1. Gonzaga will likely be undefeated heading into the NCAA Tournament-We've surely seen the Zags succeed in the regular season under Mark Few, but this is his most balanced and complete team yet. Few built this team off three high-level transfers, most notably Player of the Year candidate Nigel Williams-Goss, who leads the team in points (15.7), rebounds (5.8), assists (4.6) and steals (1.7). Gonzaga also returned a slew of notable returnees, including 7'1 center Przemek Karnowski and guard Josh Perkins. According to kenpom, the Zags rank in the top 5 in both offensive and defensive efficiency. Of course, there are still naysayers who knock Gonzaga down due to their weaker schedule in the WCC. However, Gonzaga proved its worth in the nonconference slate by beating Arizona, Florida and Iowa State all on neutral courts, and beat top-25 school St. Mary's twice. Regardless of regular season prowess, the bottom line is that Gonzaga needs to reach the Final Four in Phoenix, or else the doubters will declare the Zags as a pretender yet again.2. Northwestern is set to make the NCAA Tournament for the first time in school history-Suddenly, life is good for Chicago sports fans. After the Cubs broke their historic streak in November, the Wildcats are set to break out and make the NCAA Tournament. Coach Chris Collins has done an excellent job of building up this program, and after a monstrous win at Wisconsin on Sunday, Northwestern looks to be a lock barring a historic collapse. Led by Bryant McIntosh and Scottie Lindsay, Northwestern is strong defensively and can muster up enough offense to make a run to the second weekend in March. Currently projected as a 7 seed by most bracketologists, the Wildcats would be best served to win a couple more big games to avoid seeing a 2 seed that can overpower them athletically in the second round. Currently, they are slotted in the second tier of the Big Ten with Maryland, making the matchup in Evanston tonight critically important.
3. The kids are alright, but the upperclassmen are better- Much of the preseason talk was directed towards the heralded Freshmen class. Many of those Freshmen have lived up to expectations, including Kentucky guard Malik Monk and UCLA guard Lonzo Ball, both Wooden Award candidates. However, the three frontrunners are all guys who succeeded last year but decided to return to school. My frontrunner is Frank Mason III, the Kansas point guard averaging 20.2 points per game and 4.9 assists per game. Not far behind are Purdue forward Caleb Swanigan (18.7 ppg, 13.0 rpg) and Villanova guard Josh Hart (18.7 ppg, 6.6 rpg). Ultimately, the combination of great freshmen and upperclassmen should cause a thrilling March Madness.
4. Duke is putting the pieces back together- As the preseason #1, expectations were sky high for the Blue Devils. Injuries in the preseason caused some setbacks for the Blue Devils, as Jayson Tatum, Harry Giles, and Marques Bolden all missed significant time. Furthermore, Coach K missed a month of game play after back surgery. Recently, the Blue Devils seem to have turned the corner. Tatum's play is steadily improving and Grayson Allen has regained his confidence. The win over rival North Carolina should propel the Blue Devils to the top of the ACC, but there is still work to do. Duke needs to figure out point guard play and role allocation (Luke Kennard), but the arrow is pointing up.5. Wild, Wild, West- The Pac-12 has three legitimate title contenders. Arizona, with Allonzo Trier back from suspension, currently leads the conference. Oregon, led by Dillon Brooks, has the most talented and complete roster of the group. Finally, UCLA has the most explosive offense in college basketball, but struggles mightily defensively. Personally, Oregon has my vote for the most likely to reach the final four, followed by Arizona and then UCLA. Combined with the aforementioned Gonzaga, it will be interesting to see how the four powers from the West Coast fare when tournament play begins.
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