Final Four Predictions

[wadesworld]

Bored with all the politics (of which I am guilty of contributing to) and looking forward to the start of the college basketball season.  If you had to pick a Final Four and national champion heading into the season who do you have?  And who do you have as a surprise team (just someone who might exceed expectations)?  I have:

Duke (national champion)
Arizona
Michigan State
Florida

Surprise team: Oregon.  They were a 1 seed 2 years ago and made the Final Four last year, but they lost almost all of their major contributors from last season and are outside of the top 25 heading into the season.  I think they'll still be a top 4 Pac 12 team and in the 4-6 seed range.

[TAMU, Knower of Ball]

Final Four:

Michigan State (Champion)
Arizona (assuming no major suspensions or postseason bans)
Duke
Villanova

Surprise Team: TCU. On Feb. 7 of last season they were 17-7 with 7 games left in the season. If they went 3-4 the rest of the way they were likely a lock for the tournament and 2-5 probably could have gotten them in with some wins in the B12 tournament. Instead they fell apart and lost all 7, 3 of them by 1 possession or less. Rather than fading to nothing, they won 2 in the B12 tournament, including upsetting #1 in the nation Kansas. They then went to the NIT and besides one OT win against Iowa, they blew away all of their competition en route to winning the NIT. They return everyone important and added a quality grad transfer big to address their depth issues in the frontcourt. I think they are top 25 caliber team and will get TCU their first tournament appearance in 20 years.

[🏀]

Duke
Villanova
Michigan State
Cincinnati

[muwarrior69]

Bored with all the politics (of which I am guilty of contributing to) and looking forward to the start of the college basketball season. If you had to pick a Final Four and national champion heading into the season who do you have?  And who do you have as a surprise team (just someone who might exceed expectations)?  I have:

Duke (national champion)
Arizona
Michigan State
Florida

Surprise team: Oregon.  They were a 1 seed 2 years ago and made the Final Four last year, but they lost almost all of their major contributors from last season and are outside of the top 25 heading into the season.  I think they'll still be a top 4 Pac 12 team and in the 4-6 seed range.

Russia
China
North Korea
Iran

[Juan Anderson's Mixtape]

Michigan State (Champs)
Arizona
Wichita St
Duke

Surprise team:  Providence as a negative surprise.  I'll say they miss the tourney.  The Friars had a lot of luck to go 10-8 in the BE last year, plus Holt probably misses the year.  They'll be a high seed in the NIT.

[GB Warrior]

Because there is no god:

Syracuse
Louisville
Notre Dame
Bucky

[brewcity77]

Arizona (Champions)
West Virginia
Michigan State
Xavier

Surprise: Oklahoma, they suffered two 7-game losing streaks last year but were excellent defensively and very young. They only lose Jordan Woodard, who didn't play down the stretch anyway. Their biggest question mark was at PG after Woodard went down, but they bring in 5-star recruit Trae Young who is an instant upgrade. They only have a few top-25 votes, but I think they have top-10 upside and could go as far as the Elite 8.

[wadesworld]

Bored with all the politics (of which I am guilty of contributing to) and looking forward to the start of the college basketball season.  If you had to pick a Final Four and national champion heading into the season who do you have?  And who do you have as a surprise team (just someone who might exceed expectations)?  I have:

Duke (national champion)
Arizona
Michigan State
Florida

Surprise team: Oregon.  They were a 1 seed 2 years ago and made the Final Four last year, but they lost almost all of their major contributors from last season and are outside of the top 25 heading into the season.  I think they'll still be a top 4 Pac 12 team and in the 4-6 seed range.

3 of my Final Four teams are looking nice.  Whoof on the fourth so far.  And whoof on my sleeper.

[GoldenDieners32]

Duke
Florida
Michigan St
Nova

Sleeper: Alabama and Purdue

[TAMU, Knower of Ball]

3 of my Final Four teams are looking nice.  Whoof on the fourth so far.  And whoof on my sleeper.

I biffed on the same pick you did. My sleeper is looking good at 6-0 but too early to say. Won their holiday tournament but it was the Emerald Coast classic. Most impressive win is St. Bonaventure.

[MU82]

Bored with all the politics

Sigh ... I remember when Obama used to make his Final Four picks ...

That's a joke, folks!!!!!!

My FF is ...

Duke
Nova
Wichita State
Florida

Some might consider WSU or Fla the "surprise team," but I wouldn't. For that, I'll say X.

[Dr. Blackheart]

Nova
WSU
Florida
Duke (Champs)

[wadesworld]

Nice of people to jump in and take a stand AFTER we've already seen some of the top teams battle it out against one another.

[Dr. Blackheart]

Nice of people to jump in and take a stand AFTER we've already seen some of the top teams battle it out against one another.

