We’re just a week away from March, which means it is officially time to break out your NCAA Tournament bracket mentalities. In a college basketball season that has seen six different teams hold the top spot in the AP poll, it might be difficult to discern a single team that is a favorite to win it all.
With that said, we can certainly still speculate. So, here are some teams, in no specific order, to bet on come March Madness.
The first of the teams is Maryland. The Terrapins, or Terps, have stayed in the top ten the entire season despite a few losses to inferior teams. A reason for this is Melo Trimble. The sophomore point guard is as court savvy as they come, and when the game is on the line, there isn’t another guard in America with as much guts as him. Robert Carter Jr. and Diamond Stone give Maryland one of the more dynamic frontcourt duos in the Big Ten, and with Trimble complimenting them, the Terps have a core that few team can match.
The next is the Oklahoma Sooners, who have the best scorer in the country in Buddy Hield. Hield, who scored 46 points against then top-ranked Kansas in a game in early January, has one of the quickest and deadliest releases in college basketball. With Isaiah Cousins and Jordan Woodard to join him in the backcourt, there might not be a better group of guards that you will see this year. Oklahoma is a veteran team that can light it up from downtown, proving so this season while shooting just over 43 percent from beyond the arc. If the Sooners can continue their hot shooting, look for them to make a deep run into March.
Now we have Duke, which is an enigmatic team in many ways. After dropping three straight and four of five in January, the Blue Devils looked dead in the water. A resurgent February, though, has left them revitalized and looking like a contender once again. The ACC powerhouse just finished a brutal stretch of four consecutive games against ranked opponents, exiting that stretch 3-1 and with a win versus bitter rival, North Carolina. Grayson Allen is averaging 21 points per game for Duke in what looks to be an All-American season for him. If senior captain Amile Jefferson can return from injury and the other banged-up Blue Devils can heal up quickly, Duke has the talent and leadership to make another run at the Final Four.
Lastly, let’s look at Kentucky. The Wildcats look very similar to Duke this season: 20-7 record, some bad losses, some great wins. With a ton of youthful talent, UK has the ability to beat anyone. However, the youthfulness has often caught up with the Wildcats, as shown in Saturday’s buzzer-beating loss at Texas A&M. A win would have been sealed for Kentucky if it weren’t for a technical foul in the closing seconds by freshman Isaac Humphries. If Jamal Murray, who is averaging close to 19 points per game, can lead his team to an SEC title, expect the Wildcats to gain enough momentum to make some noise in the tournament.
So, there are four of the teams who have the pieces to make a run in the Big Dance. These are not the only teams, however. North Carolina, Iowa State, and Michigan State are some other teams that have the potential for late-March magic.
But until then, we can only guess. And that is party of the beauty of it. We can guess, and we often end up wrong. So, as March approaches, we prepare for being wrong. We also prepare for being occasionally right, but most of the time, we’ll end up wrong.
So, for both of these scenarios, we can only prepare for one thing: Madness.