The 2024 NCAA Men’s College Basketball Champions were the UConn Huskies. The Huskies may have a chance to repeat because the Huskies as ranked third in early season rankings headed into the 2024-2025 season. The remaining top 5 teams according to the AP Top 25 headed into the season are the Kansas Jayhawks at number one, the Alabama Crimson Tide at number two, the Houston Cougars at number four, and rounding out the top 5 are the Iowa State Cyclones.
Along with these top teams there are also of course top players in College Basketball that are expected to make a big impact on their team this year. CBS Sports put out a Top 100 players list for the upcoming season. The top five players include the number one player Mark Sears, a guard who is in his graduate year for the Alabama Crimson Tide, RJ Davis, a guard who is in his graduate year for North Carolina Tar Heels, Cooper Flagg, a forward who is in his freshman year for the Duke Blue Devils, Ryan Kalkbrener, a center who is in his senior year for the Creighton Blue Jays, and Hunter Dickinson, a center who is in his graduate year for the Kansas Jayhawks. The past couple of years the teams with the top ranked players have seen success during the season. This trend may repeat this year as two of the top players play for teams who are ranked in the top five pre-season.
Teams that were not as strong last season when it came to their player development took an opportunity during the offseason to make some coaching changes. Two teams who made big changes were the Arkansas Razorbacks and the USC Trojans. In an ESPN article published on October 17th, new Arkansas head coach John Calipari was quoted as saying about his team, “I met with the team. There is no team,”. Calipari is a new hire to the Razorbacks but is not new to the landscape of college basketball as he previously spent time coaching the Kentucky Wildcats where he had decent success but also is well known for producing many NBA talents specifically guards. Calipari came over to Arkansas and with him also came six transfer players as well as five new incoming freshmen. It is well known that many times players will follow coaches that they like to go and play for them and with Calipari’s well documented coaching success it is certain that some of these players did just that to get a chance to play for Calipari.
The other coaching change, the USC Trojans, is not so much about the caliber/success of the coach like the coaching change for Calipari and the Razorbacks but more about the transfers that the coaching change has brought to the Trojans. The new Trojans head coach is Eric Musselman and with him also have come eleven new transfers and two incoming freshmen. There is only one returning scholarship player for the Trojans this season so it is sure to be a different as well as very unique season for the Trojans. As you can tell, this offseason has been a rebuild for a lot of teams and that will sure to be an impact this season.
As was previously mentioned the top teams include the Kansas Jayhawks, the Alabama Crimson Tide, the UConn Huskies, the Houston Cougars, and the Iowa State Cyclones. However, not all these teams are in the top teams odds wise to win the championship. According to CBS Sports, the UConn Huskies have the best odds of winning the championship at +1000, the Arizona Wildcats and Duke Blue Devils have the second highest odds at +1200, the Houston Cougars then have the third best odds to win the championship at +1600, and lastly the Kansas Jayhawks and North Carolina Tar Heels have the fourth highest odds at +2000.
Now that we’ve discussed the teams that are expected to do well, what are some of the teams that are considered to be potential Cinderella stories this season? Well, some predictions included the New Mexico Lobos and the Northwestern Wildcats. MHS Freshman Ethan Mason shared his thoughts on why he thinks the Wildcats may have a chance to make a run for the championship this season. He shared that, “Northwestern has a very good returning core in Brooks Barnhizer, Ty Berry, Nick Martinelli, and Matthew Nicholson and they’ve had a lot of success in the last few years and haven’t gotten the attention they deserve.”
Similar reasons have been given for the Lobes from various sport outlets. One specific reason is the Lobes which consists of Jaelen House and Jamal Mashburn Jr., who combine for an average of 30.5 points per game. There are also many other teams that will be in the mix for the upcoming season and that will be sure to lead to a chaotic and very interesting season.
Overall, this upcoming College Basketball season has had one of the most interesting off seasons in recent years that has set up the season on a silver platter for one of the most exciting seasons that we may see in a long time.
