NCAA Basketball: Buy or sell – Final Four contenders for 2020-21 season

Kansas Jayhawks

A week ago Kansas was kicked out of the top 25 for the first time since 2009, the biggest issue with this team is they don’t have any pros. Typically KU has one freshman that comes in and changes the dynamic of their team but not this year.

The Jayhawks thought that five-star recruit Bryce Thompson would be further along than he is and give their offense some juice, but he hasn’t been able to make shots consistently. Historically Jayhawk guards can shoot and score at a high-level. Tyshawn Taylor Frank Mason, Devonte’ Graham, and Devon Dotson were dynamic on the offensive end. If Bill Self needed somebody to make a play in clutch moments these guys all delivered. As for this year’s team, Marcus Garrett is elite defensively but is limited as an offensive player.

One thing that is being overlooked is that many of these guys didn’t play a lot of minutes together last year. Besides Garrett, McCormack, Braun, and Agbaji the others didn’t play much a year ago or weren’t on the team. Not to mention Bill Self can’t recruit as he used due to the pending allegations his program is facing. Meaning they likely won’t be as talented as previous teams we are used to seeing in Lawrence.

In four of their seven losses, they have been blown out, if you jump on the Jyahwks early they don’t have enough firepower to come back.

SELL

Baylor Bears

Baylor has the best backcourt in the country. Starting with Jared Butler, the Bears have five guys that shoot over 43 percent from three (Butler, Flager, Mitchell, Mayer, and Cryer). Baylor is the best team in the country because they can win in so many ways. Gonzaga kills opponents with their offense, but Baylor is the more complete team.

Throughout the year the Bears have shown they can win the close defensive games when they struggle to make shots or they just flat-out outscore any opponent. Of the nine guys that have played 13 games or more seven of them are upper-classmen and battle-tested.

Earlier in the year against Iowa State, Texas Tech, and Texas, they were down in the 2nd half but pulled it out. Those moments of struggle and adversity will fair them well to make a deep tournament run. With so many options offensively they are tough to match up against, most teams have maybe one or two good perimeter defensive players, but not four.

You can’t just account for one guy, not to mention Mark Vital is the most important role player in college basketball. Most of what he does won’t show up in the stat sheet but he makes winning plays and is the heart and soul of this team.

BUY