Terrible Coach Tom Crean will Not be Missed

Crean's next coaching job is on the other side of this sign at IU.

We are in the midst of what we call "March Madness", but I will wait until Monday to do my update. I do have a recent college basketball story to write about today. I want to give my take on the firing of Tom Crean by Indiana University basketball.

The Tom Crean dismissal was a long time coming, in my personal opinion. He never really did anything that was super impressive in his 9 year tenure at Indiana. First off, he cashed in on the success that was his 2003 Marquette team, led by Dwayne Wade, that went all the way to the Final Four. Yes, he was a multiple 20 game winner while coach there, but it wasn't until Dwayne Wade took the country by storm and willed them to the Final Four. He stayed at Marquette for a few more years, but when the whole Kelvin Sampson violation era hit Indiana and he got fired, Crean jumped at the chance to become head man there. His first three years started off with a whimper. Indiana was very, very bad, as expected. His first season, due to violations, transfers and guys going pro, Crean had a depleted roster and his first team at IU finished with the worst record in their long, illustrious history, at 6-25. That is not a record I think one would want next to their name. His next 2 years weren't great, but the team "improved" each season, going 10-21, then 12-20.

Then, like some kind of god damn magician, Crean pulled in a great recruiting class. I'm pretty positive that some kind of violation story will come out soon about this class, but nothing yet. The prize recruit that season was an in state kid, Cody Zeller, and he some how got him to stay home and play for the Hoosiers.

By the way, Hoosiers is the worst sports nickname ever. No ifs ands or buts about it.

Back to what I was saying. With this new class and top recruit, Indiana vastly improved to the tune of 27-9. They beat the Anthony Davis led Kentucky team, number 2 ranked Ohio State and number 5 ranked Michigan State all in the same year. They looked poised to make a deep run in the tournament, but they got ousted, by a wide margin, by the same Kentucky team they beat earlier that year.

Despite their exit, Crean was showered with all kinds of Coach of the Year awards. And he accepted them all like the smug asshole that he is. I know he is related to the Harbaugh family by marriage, but I despise Tom Crean. He looks like a used car salesman and carries himself like the sleaziest one on the lot. He also looks like he is constantly on cocaine. He could have easily been in "American Psycho" as one of the friends that work on Wall Street. He is an extreme douchebag.

Anyway, after their run to the Sweet Sixteen, the very next season, IU looked to be even better. He again had a great recruiting class that he called, "The Movement". I'll say it again, what an asshole. The players in this class included Christian Watford, Jordan Hulls, sophomore Cody Zeller and Victor Oladipo. This IU team was great. They spent the majority of the 2012-13 season in the top 5 in the country. They were the outright Big Ten regular season champs after they beat Michigan in Ann Arbor and Crean acted like the sorest winner I have ever seen. He was stomping his feet and yelling at John Beilein and the entire Michigan roster. He is a real piece of work.

That Indiana squad was also a number 1 seed in the tournament, but guess what? They lost in the Sweet Sixteen again, this time to Syracuse. He could not win big in the tournament. Say what you will about Tom Izzo, Thad Matta and John Beilein, but they have all been as many Final Fours, more so in Matta and Izzo's case, and all three of them reached at least one title game, with Izzo wining one. Crean was a mid level Big Ten head coach at best. To have the players he had for 2 years and to not push past the Sweet Sixteen is insane. That is mediocrity at its best.

After much attrition to pros and graduation, IU and Crean regressed back to being a mediocre team. The year after Oladipo went pro, IU went 17-15. The next year was better, but not much at 20-14. They were regulars in the NIT, but not in the big dance.

Despite all this and his resume overall, his IU team was supposed to be good this year. They were preseason number 3. They did beat Kansas and UNC, but they did not finish well. They started great, but due to injury and Crean's ineptness, IU went down the toilet. During January of this year, I watched my Wolverines, who were struggling mightily at the time, beat IU by 30 points. I was in shock at how bad IU looked. I mean I was thrilled that they crushed Crean and IU, but the Hoosiers looked terrible. I don't think that can all be put on OG Anouby's torn ACL. They have a roster full of highly rated recruits. they should have been able to, at least, stay competitive with the players they had. But, due mostly to Crean, they looked like they quit.

