Kentucky
This is painful to say, but John Calipari is going to win his second title this year. Once again, on paper he has more talent than anyone else in the country.
Freshmen Jamal Murray and Skal Labissiere are expected to be top-five NBA draft picks. The two will try to recreate the freshmen magic of the Anthony Davis and Michael Kidd-Gilchrist tandem that won Kentucky’s last championship, in 2011-12.
Joining Murray and Labissiere are two highly touted freshman guards Isaiah Briscoe and Charles Matthews. Completing this year’s incoming recruiting class is junior-college All-American Mychal Mulder and freshman 7-footer Isaac Humphries.
The thing that makes Kentucky such a compelling title pick is the combination of incoming talent and returning talent from last year’s team, which includes sophomore Tyler Ulis, junior Marcus Lee, and senior Alex Poythress.
The most intriguing piece is point guard Ulis, arguably the best point guard on last year’s team. Expect him to be a complete team player. The only thing Kentucky fans should be worried about, is frontcourt depth. If Labissiere or Lee get injured or get in foul trouble at any point during the season, there could be major problems because of lack of frontcourt backup.
Seven-foot freshman Isaac Humphries is the only true center on the bench. And senior forward Alex Poythress is coming off a season-ending ACL tear last year, so don’t expect him to be able to carry the majority of the minutes coming off the bench.
If the Wildcats can figure out who is reliable are able to stay healthy, they will be the 2015-16 NCAA champions.
— by Connor Sindberg
Maryland
Melo Trimble. As a freshman last year, the dude was All-Big Ten, the Eastern College Athletics Conference Rookie of the Year, and a Sporting News All-American. He’s back for the Terrapins this season.
Trimble will be the Big Ten Player of the Year and has a shot at the Naismith Award. He won’t need to carry his team, though.
Let’s not overlook the addition of Rasheed Sulaimon, who transferred from Duke. Sulaimon played 20-plus minutes a game for three seasons for the Blue Devils, a team that, by the way, won the national championship last year, although Sulaimon didn’t play.
Ten of the 15 players on Maryland’s roster return from last season. That team defeated Wisconsin and earned a No. 4 seed in the NCAA Tournament after beginning the season unranked and expected to miss the tournament.
This team? ESPN has it ranked No. 1 at the moment. With 10 returning players, five talented new players, and a recent tendency to overachieve, the potential for this team is through the roof. Potential like, say, it has the national championship locked up.
Kentucky has a complete makeover, as usual, so it is a wild card. North Carolina looks good but has not proven anything. No one else in the Big Ten has a remote chance to take down the Terrapins, so Maryland will get a No. 1 seed in the tournament and will embarrass opponents throughout the Big Dance.
Look out for the Melo and ’Sheed show as Maryland dominates the 2015-16 season.
— Mason Clarke
North Carolina
Once again, Roy Williams has built himself a talented, veteran team built around an impact senior.
This season, it’s Marcus Paige, the dynamic former Linn-Mar prep who has lifted North Carolina during the past three seasons. Paige, who shot nearly 40 percent from behind the arc last season, has seen his responsibilities increase tenfold over the last two years.
Complementing Paige — who will be out for the first three to four weeks of the season — will be Theo Pinson, Justin Jackson, Brice Johnson, and Kennedy Meeks, all of whom are sophomores or older.
In the one-and-done age, it’s rare to see a veteran lineup at such a historically basketball-centric university such as North Carolina. The team’s experience will pay huge dividends as it heads into championship season.
Let it be known, there’s a fairly good chance the preseason AP No. 1 team is at the very same place at the end of the season.
— Jordan Hanson