Start a poll and put a time limit on it then, Hardrock

[wadesworld]

Start a poll and put a time limit on it then, Hardrock

Would you suggest listing all 347 division one basketball teams as options in this poll or...?

[Lennys Tap]

Nice of people to jump in and take a stand AFTER we've already seen some of the top teams battle it out against one another.

At least you didn't pick 'Zona to win it all like Brew.

[wadesworld]

Now that we're roughly half way through the season and have a bit of a break in MU games, what are you feeling?

My original picks were Duke (champions), MSU, Arizona, and Florida with Oregon as my surprise team.

I thought MSU, Duke, and Arizona were going to be so far superior talent wise to the rest of the field that while I know it would've been doubtful all 3 get through in the one and done format, just in terms of picking Final Four teams I thought those 3 were so obviously the picks I couldn't see how you couldn't have them.

I'm still sticking with those 3 but I'm adding Nova as my champion. But I can definitely see other teams with a case over those 3 (especially Purdue and UVA).

So I'll go:

Nova (champion)
Duke
Arizona
MSU
(Most likely to least likely to make it for me)

My "surprise" team to make a deeper run than they might seem would be Rhode Island. They're obviously highly thought of so I don't think it'd be a big surprise, but I don't think it'd be just a team getting hot, I think they're very legit.

[🏀]

Duke
Villanova
Michigan State
Cincinnati

My teams are on the court.

[4everwarriors]

URI, c'mon man, hey?

[Lennys Tap]

At least you didn't pick 'Zona to win it all like Brew.

'Zona looking better - Brew may have the last laugh!

[dgies9156]

Because there is no god:

Syracuse
Louisville
Notre Dame
Bucky

Bucky and Notre Dame are in danger of not making the tournament. If Loserville gets in, they may have to vacate and we all know how much the NCAA loves Boeheim -- about as much as they used to love Al!

[brewcity77]

Arizona (Champions)
West Virginia
Michigan State
Xavier

Surprise: Oklahoma, they suffered two 7-game losing streaks last year but were excellent defensively and very young. They only lose Jordan Woodard, who didn't play down the stretch anyway. Their biggest question mark was at PG after Woodard went down, but they bring in 5-star recruit Trae Young who is an instant upgrade. They only have a few top-25 votes, but I think they have top-10 upside and could go as far as the Elite 8.

Feeling decent about my picks, though at this point any new list would almost have to include Villanova, probably supplanting the other Wildcats I had winning it.

I probably should've had my sleeper (Oklahoma) as one of my Final Four teams. I mean, I thought Trae Young was an upgrade over Jordan Woodard, but I didn't think he was THAT much of an upgrade.

[TAMU, Knower of Ball]

Final Four:

Michigan State (Champion)
Arizona (assuming no major suspensions or postseason bans)
Duke
Villanova

Surprise Team: TCU. On Feb. 7 of last season they were 17-7 with 7 games left in the season. If they went 3-4 the rest of the way they were likely a lock for the tournament and 2-5 probably could have gotten them in with some wins in the B12 tournament. Instead they fell apart and lost all 7, 3 of them by 1 possession or less. Rather than fading to nothing, they won 2 in the B12 tournament, including upsetting #1 in the nation Kansas. They then went to the NIT and besides one OT win against Iowa, they blew away all of their competition en route to winning the NIT. They return everyone important and added a quality grad transfer big to address their depth issues in the frontcourt. I think they are top 25 caliber team and will get TCU their first tournament appearance in 20 years.

When the new rankings come out today, 3 out of my 4 picks should be in the top 5 and the 4th one should be top 10. Feeling pretty good so far. My sleeper was looking really good, had a perfect non-conference and made all the way up to #16. 2-5 in conference play however might mean they are revealing their true colors. Though 3 of the 5 losses are to Oklahoma/Kansas and the other two were road games to possible tournament teams. Probably fall out of the top 25 this week but will be right back in it if they can get the home win against Huggy Bear.

[TAMU, Knower of Ball]

Tournament is going to be nuts this year. I don't see any truly dominate teams. Villanova is the closest but they don't look unbeatable. I like Virginia a lot but they have historically disappointed in the tournament. Purdue is very good (despite many scoopers instance that they are garbage) but I never got the impression that they were a final four team. Duke has talent but also head scratching losses to NC State and Boston College. Michigan State has no truly bad losses but occasionally do things like get taken to OT at home by Rutgers. Kansas lost to a really bad Washington team and I think that Arizona State loss will be a bad loss by the end of the season (think they peaked early and will slide towards the bubble the rest of the season).

Really looking forward to the tournament this year. Gonna be all sorts of drama.

[4everwarriors]

Total crapshoot, aina?