Indiana finished this season 18-16. They had those 2 big wins, but they lost 16 games. That is atrocious. They, of course, did not make the NCAA tournament but were selected for the NIT. Then, in some weird bizarre, only something Tom Crean would do, as the higher seed, they did not want to play their first NIT game in Assembly Hall because it would be degrading to Assembly Hall and IU basketball. Well, I do not think if they played on Mars it would have mattered. IU came out lifeless and got stomped by Georgia Tech. I say the real embarrassment and degradation of IU basketball is not the NIT, but Tom Crean.

Fittingly, IU fired Tom Crean yesterday right before the first NCAA tournament game tipped off. I cackled when I saw that. Crean deserved to be fired. I think it should have happened a couple years ago, but the higher ups at IU gave him one last chance and he screwed it way up.

Tom Crean is a mediocre coach at best. I'm sure he'll end up as a head coach somewhere in a year or two, but it will be D-2 or some low level D-1 school. He is not as great a recruiter as I think some say he is, and he is a terrible X's and O's guy. He's a sore winner and he cannot take his team to the promised land. Good riddance Tom Crean. I hope to never see you coaching basketball anytime soon.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast. Did Ty predict the Crean firing before it happened? Check out the new X Millennial Man Podcast, premiering tomorrow, to find out. Follow Ty on instagram and twitter.

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Ty Musters up Enough Energy to Make Wild Guesses About Men's College Basketball

Artist depiction of Ty watching college basketball

To wrap up all my preseason basketball previews, I will finish off today with men's college basketball. Before I get into it, I do want to say, and I believe I said the same thing last year, but men's college basketball is becoming unwatchable. It is so watered down. The competition is so low rent, I might as well watch high school basketball. I don't want to do that.

The only thing that saved that dismal season last year was the incredible championship game. You know why that game was great, besides those 2 incredible game ending shots? Both UNC and Villanova were senior laden teams. Their best players were all seniors that had been playing together for four years. I'm over the whole "one and done" thing. I don't know who any of these new players are because they come into school for one season, then go pro. Skal Labiessere and Ben Simmons were supposed to be must watch TV last season. Labiessere and Simmons did not live up to the hype. Labiessere never asserted himself and became an after thought and Simmons seemed bored and disinterested. These were supposed to be the guys. There were also guys like Cheick Diallo, wasn't eligible until late in the season, and barely played after that. Brandon Ingram was fine, but never blew me away. Jaylen Brown led a floundering Cal team that got bounced in the first round of the tournament. I could go on and on.

All those guys are now gone to the NBA, so it doesn't matter anymore. That is my main problem with NCAA men's college basketball. The game has become a terrible version of posturing for NBA scouts amongst 18 and 19 year olds. It is a gloried McDonald's All American game. I'd much rather watch the D League anytime over men's college basketball now? That is a sad state of affairs. My advise, watch your team, because you should know the players on your team, but what is the point of watching all these freshman laden teams? The men's game has become dreadful.

Before I dig in, I got the majority of my information from cbssports.com, because when I went to do research, I literally had no idea who was supposed to win the title this year. I also do not know anything about this incoming crop of freshman. Every year I hear that this is the best class of freshman ever, but I'm sick of hearing that. Until we get a freshman as NBA ready as KD, I am not going to pay attention to any of these teams filled with "one and done" players because it is not good basketball, it's an all star game. All this from a guy who prefers college football way, way more than the NFL. I truly hate what men's college basketball has become.

Anyway, here is my preview of the upcoming season. As far as the ACC goes, I'm pretty sure that Duke is going to win the conference. They lost Ingram to the draft, but they return that prick Grayson Allen and I'm sure they have a slew of 5 star freshman coming in. Virginia, Miami and UNC will probably challenge, but they won't put up much of a threat, as Duke gets all the help from officials and they play a million home games. Duke will win the conference.

