Season of Champions
Travis Willmann, Staff Writer
Photo courtesy of Travis Willmann
With the 2017-2018 college basketball season upon us, fans are already looking ahead to see what the chances are that their team will cut down the nets come April. The top four teams in the country most likely to win the crown are all too familiar to those who follow college basketball.
Every year, 351 schools fight for 65 spots in the NCAA tournament that takes place from mid-March to early April. This time of year, known as March Madness, gives hope to all 351 schools for their chance to compete for a national title. However, in reality only a handfull of top tier schools have a chance of winning it all. “This year, the teams with the best chance of bringing home a title are, Duke, Kentucky, Kansas and North Carolina,” according to cbssports.com.
Topping the rankings and the most likely team to win another crown are the Duke Blue Devils with the odds of 19/5, according to cbssports.com. Duke returns its senior leader Grayson Allen who averages 13.6 points, 3.1 rebounds and 2.5 assists a game, according to goduke.com. Duke also is adding Marvin Bagley III to its team this year, after Bagley was cleared to play by the NCAA. Bagley makes Duke’s 2017 recruiting class No. 1 in the nation and is the key reason they are picked to win it all this year. Along with their Hall of Fame Coach, Coach Krzyzewski, Duke aims to hang another banner.
Coming in at No. 2, is the all too familiar team, the Kentucky Wildcats with 8/1 odds of winning the National Championship, according to cbssports.com. Once again, the Wildcats have all new faces, but “this could be one of the best teams that the head coach for the Wildcats, John Calipari, has ever assembled,” according to the Washington Post.
However, Calipari will have to deal with having eight freshmen on his team; but, this is nothing new to him. In the era of one and done players, no school has produced more than the Wildcats. Even though the team is the youngest in the country, it might have the most talent in the country. “Calipari will rely on defense and a fast-paced offense to achieve another national title,” according to The Washington Post.
Kansas is the next most likely team to win another national title this year with 12/1 odds, according to cbssports.com. Kansas has been one of those teams that cannot seem to get it together when it comes tournament time.
“They have lost twice in the first weekend of the tournament and lost in the sweet 16 and were knocked out of the regional finals each of the past two seasons,” according to ncaa.org. However, the Jayhawks hope to turn their conference supremacy into something greater.
Kansas returns three players that are the keys for Kansas to make a deep run into the tournament for a chance to hang another banner. Devonte Graham, Lagerald Vick and Svi Mykhailiuk, are the big three that plan on carrying Kansas and head coach Bill Self to a national title. Graham averaged more than 13 points last season, while coming off the bench. “Vick is capable of scoring and scoring a lot of points and fellow guard Mykhailiuk gives Kansas the leadership and scoring ability to be the best in the country,” according to ncaa.org.
And finally, the reigning national champions, the North Carolina Tar Heels have 16/1 odds of repeating as national champions. North Carolina lost a lot of power with Justin Jackson and Tony Bradly leaving for the NBA and Isaiah Hicks and Kennedy Meeks both graduating. However, Carolina managed to gain some of that power back when Cameron Johnson decided to transfer from Pittsburgh.
Since Johnson has already graduated, the NCAA rule that states a player that transfers must sit out for a year before playing, does not apply. “Johnson averaged 18.3 points, 4.7 rebounds and 2.8 assists per game for Pittsburgh and torched Carolina’s defense when the two teams met last year,” according to scout.com. Johnson will fill the big hole left by Jackson and give the Carolina offense a big three-point weapon. With the addition of freshmen Garrison Brooks and Sterling Manley, who hope to fill the spots left open by Hicks and Meeks, Carolina seeks to go to three straight national title games and win two in a row. Point guard and most outstanding final four player, Joel Berry and Hall of Fame coach Roy Williams will put the Tar Heels in good position to win another title.
