The 2016-17 college basketball season is finally among us. After months of worrying about recruiting, hyping up traditional powers, and UNC fans grieving we have finally arrived to another college basketball year that is due to be filled with more great moments and heartbreaking losses. NCAA basketball has held and always will hold a special place in my fandom of sports. The parody that exists in basketball is what makes it my favorite sport. The early season upsets or the mid season number one team going down or the 15, 14, 13 seeds knocking off the higher seeds in the tourney. All provide great entertainment.
This season opens up like always, the traditional powers like Duke, Kentucky, Kansas, UNC, Michigan State, and Indiana all are at or near the top of the food chain. While teams like Oregon and Villanova have built themselves into promising programs looking to continue to knock off the longstanding powers in college basketball.
Here is your current top 25 after 1-2 games played by every team.
Duke
UK
Kansas
Villanova
Oregon
UNC
Xavier
UVA
Wisconsin
Arizona
Indiana
Michigan State
Louisville
Gonzaga
Purdue
UCLA
Saint Mary's
UConn
Syracuse
WVU
Texas
Creighton
Rhode Island
Iowa State
Maryland
A pretty fair assessment for the state of the college basketball world going into the season. However there have already losses by a few of these teams. Kansas and Michigan State went down to the wire with Indiana and Arizona respectively. Both were great games that came down to all four teams having a chance to win. UConn was upset by Wagner in their opening game so they are a team to keep an eye on as one who might've been ranked too high going into the year. Texas was tested as well, but was able to sneak out with a win in their first game.
How about some predictions? We all love to predict way too early so why not?
ACC: Duke should win the regular season and tournament titles on paper and I believe the paper is correct. They won't be unblemished going into the NCAA tournament because they have some tough matchups early on and they are not at full strength right now. Also the ACC is pretty darn good this year so teams like UNC, UVA, Louisville, Florida State, Syracuse, and Virginia Tech could play spoiler on a couple matchups. I don't see them having more than 4-5 losses and honestly I wouldn't be surprised if they ended up with less than that. The ACC will have 1 if not two All American team members come from their league with a chance of more. I see 8-9 teams getting in the NCAA tournament this year. I believe teams like Florida State, Norte Dame, NC State, and Virginia Tech all have a shot to make it this year. All improved outside of maybe ND but I can't bet against Mike Brey.
Big Ten: The ACC and Big Ten are the best conference and I don't think it's close. Wisconsin, Indiana, Michigan State, and Purdue are all loaded at the top much like the top four in the ACC. I believe Indiana or Purdue will come out as the winner of the Big Ten. It's so hard for me to call because I think all four have a chance to get hot and win. Indiana looked great in their win over Kansas. They shot extremely well and have a big man inside to protect the rim and balance be scoring. Purdue is the most slept on of the four and I love Matt Painter. I think Purdue was overhyped last year and was able to get a lot of pieces from last year back as well as adding some. They are huge inside and have solid guards. I think they pose the toughest matchups for the other contending teams in the Big Ten. Gun held to my head today I'm picking Indiana. The Big Ten will have 8-9 teams as well make the tournament, just like the ACC they could possibly have more.
Big 12: This isn't too hard. The Big 12 title runs through Lawrence, Kansas. This conference is similar to the SEC in football. The SEC had absolute dominance in football whereas Kansas has usually been the dominant team with few titles in recent history. However there is often a lot of Big 12 teams picked each year to be true contenders yet it always ends up being Kansas. I believe West Virginia will be the biggest threat to KU this year. They have a good amount of their team returning and who doesn't love Bob Huggins? Their style of play gives Kansas fits as well. Especially with Kansas being a little undersized than we are accustomed to seeing them. Losing 8 year vet Perry Ellis will be something that Kansas will have to figure out, but Bill Self will, he always does. I see 7-8 teams getting in to the big dance.
SEC: Kentucky. Florida and Georgia are improved, Miss State and Alabama are as well but this is a bad basketball conference. I believe they have already engraved the conference title trophy with Kentucky as well. UK has a guard heavy team but the talent is next level good. The Wildcats should be in the Final Four as long as they play to their potential. I see 3-5 teams making it out of the SEC.
PAC 12: I predict a three team race for the PAC 12 title. Oregon, Arizona, and UCLA all have fire power. All three teams can run it up on the scoreboard. Oregon presents so many matchup problems for teams because they are big and capable of taking their man off the dribble. Very quick team on defense as well. Oregon is my pick to win the conference and end up with a number one seed, but Arizona winning would not be surprising. Arizona has underachieved every year since their upset of Duke a couple years back. Just an opinion of mine. I don't see the development of players that have so much talent coming in. I see 6-7 teams getting in the tourney.
My way too early Final Four is Villanova, Duke, Oregon, Kentucky. Kind of boring I know.
Duke wins it all. (You have no idea how bad this hurts to say),
Enjoy the season!
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