Ty's Men's' College Basketball Preview

Much to my surprise, and I apologize to my readers that look forward to my preseason sports previews, the men's college basketball season started today. In fact, as I write this, Michigan is set to tip off in 15 minutes.

This will not be my typical preview because the pandemic has halted and postponed and put everything into question. I still find it irresponsible that these kids are playing for no money, risking their lives and risking their futures. But they are playing. There are games scheduled. There is room within schedules to make up games, and they are going to try and bring March Madness back. If you all remember, March Madness was the first big sporting event to be cancelled in March. That was when the world completely changed. This season feels rushed, it feels like it should have been pushed back, and I think they will run into postponements and cancellations, much like college football. But, I still want to do a preview, it will just look different. I'm not going conference by conference, no award predictions, none of my usual stuff, because this is not a usual year. There have already been games postponed in fact. Duke had to push their opener to another day because the team they were supposed to play had an outbreak. This is going to happen everywhere. But, let me try my best to preview the year.

Gonzaga is the number one team in the country according to the NCAA's website. They are no longer a Cinderella team. They are up there with Duke and Kentucky. They are a perennial power, and I am sure they will get bounced earlier than they should from the tournament, if the tournament gets played this year.

Baylor is the number two team in the country, but they already had to pull out of an early season tournament because their coach has COVID. Get used to that happening right now. Lots of teams will miss games because of COVID.

Villanova and Virginia are next, but I know nothing about those teams. I assume they are good because they are always good.

Iowa is number five, and they are the highest ranked Big Ten team. The Big Ten has seven teams in the top 25, and three in the top 10. With Iowa in the top 10, we have Wisconsin at seven and Illinois at eight. The Big Ten appears to be loaded. MSU is thirteen, and the University of Ohio State, Rutgers and Michigan close out the top at twenty-three, twenty-four and twenty-five respectively. I guess the Big Ten will be the best conference, get the most teams in a possible tournament and be hard fought all year. I am stunned at the number of teams from the Big Ten, seven of them, half the league, but hey, I guess the games will be fun and competitive.

Outside that we have the usual suspects in the top 25. Kentucky is ten, Duke is nine, Kansas is six, UNC sixteen and UCLA at twenty-two. I'm sure Duke and Kentucky reloaded with stud, five star freshman. Kansas always has some veteran depth and stud recruits. UNC will assuredly bounce back from last year, and UCLA seems to be returning to a little bit of their glory from the 90's.

I was surprised to see Creigthon so high, at eleven, but hey, I forgot they are in the Big East now.

I'm sure there will be bumps and bruises along the way that aren't involved with COVID. These kids haven't had a real offseason, they haven't had real, traditional practices, they have to be extra, extra cautious with this pandemic, and it is simply going to be a weird, weird season. Honestly I have no idea who will be in the Final Four, and who will win it all, or if there even will be a tournament. I cannot imagine two years without a college basketball season, but it could definitely happen again. I hope it doesn't, I hope they find a way to pull this way, but I will watch with caution. There is so much that can gum up this season. I hope no one gets sick, I hope there is a tournament and I hope they pull it off. I will be watching, and hoping, all season long.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing, the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast, and the greatest basketball writer on the internet.

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