The offseason for college basketball was packed with big transfers and new freshmen who could make an immediate impact on their respective teams.
First off is center Hunter Dickinson who, after a few years at Michigan, is now at Kansas. This impacts the Kansas basketball program hugely as star Centers, the tallest position on the court, mainly carry the modern college basketball game. Guard Caleb Love has also transferred from the University of North Carolina to Arizona this off-season which, combined with big man Oumar Ballo, has brought great spacing to this offense, propelling them to a hot start including a win against Duke. Thirdly, Max Abmas, who is known for leading Oral Roberts to the Sweet 16 as a 15-seed two years ago, is now on Texas.
As for the freshmen, the main talk has been about the University of Southern California’s Isaiah Collier, who has come out to a hot start alongside Boogie Ellis. His scoring abilities make USC an instant contender. After a disappointing last couple of years, Kentucky has gotten three highly touted freshmen: Rob Dillingham, DJ Wagner, and Justin Edwards. These players make an intriguing case for Kentucky to be looked at as a national title contender. Lastly, Ja’Kobe Walter of Baylor is having a tremendous season so far and is somebody to look at as a difference-maker deep into this season.
Kansas led off the year as the number-one ranked team in the country, and for good reason. As previously mentioned, Hunter Dickinson can make anybody a contender. He has averaged over 18 points per game 3 seasons in a row. Plus, Kansas also has Dajuan Harris, Jr.; Kevin McCullar, Jr.; and KJ Adams, Jr. all returning from last year’s 1-seed team. We see anything other than a top 4 finish as a disappointment for Kansas this year.
Purdue returns with a very similar roster to last year, mainly 7’4 Zach Edey who was dominant last year. After getting upset by 16-seed Fairleigh Dickinson in last year’s tournament, We unfortunately see a similar path for the Boilermakers this year. We see them finishing the year as probably a 2-seed, then getting eliminated from the tournament early.
Marquette, like Purdue, brought back their entire core–notably Tyler Kolek (last year’s Big East conference Player of the Year), Kameron Jones, Oso Ighodaro, and David Joplin.
Michigan State was also a preseason favorite, although they have had a shaky start to the season. We suspect they will earn about a 3 or 4 seed, and then surprise everyone with a deep run in the tournament because of their experience and top-tier coaching.
Finally, you can’t talk about favorites without mentioning the defending champs, UConn. The Huskies lost their two best players, Adama Sanogo and Jordan Hawkins, this offseason, but other veterans–like Tristan Newton and Alex Karaban–have stepped up to keep UConn a top-10 team. We think UConn will have another successful year and will have a good shot to go far in the tournament.
Out of all these teams, our pick to win the tournament is Duke. They have veterans like Jeremy Roach, Tyrese Proctor, and Kyle Filipowski–and new additions like Jared McCain. Although the Blue Devils had an early loss to Arizona, We think they will get it back and potentially win the national title.
When asked for his title favorite, Ryan Pohl ’25 said, “Creighton because they have two really good guards and center Ryan Kalkbrenner.” Overall this looks to be a very exciting college basketball season