As far as the Big 12 goes, hasn't KU won it for a decade straight? They keep going after "one and done" players, and they keep winning the conference every year. Five new starters, but it doesn't matter, they will win the conference and I'm sure they will choke in the tournament. As far as teams that will challenge, I'm sure Oklahoma will take a step back since Buddy Hield is gone, Oklahoma State hasn't been relevant since Marcus Smart left, Kansas State is a joke, I guess Baylor is their only real challenger, but they probably have as many problems as their football program, so who knows what's coming to them, as far as sanctions and the like. KU is, once again, the Big 12 champs.

In the SEC, is there any other team that is any good other than Kentucky? Kentucky gets a new set of starters every year, they are all rated very high, and they have a great regular season, but since Anthony Davis left, they blow big games in the tournament. I'm sure that will happen again. Maybe Vanderbilt, LSU or even a team like Auburn challenge them, but I do not think it is very likely. Kentucky wins the SEC in a run away.

The Pac 12 is going to be Oregon's to lose. While they stink in college football, they have a good basketball team, or at least they did last year when they crushed Duke in the tournament and Coach K felt it was his place to yell at an Oregon player. They have a good team with bombers, and they do have some experience on their roster. Arizona and Washington could challenge, but Oregon should win the Pac 12. But, in all seriousness, I do not watch a lot of Pac 12 basketball because it is on way too late.

Villanova, the defending champs, should win what was formerly a great conference, but is now a shell of its self, the Big East. I don't see any real challengers, maybe Georgetown, but Villanova should dominate that conference all season. They did lose a few starters, but they have a good portion of the team back that won it all last year.

Now for the Big 10, the only conference I will watch. Michigan State or Indiana will probably win it once again. MSU is the perennial favorite, and I'm sure they have some blue chip guys coming in. Indiana is loaded with talent, but it is young, and they did lose Yogi Ferrell to graduation. He was the heart and soul of that team. Maryland has their star point guard back, but they lost a few big men and some older vets from a team that completely underachieved last year. I picked them to win it all last year, but they barely got out of the first round of the tournament. My team, Michigan, has a lot of guys back, but they went 21-13 last year. That is not a great record. They did make the tournament, but they played a terrible round one game, which they won, and then they blew a huge lead in their round 2 game. They have Zak Irvin back, but he hasn't been nearly as good as he was as a freshman. Derrick Walton is back, and he is tough and gritty, but I like Abdur Rahkman as a point guard better than Walton. He attacks the basket and finds the open guy better than Walton does. Michigan will infuriate me, but they will hover around the same record as last year, and hopefully, they can make the tournament again. Other than those teams, I do not know much about Big 10 basketball. Rutgers, Minnesota, Northwestern and Nebraska, amongst others, are all very average. I'm going to go with MSU because Tom Izzo is a much, much better coach than Tom Crean.

As far as some other teams that are outside of the power 5 conferences that should be good, we have teams like Gonzaga, St. Mary's, Rhode Island, VCU and Wichita State. Gonzaga is always good, even when they lose half of their starters. St. Mary's is supposed to be the best mid major team this year. They have a bunch of good players, and everything I read about them says they are supposed to be good. Rhode Island hasn't been good since Lamar Odom was there, but again, everything I read says that they will be good. VCU and Wichita State did lose a lot of vets, but they always have some other guys, that have been waiting their turn, that will produce.

As far as final four teams and the title game, I'm just going to take some shots in the dark. I'll say that Oregon, Villanova, Kentucky and MSU are the final four, but those are wild guesses. The title game will pit Oregon and MSU, and Oregon will win it all for the Pac 12, again, a wild guess.

The player of the year will be some random freshman that I have never heard of, or a senior that comes out of nowhere to have a great year, a la Buddy Hield last year. I honestly don't know.

Look, I think it is obvious how I feel about men's college basketball. It has become terrible, and nearly unwatchable. I wanted to do a preview because I love basketball that much, but I have little to no love for men's college basketball. It has become a meat market and a one on one game for 19 year olds to showcase their talents to scouts. No one wants to be Buddy Hield or Marcus Paige or Denzel Valentine anymore, and that is sad. All these young kids would rather be Brandon Ingram or Jakob Poertl, and that is truly upsetting. Men's college basketball is a joke, but hey, I will still watch Michigan and other games here and there. But, do yourselves a favor and just watch the NBA, it is so, so, so much better.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast. His lack of enthusiasm for his college basketball is no excuse to forget about the Head Editors dark horse final four team. Go Mizzou. Follow Ty on instagram and twitter.

