Virginia Tech
Wayne Tinkle @ Oregon State
Changes to the Game: let’s take a step back and consider some recent stories about the external forces shaping the future of college basketball…
House Case Settlement
The NCAA and Power 5 Conferences finally reached a settlement in the House vs. NCAA case, for $2.8 billion in back-pay. Additionally, 22% of the average Power 5 school’s revenues (estimated to be ~$20M annually per school, growing over time) may be allotted for athlete revenue sharing. Scholarship caps will also be removed, meaning the walk-ons can get PAID. The $2.8 billion portion of the pay package will be used to pay the more than 15,000 former D1 college athletes who were unable to profit from their name / image / likeness. Apparently the players’ lawyers hired a sports economist nerd to create a formula to figure out how much each individual should receive based on their market value - which sounds like a very fun brand of academia. According to The Athletic, the NCAA will pay roughly 41% ($1.2B), Power 5 Conferences will pay 24%, Group of 5 Conferences 10%, FCS 13%, and non-football D1 schools 12%. Forcing Group of 5 and FCS schools to pay nearly a quarter of that bill seems wild - they obviously knew NIL would be bad news for them generally, but I don’t know if they thought they’d be losing more than half a billion dollars right off the bat. There’s still a lot that remains to be sorted out / settled: what the trickle down impacts of these payments will be on leagues and schools (spoiler: much bigger, scarier impact on institutions with less capital), athlete reactions to the 22% cap, how NIL collectives will operate, how Title IX factors into all this, and so on. For now, this settlement is a substantial victory for current and former players and a survivable defeat for the NCAA and the conferences. I would highly recommend this story by Matt Norlander about how the NCAA Tournament saved the NCAA.
Is the NCAA Tournament still safe from change?
In June, several sources reported that NCAA officials shared proposals to expand the NCAA Tournament field to either 72 or 76 teams, starting as soon as 2025-2026 (potentially). As you can probably guess, these new formats would leave the core 64 team bracket intact, add a few at-large bids and/or expand the number of play-in games (more of the bad auto-qualifying teams may be relegated to play-ins, or more of the at-large teams could be). There are several things to keep in mind when thinking about the prospect of expansion, but here are a few that are top of mind for me: 1) more games means more money, which the NCAA will desperately need to pay out for the House vs. NCAA ruling, but there won’t be a new media rights deal until 2032 so CBS and Turner don’t have to pay more money before that time 2) the timing of the tournament (and the conference championships) is not changing, which is awesome, 3) the PAC 12 went dodo, so they don’t have an auto-bid anymore - and they averaged about 4 at-large bids per year, most of which will likely go to other power conferences, 4) the tournament has been expanding since it began in 1939, so this isn’t the end of the world. The field reached 64 teams in 1985 and has only expanded by 4 teams since then…minor expansion isn’t new, and it’s not going to ruin the event or the sport. Also, this is your friendly reminder that BracketBound correctly called that any expansion would be fairly minor.
*DEEP BREATH*
Alright, so there’s a lot going on in our favorite game. Change is the only constant in college sports these days, and college basketball is no exception. Conference realignment, NIL, the Transfer Portal, and extra eligibility due to COVID (we’re in the final year of that, btw) have made the last 3 seasons the most interesting and dynamic in the sport’s history. This season promises to showcase the same exceptionally high level of intrigue and drama, as there’s a strong mix of experienced older players and wildly talented young freshmen. More change is likely around the corner - while player empowerment has been overdue and positive for the game in many ways, coaches are clamoring for regulation to control some of the chaos. Tony Bennett’s sudden retirement was the latest warning that the game stands to lose coaching talent if guardrails aren’t put in place to make their lives a bit easier. Maybe that’s not a great example because Tony’s teams haven’t been competitive in some time and his exit was hard to respect based on its timing…alright, maybe think about Jay Wright instead. Anyway, I think we’ll see more rules to at least mildly constrain transfer portal activity and make rosters less fluid. There are several other structural changes anticipated in the near term - more conference realignment, potential NCAA Tournament expansion, etc., but let’s get back to this year’s action. What are the big themes that fans should pay attention to? There are a host of great storylines for this college basketball season - CBS did a Top 68 storylines list / story that I really enjoyed, I’d recommend reading it - but here are the ones that stick out to me as the most important to watch out for this season:
20 MOST IMPORTANT STORYLINES FOR 2024-2025 COLLEGE BASKETBALL SEASON
Will UCONN pull off the 3-peat? Is the Big East more open than last year?
Who are the top contenders in the post-Edey era? There may be much more parity this season than last…
Will Kansas bounce back from its most disappointing season ever, and beat the (alive and well) #1 curse?
Cooper Flagg looks like the real deal - is Duke a Top 3 team?
Who will be the National Player of the Year? Mark Sears from Alabama, RJ Davis from UNC, and Cooper Flagg all seem to be realistic contenders. I don’t think Dickinson, Kalkbrenner, or Broome are going to compete as closely for it.
