Today marks the start of the college basketball season, and for a very select number of schools this means a realistic chance of capturing the National Championship at the end of the season in April. The next five months will bring with them heartache, upsets and quite possibly be my favorite five months of the year.
At the top of everyone’s preseason list are the Kentucky Wildcats. The Wildcats return several players from last year’s runner up team, including the Harrison twins, Alex Poythress and Willie Cauley-Stein . The Wildcats again added several McDonald’s All Americans. Karl-Anthony Towns, Tyler Ulis, Devin Booker and Trey Lyles have high expectations for their young careers. With the combination of old and young talent, the Wildcats have a legitimate chance to run the table this year and capture their ninth NCAA tournament trophy.
Right up there with Kentucky as favorites are the usual suspects. Duke, Arizona and North Carolina are all equally capable of bringing home the trophy. Duke has two potential future first round draft picks in Jahlil Okafor and Tyus Jones, a couple of strong returning players in Rasheed Sulaimon and Quinn Cook, but with seven underclassman, the road to the championship could be bumpy.
My dark horse this year — if you can call a pre-season top five team a dark horse — is the Wisconsin Badgers. Bo Ryan has a great mixture of experience and young talent that could finally give him that ever elusive National Championship. Frank Kaminsky is on the early Wooden watch list and could provide the Badgers with a consistent scoring threat. The road to the Final Four begins today and Kentucky, Duke and Wisconsin are all hoping they will be the ones hosting the trophy at the end of the season.