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Predicting the Rest of an Unpredictable Men's College Basketball Tournament

The current state of everyone's brackets

As I've done with my NBA preview, my NFL preview and my college basketball preview, I'm going to look back at what was right and wrong since the first weekend of the madness that is March is through. You can go back and read my five things I thought would happen before the tournament started and you can listen to our mini episode of the podcast to hear my initial thoughts.

Right out of the gate, I was way off about Michigan State, as was almost everyone else. They really laid an incredible egg against Middle Tennessee State. I don't want to hear about other reporters saying that MTSU was wrongly seeded and that they are a really good team either. Sure, they won 20 plus games, but just look at what happened against a very mediocre Syracuse team yesterday. Michigan State would have dismantled that same Syracuse team had they taken care of business on Friday, but they didn't. MSU got out played, out hustled and out coached by a very inferior team. This has to be the biggest upset in the history of the tournament. Sure, NC State had no business beating Houston when they had Hakeem Olajuwon and Clyde Drexler and Norfolk State beat a much better Missouri team in 2012, but this win by MTSU was, at least in my lifetime, the biggest upset ever. MSU didn't even choke away this game, MTSU just straight up beat them, never trailing. I assumed that MSU's size and experience would make, not only this game a walk through, but that they'd coast to the title. I was way wrong, but so was pretty much everyone else. MSU blew it and they lose a ton of players to graduation. This was a major shake up that busted millions of brackets all over the country.

Then, there were my thoughts on the ACC that I was way off base on as well. Of the 16 teams remaining, 6 are from the ACC. That's impressive. Miami beat Wichita State with relative ease. Sure, WSU made it close, even taking a one point lead in the second half, but Miami started and finished that game strong and they deserved to win. Notre Dame, on the other hand, has been incredibly luck in their run to the sweet sixteen. They were down 12 at halftime to Michigan, then Michigan went ice cold and they started to make some clutch shots and Michigan still had a chance at the end until Zak Irvin took a terrible three. Also, Michigan wasn't even supposed to make that a game. Then, yesterday against Stephen F Austin, they needed a miracle tip in with one second left. SFA should have won that game and all they needed to do was box a guy out and they'd still be in it. I still don't trust Notre Dame. Syracuse got lucky with their draw. They were bigger than Dayton, then they got to play MTSU. They don't impress me at all. Duke was down at halftime against UNC Wilmington and it took the refs giving them every single call in the second half for them to win in round one. Then, they come out and shot a ridiculous percentage from three against Yale, push their lead all the way up to 27 at one point in the second half, then let Yale get back in it, getting as close as four points. Duke can't rebound and they will lose soon. Virginia has looked good. They play a slower style of basketball and they play suffocating defense. They've had an easy draw, but they have looked pretty good in their two wins. They could make final four noise if they keep this play up.

The team I was hardest on, UNC, has looked really, really good. They look like the team that was the preseason number one pick and a lot of people's pick to win the title. They cruised in round one and then they absolutely throttled Providence in round two. They look scary good right now, especially since Marcus Paige is making shots. I regret not having more respect for them. They could get to the title game if they keep it up.

My two play in 11 seeds really let me down. Michigan looked sloppy against Tulsa, but they won. Then, they came out on fire in the first half against Notre Dame, but fizzled in the second half. They should have won, but they couldn't finish, that was their problem all year long. Wichita State looked really good against Vanderbilt in their play in win, but they came out completely flat and ice cold against Miami. They put themselves in too big a hole and they could never get out of it. I was let down by both these teams. Northern Iowa also had a huge choke last night when they let Texas A&M make up a 12 point deficit in 40 seconds. I said, on the podcast, I thought they could make a run, but they really blew it last night. That was probably the biggest choke job I've ever witnessed. At least Gonzaga, another double digit seed I liked, has looked pretty good. They've won both their games handily and now they get to face an inferior Syracuse team for a shot at the elite eight.