Danny Hurley is the best coach in America right now - Nate Oats might be one of the best roster managers, is he also a Top 3 coach?
This may be Kelvin Sampson’s best opportunity to win a National Championship - can he do so without Jamal Shead?
The Calipari / Kentucky breakup was good for both sides - can he become a serious contender again? Will Kentucky become a real contender under Mark Pope?
Will the SEC or Big 12 be the better conference?
Is anyone good in the Big Ten? A lot of people like Purdue still, but were they Edey merchants? That conference title drought is now at 25 years (!!!)
Is anyone *really* good in the Big East, besides UCONN? Looking at you, Marquette / Creighton / Xavier / St. John’s
Tony Bennett quit his role as Head Coach at UVA, two weeks before the season - who are the next veteran coaching icons to retire or be fired?
The Players Era Tournament is the next big thing for college basketball non-conference play - how will it go? Will other similar tournaments pop up? Will incumbent MTE’s respond or decline (is this the last good Maui Invitational!?!?!?)? Is Las Vegas positioning itself as the future capital of College Basketball?????
December 14th may be one of the better college basketball slates of all time - don’t make plans that day
This is the last year of extra COVID eligibility - 24 year old college hoopers’ days are numbered
Are Michigan and Louisville back? Dusty May and Pat Kelsey may be two of the better high-major hires of the offseason for recently downtrodden teams, and their rosters look ready to compete in Year 1
The NIT has competition - the “College Basketball Crown” by Fox Sports
High-profile international players are increasingly flocking to college basketball - Khaman Maluach at Duke, Kasparas Jakucionis and Tomislav Ivisic at Illinois, Egor Demin at BYU, Samet Yigitoglu at SMU, Julius Halaifonua at Georgetown, Urban Klavzar at Florida, and Fedor Zugic at Creighton
This is the last year of the pre-House Settlement Era…how will college basketball be different, going forward?
What is anyone going to do about NIL / Transfer Portal anarchy? It feels like the NCAA is pretty powerless to make any meaningful changes these days…
I’ll update the BracketBound Top 40 after this first week, but I’ll do a quick Tiering of Teams based on everything we know *today*:
Tier 1: National Title Favorites
Kansas, Alabama, Houston, Gonzaga
Tier 2: Serious Final Four Contenders
Duke, Auburn, UCONN, Iowa State, Arizona, Baylor, UNC
Tier 3: Could Make a Final Four (and Beat Most Teams on a Good Day)
Florida, Marquette, UCLA, Creighton, Indiana, Texas Tech, Arkansas, Cincinnati, Kentucky
Tier 4: Could Make an Elite Eight Run, but Probably Not Make a Final Four
Xavier, Ohio State, Purdue, Oregon, Tennessee, Illinois, St. John’s, Michigan, Mississippi State, Clemson, BYU
Tier 5: Should Make the Tournament, but Sweet Sixteen is the Ceiling
Texas A&M, Maryland, Texas, Louisville, Kansas State, Rutgers, Wake Forest, Michigan State, Saint Mary’s, Dayton, Memphis, USC, Ole Miss, Boise State, Grand Canyon, Villanova, San Diego State, Boise State
Tier 6: Keep an Eye On ‘Em - Potentially Sneaky Bubble Teams
Pitt, Iowa, Oklahoma, Wisconsin, Miami, NC State, TCU, Nebraska, UCF, Nevada, Colorado State
And last, but certainly not least…my Final Four picks
I’m going to take Alabama, Gonzaga, Kansas, and…let’s go with Duke. Chalky, I know. One of the best active coaches looking for his 3rd title, and three potential first-time champion head coaches looking for hardware to elevate their legacies…I think one of the newcomers gets it done - I’ll pick Mark Few & the Zags, he’s due for a title before he calls it a career.
ALRIGHT MY FRIENDS IN COLLEGE BASKETBALL, thank you so much for reading (or at least skimming the good parts), and thanks for your patience in waiting for me to get this out the door. I’ll try to be more timely with publishing newsletters and sharing content the rest of this season, but hopefully you enjoy it nonetheless. We’ve got some bangers on deck the rest of this week: UNC @ Kansas and New Mexico @ UCLA on Friday; Tennessee @ Louisville, Baylor @ Arkansas, and Auburn @ Houston (and more goodies) on Saturday; and Michigan @ Wake Forest on Sunday. Let’s have ourselves a thrilling, action-packed, dramatic, damn-fine college basketball season filled with ups, downs, and a healthy number of exciting finishes. In fact, let’s make this season the best one yet. Thanks for enjoying this ride with me, and if you like what you read / see, please share and help me keep building this community up. I’m working to bring more and more great things to you and make this thing as fun as it can possibly be. LET’S HAVE A DAMN SEASON, BECAUSE FOR THE FIRST TIME SINCE EARLY APRIL, WE ARE…
BracketBound.