NCAA Basketball: 2018 2k Classic preview and predictions
By Adam Childs
Teams
Syracuse Orange
After a somewhat disappointing regular season last year where the Orange barely made the Tournament, Syracuse did Syracuse things and made it to the Sweet 16 before falling to conference foe Duke. Questions even started to arise if Jim Boeheim was close to being done.
Well, Boeheim brought in a good recruiting class and so far the results have been good this year. Two wins against Eastern Washington and Morehead State have put the Orange 2-0 to start the year. Can the zone present enough problems for Syracuse to be successful this year? The defense has never been a problem, they just need to be able to score enough to win.
UConn Huskies
UConn won a national championship in 2014 but since then it has gone downhill. Kevin Olie is out and Dan Hurley has come over from Rhode Island to take over and try and bring the Huskies back to relevance. The early returns are good as they have won their first two games against Morehead State and UMKC.
Even with the good start, the Huskies are the team that most people expect to go 0-2 in New York. They have nothing to lose and everything to gain. Hurley looks like he can get UConn going in the right direction but do they have enough to compete this weekend. They still may be a little bit away, but they won’t go down without a fight.
Iowa Hawkeyes
Iowa struggled last year in only winning four conference games and slipping into the depths of the bottom of the Big Ten. But they return almost everybody and they have the ability to score with anyone. The problem is they have been awful defensively and even though they score a lot it was not enough last year.
They do come to New York with a 2-0 record but giving up 82 points to Green Bay still brings doubts on if they will be good enough on defense this year. The Hawkeyes could surprise some people in New York, but they are going to have to be better defensively.
Oregon Ducks
The Ducks had a down year last year after going to the Final Four in 2017. Dana Altman looks like he has the Ducks ready to make a run again in the tournament. The big story for the Ducks is Manute Bol son, Bol Bol. In Oregon’s last game Bol has had a double-double in both games this year. Against Portland State, he scored 12 points and had 12 rebounds. He followed that up by scoring 23 points with 12 rebounds against Eastern Washington. He is going to be a huge matchup problem for anyone this year.
If the Ducks can get the outside game going also, they could potentially be one of the best teams in the country. Altman has brought a winning attitude to Oregon and they got a taste of it in 2017 and want more this year.