The Big 12 has been a let down for me. I thought that they'd represent 75 percent of the final four. Sure, Kansas and Oklahoma are still there and they look good too. KU has had no problem with their first two games and they should coast to the final four. And Oklahoma, while VCU put a scare in them, made in on the heels of Buddy Hield. He has to be the player of the year now after MSU and Denzel Valentine's shocking and embarrassing loss. Without Hield yesterday, Oklahoma doesn't win that game. He is a scoring machine. But, the Baylor's and West Virginia's of the world really blew it. Baylor got outplayed by Yale. Baylor was bigger, but Yale out rebounded them. Side note, if you want to see something truly great, go back and watch the Baylor postgame conference when a reporter asked a Baylor player how they got out rebounded by Yale. This player's response is priceless and hilarious. Baylor would have crushed Duke had they taken care of business, but now we will never know. West Virginia looked bad in their opener. SFA did anything it wanted at anytime against WVU. I thought WVU had final four potential, but has Bob Huggins ever really done anything of note since leaving Cincinnati except for blowing winnable games. That game was a joke and WVU looked pretty terrible.

I was also wrong about a Big Ten team winning the title. I thought it would be MSU in a cake walk. I was wrong and so was the majority of everyone else. The Big Ten still has three teams left, but who really believes Maryland or Wisconsin will win the title? I know in my preseason preview I picked Maryland, but that was a straight up guess and after watching them this past weekend, there is no way they are a championship level team. And Wisconsin got very lucky in both games. They were ice cold against Pitt, but Pitt was even colder. Then, they hit a buzzer beater to beat Xavier. That play was beautiful, but it should have never happened. That charge that was called on Xavier was one of the worst calls in a basketball game at any level. That ref wanted to determine the outcome of the game and that should never be the case. But, that terrible call let us witness one of the best in bounds plays of all time. There is no way either of Maryland or Wisconsin wins the title. Indiana, on the other hand, I do believe in. I had them picked to beat Kentucky and they looked decent doing it. They made big plays when they needed to and got stops when they needed to. They are the Big Ten's best shot at a title this year. 

Where we stand now, we have 6 ACC teams, 3 Big Ten Teams, 3 Big 12 teams, 1 Big East team, 1 SEC team, 1 Pac 12 team and 1 mid major. The way I see it now, the Big 12 is not getting all three in, but they have an excellent shot at 2. Iowa State will probably lose to Virginia later this week, KU should have no problem with Maryland, then they will get the winner of Miami-Villanova, which should be another cake walk for them. Oklahoma gets a very young and inexperienced Texas A&M team they should beat, then the winner of Oregon, the most overrated one seed of all time perhaps, and Duke, who I have ZERO trust in. They can win their next two games with ease. Unfortunately for the Big Ten, Maryland will probably lose to KU, Wisconsin can and should beat Notre Dame, but then they get the winner of Indiana-UNC who would crush them, and that leaves Indiana, and they have to face a red hot UNC team right now and I just don't see them beating UNC. The ACC's best shot, of the 6 remaining teams they have left, is either UNC or Virginia. I think Miami will have it's hands full with Villanova. Duke will probably lose to Oregon. Syracuse is going to get destroyed by Gonzaga. But, Virginia should beat Iowa State, setting up a showdown with Gonzaga, in what would be a great game. And UNC, if they beat Indiana, will coast over either Notre Dame or Wisconsin. UNC has the easiest and most likely path for an ACC team. Sorry Pac 12, Oregon will not represent your conference in the final four. St, Joe's should have won last night, but either Duke or the winner of Texas A&M-Oklahoma will end your season. Same thing for the SEC. A&M is too young and too inexperienced and they also got incredibly lucky to still be in this tournament, their season will end soon enough. Villanova will be its usual choking self soon, probably against Miami. They will find a way to lose because that is what they do. Which leaves me with Gonzaga. I love Gonzaga this year and they have been very impressive thus far. They will beat Syracuse which will most likely set them up against Virginia. I think they can easily win that game and go to the final four. They are playing top notch basketball at the right time.

