3 Days...Only One Game. It's Topic Time!!! Who's Your National Champ???

Texas: Has a ton of depth and young talent.  Also they have glue guys like Johnson and Damion James that will do the dirty work.  Pittman is a monster inside and they have explosive young guards.  They should only get better as the season goes on, but Barnes always finds ways to avoid the championship.  Not sure that he can even stop this Texas squad from winning it all this year.

My final four prediction: Kansas, Purdue, West Virginia, Michigan St.

 

MSU over Kansas

I'd say it's Texas or Kentucky.  I don't think Kansas has the bench to compete with either and both have size to drown out the Kansas big man (Name escaping me right now)

Cuse

Purdue

Texas

Kentucky

Pac 10 has nothing.Acc will have a couple sweet 16 teams. Big 10 is fairly solid, but not enough skill to go all the way. Kansas will be lurking.

 

Good thread for a day like today. . . anyone have any good sleeper picks to do some damage and perhaps slip into the Final Four???

I'll take Mississippi St.  A stout D, some athletes and a few guys that can get hot from three can get you three wins and an upset or two. . .

I haven't identified my sleeper team yet, but a few lower conference schools to keep an eye on would be Cornell/Harvard (whichever comes out of the Ivy) and Richmond.  Richmond has already proven they can beat some of the "big boys".

I'm still looking for my major conference sleeper team.  Kansas State maybe?

Picking a national champ in December this year is tough, but here's my contenders:

Like some of you have said, My Spartans haven't been very impressive thus far, but do you really think Izzo won't have this team right around or in the Final Four?  We're gonna lose 3 or 4 more before the season is done, but we'll be ready come March. 

I agree with UNCForever, Purdue will likely be right there.  I think Texas looks very good, but they're gonna have to do something outside of their homestate before I'm convinced they're for real.  I don't know how ya' can't like Kentucky right now, Wall is unbelievable.  Kansas is obviously tough, but that non-conference schedule didn't prep them for a real tough tourney run and outside of Texas, who in the Big 12 is gonna get them battle-tested.  I'm not sold on "Cuse yet, I don't know why, I'm just not.  My sleeper would be Ohio State, if Tanner comes back strong, I think that team could be very scary.  West Virignia could also make a run.

How freackin bad is the Pac 10?

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Saying KU without their starters would be a final four contender is laughable. I can't even respond to that ridiculous comment, swizzy...

Texas is a great team, but they/we struggle in the 1/2 court. That is an issue we'll need to fix, but this year we finally have shooters on the bench to bail out our starters ineptitude. Defense is there, and I don't know how anyone can match-up with Damion James. Surprise, surprise, but Texas is one of my final 4 teams (and usually I have them out the earliest of anyone in my pool).

West Virginia is the best rebounding team in the nation. They have some troubles turning the ball over considering how little they are using Truck Bryant right now, but I expect these things to be corrected later in the year. I worry about them scoring, but they are huge at every position and Huggins' teams always win the rebounding edge and that's what won UNC the title last year.

Kansas has the guard and big man combo that is required to go far in the tourney. Collins is deadly and Aldrich will erase people in the middle.

Michigan State seems to be missing something from last year, but maybe that's just consistent play from Raymar Morgan. They are a match-up problem with all their guards who can shoot, and while I don't think they're a contender to win the title they could still factor into the F4.

So, Texas-West Virginia-Kansas-MSU right now, although I don't like the last pick at this point. Others with reasonable chances: Purdue, K State, Syracuse

Longshots: BYU, Butler, Xavier, Cincinnati