6. Houston
I’ve been lower than most on Kelvin Sampson’s Houston teams (I picked Gonzaga to beat them in the Round of 32 last season, and was almost right), but I am a true believer in this year’s squad. The difference: they have two legitimate NBA players in Kingston Flemings and Chris Cenac.
7. Gonzaga
Much was made over the strange formatting of the Players’ Era Festival bracket in November. Here’s an unintended consequence – if it were formatted differently, and Gonzaga didn’t play Michigan, we could be talking about this Zags team entering the NCAA Tournament undefeated. They got Graham Ike back and beat the 2nd-best WCC team (St. Mary’s) this past weekend.
8. Florida
The Gators are looking like the class of the SEC for the 2nd straight season after dropping a 100-bomb on Alabama. It’s going to take a lot more than Charles Bediako to defend this Florida frontcourt of Haugh, Condon, and Chinyelu, who are certainly in the top-2 frontcourts alongside Michigan.
9. Kansas
This is a simple one for me – when Darryn Peterson is on the floor (which isn’t all the time), Kansas looks like a true National Championship contender. This could be one of those 3 or 4-seeds in the NCAA Tournament that is underseeded for what their ceiling is and could easily go on a run.
10. Iowa State
The Cyclones got back on track last week, doing what they do. What I mean by that is that they completely steam-rolled two bottom-half Big 12 teams with a massive margin of victory that helps their computer metrics. The TJ Otzelberger special.