So, if I have to pick a final four with the 16 remaining teams, I will go with KU in the South, Oklahoma in the West, UNC in the East and Gonzaga in the Midwest. I think from those four teams, KU and UNC will play for the title and I think KU wins. That's how I see it now. I will admit that this tournament has been fun to watch. While it may not always be appealing to your eyes, at least there's been buzzer beaters and upsets galore after the first weekend. Hopefully, that continues throughout the rest of this wacky and wild tournament.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man podcast. He takes gret solace in the fact that not only his, but every realistic person out there, has a busted bracket. It is madness if you are not following Ty on twitter @tykulik.

Ty takes a few guesses with his Men's College Basketball Preview

Finishing up with all my basketball previews, I'm going to preview the upcoming NCAA season. Now, before I get started. I want to point out how hard this will be for me. I was doing research last night, and during my research, I found out that I don't know many of the new "stars" in college basketball today.

That's a problem.

Men's college basketball is now being defined by this new "one and done" culture, and I hate it. There's no continuity anymore, and players come and go after one season. We don't get any sense of how good a team can truly be because of the rule that you have to be one year removed from high school before you can go pro. I wasn't a fan of the straight from high school to the pros, but the "one and done" culture may be worse. These athletes are basically rentals. A school recruits these kids knowing that they will only be there for one season, and coaches and upperclassmen don't seem to care. Every year it's a revolving door. A five star comes to a school like Duke or Kentucky or Kansas, leaves after the season and a new crop of five star recruits come in. Another thing that blows my mind, pundits and professional broadcasters can't seem to understand how a team like Wichita State or Gonzaga can compete with the blue bloods of college basketball. It's simple dummies, the Wichita State's and Gonzaga's of the world have something that these teams that play mostly freshman don't have, camaraderie. The kids playing at Wichita State or Gonzaga have been playing together for four, or at the very least, three years. They know each other and they know each others tendencies, strengths and weaknesses. The teams led by freshman don't have this and it hurts them when it matters most.

Take last years Final Four game between Wisconsin and Kentucky. Kentucky was undefeated, led by a bunch of All Americans and had just come off their closest game of the year in the Elite Eight against Notre Dame. Wisconsin steamrolled Arizona, another freshman laden team, and they were ready for Kentucky. Wisconsin was also led by a senior(Frank Kaminsky), a junior(Sam Dekker) and a slew of upperclassmen. Wisconsin beat Kentucky up and by the end of the game, the freshman at Kentucky were bruised, battered and physically and emotionally tired. Age won out. Now, that didn't work in the championship game against Duke, another team with mostly freshman, but Coach K is a better coach than Bo Ryan.

Men's college basketball is becoming tough to watch. It's a shit show of, look how high I can jump to dunk this ball, or look at how many threes I can shoot in 10 minutes, or look at the little amount of interest I show in playing defense. It's not very good. The talent is better, but the product has gotten worse. When Geno Auriemma, head coach of UConn's women's team, said that men's college basketball is unwatchable, I, at first, vehemently disagreed with him, but now, I'm coming over to his side. It's not that much fun to watch anymore.

With all this being said, I'm going to give a brief breakdown of the upcoming season and pick who I think, and it will be a flat out guess, is going to win the title. I'll also pick a player of the year as well. When researching, I stumbled upon a great article on cbssports.com, rating every team in division one basketball with a one or two sentence description of the team. I'm going to use this article, but only for the rankings.

They have UNC as their preseason number one. This team actually has one upperclassmen, Marcus Paige, on their roster. He's their point guard, and everything runs through him. If he plays well, UNC will be good, but the rest of his supporting cast are either freshman or sophomores and I know very little about them. Staying in the ACC, other good teams will be Duke, Virginia, Notre Dame and Miami. Duke lost three of their five best players to the draft, but they have a bunch of five stars coming in to take their place. They won't win the title again, but they'll be good, they always are. Virginia and Notre Dame are senior laden teams, but both lost their best players to the draft. They'll still make the tournament, but their runs won't be as deep. Miami should be better this year, they get better every year, and they should challenge UVA and Notre Dame for the third spot in the conference.

