NCAA Basketball: Champions Classic, NCAA Tourney bubble lead Sunday Mailbag
By Bryan Mauro
2. Which of the four Champions Classic teams have the best chance to win a national title this season? – Tristan Freeman (@hoopsnut351)
The Champions Classic is an event that is held every season and it signals the kickoff to the new season. The event is put on by ESPN and the four teams never change and the matchups alternate every year. Kentucky, Kansas, Michigan State, and Duke make up the four teams who play in the Champions Classic and it usually features a Final Four team every year and gives fans an early-season look at teams that many picks to win the title.
Another thing that fans get to see in this game is four of the game’s best coaches and best recruiters. These teams feature a lot of the top freshmen in the country and many of them show up in this game.
Occasionally, one of the games ends up in a blowout but that is rarely the case. The four teams this year are all ranked teams and all of them are teams who will likely make the second weekend of the NCAA tournament and a few may make a final four depending on matchups.
Which team has the best chance to win a national title out of this group? The John Calipari led Kentucky Wildcats are the team who has the best chance to make the Final Four out of this group. Why Kentucky? Well, they like every other team in this tournament have some of the best freshmen in the country.
The freshman, highlighted by BJ Boston, Terrence Clarke, and Devin Askew. Those three players are going to do most of the heavy lifting for the Wildcats on offense, but Kentucky also has something that the rest of the teams don’t they also have two high-quality transfers to add in with their great freshman. Olivier Sarr transferred from Wake Forest and once he gets acclimated should dominate in the paint on both sides of the ball.
The Wildcats also have a grad transfer point guard to steady the offense, Davion Mintz is a grad transfer from Creighton who never fully lived up to his potential because of injuries and lack of playing time. Sarr and Mintz are going to be a huge piece of the success of Kentucky going forward.
The other teams do have a lot of experience and tradition, but they don’t quite have the pieces that Kentucky does. Michigan State has a ton of experience but doesn’t have enough talent to win a title and not a lot of quality depth. Kansas lost a ton from last year and outside of Marcus Garrett doesn’t have too many players who played a ton of minutes last year.
Duke is intriguing and would be the other team many would consider winning a title because they do have those key freshmen as well as experience. The Blue Devils also have the best defender of the group with Jordan Goldwire. Kentucky is the best of the four teams though over the long haul of the season.