With the NCAA tournament fast approaching, favorites have already emerged. While the most popular teams to pick are the number one seeds, there are other teams to look at as well. As you are filling out your bracket, these are the five teams you should be considering to win the championship in April.
1 UCONN:
The UCONN Huskies are looking to go back-to-back for the first time in school history. After a dominating regular season, UCONN will be the favorite coming into the tournament. Led by Guard Tristian Newton and Center Donovan Clingan, UCONN is 31-3 and coming off a Big East tournament championship. Connecticut does not have any bad losses, which should bode well in the tournament. While the last team to repeat as champions was Florida in 2006, don’t count out the Huskies to do something that hasn’t happened in close to two decades.
2 Houston:
Houston changed conferences this past year, moving to the Big 12. Houston has continued their same dominance winning the Big 12 regular season title. Even though Houston lost their conference championship game to Iowa State, they remain elite in both offensive and defensive categories. All metrics have Houston as an elite top two team in the country and a favorite to make it out of the South Region. Houston’s 16 Quad 1 wins lead the entire country, showing that they can beat any team anywhere. Houston will avoid UCONN until the potential championship game, setting up a good path for the Cougars.
3 Purdue:
The last couple years, Purdue has been a favorite to win the tournament. This year is no different. Led by All-American Zach Edey, Purdue has the best player in the tournament. Coming off a historic 1st round loss last year, Purdue will look to rebound in Edey’s final season. Purdue is in the Mid-west region with Tennessee and Creighton. Purdue is being considered to have an easy draw to the Elite 8 as they will play their first two games in Indianapolis, only 2 hours from the campus. While Purdue has bowed out of the tournament early the last two years, stats show that this year could be different.
4 Arizona:
All year long Arizona has been under the radar. Led by Senior Guard Caleb Love, Arizona remains one of the favorites to come out of the West region. Arizona will be a two seed in the tournament, most likely having to face North Carolina in the Elite 8. The thing that worries many people about Arizona is the four losses that they have had outside of Quad 1. When the Wildcats are on, they are one of the most dangerous teams in the country, but they can also have poor games that could lead to an early exit. So long as the Wildcats limit their offensive turnovers, a problem they have had throughout the season, look for them to make a push to the Final 4 in Phoenix.
5 Tennessee:
The SEC has the most teams in the tournament this year. The highest seeded of them all is the Tennesseee Volunteers. An early loss in the conference tournament may have prevented them from being higher on this list. Tennessee checks all of the boxes to cut down the nets: low turnover rate and top 25 in both offensive and defensive efficiency. Most of their success has come from All-American Dalton Knecht with an average of 21.1 points per game. Similar to Purdue, success in the tournament has been hard to come by. With Tennessee in the same region as Purdue, surely one of these teams will break their streak and advance to the Final Four, something the Volunteers have never done in their history as a basketball program.