CBS's number two team is Kentucky. Yep, the same team that lost 7, I repeat 7, players to the NBA draft is preseason number two. They just did what Calipari does, and out recruited everyone and replace five five stars, with five more. Kentucky is the only SEC team that will do any sort of damage on a major scope this season. LSU does have the top incoming recruit, Ben Simmons, but he won't make them a contender in his one college season. And Vanderbilt may make some noise, but they are very, very far behind Kentucky.

Kansas was their number three team and they will be, once again, the class of the Big 12. They lost Cliff alexander and Kelly Oubre Jr to the pros, but they do get Perry Alexander back and they also have "star" freshman coming into Lawrence. The Jayhawks could, and will be challenged by Iowa State, Baylor and Oklahoma. Iowa State did lose their coach to the pros, but they have most of their starting five back, and that includes Georges Niang. He's one of the anomalies, and decided to stay in school to improve his game. Baylor is always lurking, and they have been for almost a decade now. It's time to take Baylor serious and stop calling them a surprise contender. And Oklahoma may have the best player in all of college basketball in Buddy Hield. He leads that team and he can do great things with the basketball.

The first Big 10 team to crack CBS's poll is Maryland, coming in at number four. Maryland surprised a lot of people last year by how well they played, and they may be the best team in all of college basketball. They did lose Dez Wells to graduation, but they have Jake Layman and Melo Trimble back. Trimble may be Hield's only competition for player of the year. The other Big 10 teams that will fight with Maryland are the usual suspects. Teams like Michigan State, Indiana, Ohio State, Purdue and Michigan will all be tournament teams. Michigan State has a fine recruiting class coming in and Denzel Valentine is back. Indiana has one of the best offenses in the country and they have some serious recruits coming in. Ohio State will be down from where they have been, but they will still be decent. Purdue has a huge frontcourt, and they will be hard to score on in the post. And Michigan, if they can stay healthy, will be lethal from the outside.

The first Big East team to make their poll is Villanova. They're coming off a 30 plus win season and look to be in good shape once again. Georgetown and Providence will be fine, but the Big East is Villanova's to lose.

The Pac 12 should be competitive. Teams like Utah, Arizona, Oregon and California will be good. Utah did lose Delon Wright to the NBA, but Jakob Poeltl is back and he's a beast inside. Arizona replaces McDonalds All Americans with more McDonalds All Americans. Oregon is a fine team, but they're not really a threat nationally. And Cal. How in the hell is Cal in this discussion? I'll tell you how, they snagged three of the best recruits in the nation somehow, and they will be really competitive for one season. I'm sure an investigation will come out in a year or two involving Cal and recruiting violations, because they haven't been relevant since Jason Kidd played point guard for them in the 90's.

The AAC has three good teams in UConn, Cincinnati and SMU. SMU loses respect because of the sanctions just handed down, so they're not relevant. Cincinnati will win a lot of games they shouldn't, make the tournament with a decent seeding, then crap out in the first or second round. UConn is the class of the conference, and they will win it going away. They have a good recruiting class, and the best coach in their league.

Outside of the power conferences, there's only two teams that really warrant a mention. These teams are the afformentioned Wichita State and Gonzaga. Wichita State returns everybody from a team that should've made the Final Four last year, and the same goes for Gonzaga. If they're ever going to finally make the jump to elite status, this is Gonzaga's best, and probably last chance.

These are the teams I wanted to break down today. There's over 300 division one men's college basketball teams, but the ones I wrote about today, in my opinion, are the only real threats to do damage. Tell me why I'm wrong and who I left out in the comment section. For a more in depth look, if that's what you want, I suggest checking out the CBS website I mentioned earlier.

As far as predictions go, my Final Four teams, right now, are Maryland, Wichita State, Gonzaga and UNC. I think the title game will feature Gonzaga and Maryland, and I'm picking Maryland to win the whole thing. Melo Trimble will also take home player of the year. This will be a big, big season for Maryland basketball. I'll revisit this later in the season, but that's how I see things right at this very moment, 2:49pm central time on October 19th. Thanks and leave a comment telling me why I'm right or wrong.

College basketball and the NBA are almost here folks.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man podcast. His first big sports heartbreak happened after an ill fated time out call in the NCAA Men's Basketball championship game. I think UNC played in that game. Follow Ty on twitter @tykulik