NCAA Basketball: Champions Classic, NCAA Tourney bubble lead Sunday Mailbag

3. Dark horse Final Four team? – Brian Rauf (@brauf33)

These questions are always a ton of fun to answer because you can make an argument for anyone out of the top 8 in the country. Every team except for maybe Gonzaga has their noticeable flaws and anyone of the top teams could make a run to the Final Four.

This year is going to pose so many unique challenges for every team as they try to navigate through the Pandemic. Everything is going to magnify as the season wears on. Teams are always going to want to play with as a full team towards the end of the season and heading into the NCAA tournament.

There are only eight teams right now who have enough to make a final four and probably only four teams who have enough to win a National Title. Picking a dark horse, it has to be a team that no one expects to make a run to the final four and one that would be a surprise to make it. Not a surprise like VCU, George Mason, and Loyola was but still a surprise, usually a second-weekend team who gets hot and gets a great matchup.

There are two teams one is a power team and the other is a mid-major who is getting drastically overlooked. Those two teams are the Memphis Tigers and the Western Kentucky Hilltoppers.

Everyone is probably with me on the Memphis Tigers train, or at least they soon will be. The team is deep, they have a ton of high-quality talent and they are coached by a young up and coming coach in Penny Hardaway. Memphis is a good defensive team and they have some stars on offense.

Boogie Ellis and Mousa Cisse are the ones who are go-to guys on offense, but Memphis has something that sets them apart from some other teams and that is a do-everything player and one of the favorites for American Conference Player of the Year in Lester Quinones. Quinones is the most important player for Memphis he isn’t going to likely lead them in scoring or rebounding but he embodies the way they want to play. He is a tremendous defender and leader on the court.

The Tigers are going to make the tournament, but they are not the best team in their conference that belongs to the Houston Cougars. The Cougars are a team who were already pegged by many as a team who can make a final four so they would not be a dark horse. Memphis is one of the only teams in the American who can beat Houston.

Let’s look at the other dark horse contender. Keep in mind that this question is being answered before December and a lot can change due to injuries and Covid. Right now, when the team is all healthy the Western Kentucky Hilltoppers are a mid-major who has a legitimate chance to make an extremely deep run in the NCAA basketball tournament. The Hilltoppers have already beaten Memphis and they have a chance to garner many more wins that will move the needle.

Western Kentucky is coached by former Mississippi State head man Rick Stansbury and he has done a great job of infusing that program with talent. The Tops are deep and have high major talent at every position including future NBA player Charles Bassey in the middle. They are led by one of the best point guards in the country and the best one in the Conference USA in Taevion Hollingsworth.

The Hilltoppers are a solid team with few flaws. They have stars and present a matchup problem for a lot of teams because of the talent they have. Western Kentucky is another team to keep an eye on.