NCAA Basketball: 10 most watchable teams for 2020-21 season
By Ian Mumm
10. The Blue Bloods – Duke, Kansas, Kentucky, North Carolina
As has been the case over the last several seasons, the blue blood programs (Duke, North Carolina, Kentucky, and Kansas) have brought considerable expectations and talent to the start of NCAA Basketball year in and year out.
Despite the awkward year we are having, 2020 has been no different in how the outlook has been presented for these programs. Kentucky, North Carolina, and Duke secured the top-3 recruiting classes this offseason, taking nine of the available 28 5-star recruits, while Kansas signed one of the best pure-scoring threats in college basketball.
Since the 2013-14 season, one of these teams has either begun or finished the season as the #1 ranked team in the nation. Given the current state of Baylor as the likely preseason-AP #1, there’s still a strong chance one of these college basketball powers could finish on the top spot.
The return of sophomore forward Matthew Hurt and guard Wendell Moore give the Blue Devils a slight preseason edge on the rest of the group. Hurt and Moore are attempting to mirror the path of 2019 sophomore star Tre Jones towards a successful jump to the NBA Draft.
Despite their seniority on the team compared to the incoming recruiting class, this team is going to focus heavily around the talents of 5-star wing Jalen Johnson. The 6’8 likely lottery pick is going to be highly responsible for how high this team goes, but there’s a lot to like about guards DJ Steward and Jeremy Roach as well next season.
Their tobacco road rival, North Carolina, has reloaded off its worst season and only losing campaign in the Roy Williams era. Arriving in Chapel Hill is a very balanced group capable of overcoming the injury and depth bugs that plagued the team in 2019.
Anchored by Caleb Love, the Tar Heels have a stout backcourt weapon that can make plays all over the court and stretch the defense. However, this team’s strength is undoubtedly its frontcourt group led by All-ACC forward Garrison Brooks and sophomore Armando Bacot.
Sprinkled in are a strong group of weapons on the perimeter (Puff Johnson, Kerwin Walton, RJ Davis) and interior (Day’ron Sharpe, Walker Kessler) to fortify the team’s outlook.
Kentucky on the other hand may feature one of the best backcourt duos in the nation next season. Freshman BJ Boston and Terrence Clarke each have good chances to be selected in the lottery of next year’s NBA Draft and look to keep the Wildcats out of the typical early-season struggles faced by Coach Calipari’s teams in the one-and-done era.
Despite losing productive big men EJ Montgomery and Nick Richards, Kentucky managed to sign Wake Forest transfer Olivier Sarr who figures to immediately secure a starting position on this year’s team should the SEC conference grant his waiver for eligibility.
Freshman Devin Askew and Creighton transfer Davion Mintz will see big minutes and factor heavily into the backcourt rotation this season, while sophomore Keion Brooks and freshmen Lance Ware and Isaiah Jackson round out the frontcourt rotation behind Sarr.
The Jayhawks feature a budding big in David McCormack, but the team is in a season of flux with top players Devon Dotson and Udoka Azubuike gone from the 2019 team. McCormack has been very efficient on the floor and will stand to gain a lot from the minutes increase, while playmaking freshman Dajuan Harris is likely to inherit the ball-handling duties this season.
Top-20 freshman Bryce Thompson is a huge scoring threat for Kansas, but upperclassmen Marcus Garrett and Ochai Ogbaji given Bill Self plenty of options to fill out his lineup. The group of Christian Braun, Jalen Wilson, Tristan Enaruna, and Tyon Grant-Foster give the Jayhawks plenty of depth to play any style the team needs to crank out wins.
Each blue blood has a warranted chance to cut down the nets in March, despite not being an overwhelming favorite or the #1 ranked team heading into the year. There is tremendous talent and firepower on these teams and getting hot at the right time is all it’s going to take for them to cause havoc.