NCAA Basketball: 5 early Bracketology storylines for 2022-23 season

NEW YORK, NY - MARCH 8: The NCAA Basketball Tournament Selection Committee meets on Wednesday afternoon, March 8, 2017 in New York City. The committee is gathered in New York to begin the five-day process of selecting and seeding the field of 68 teams for the NCAA MenÕs Basketball Tournament. The final bracket will be released on Sunday evening following the completion of conference tournaments. (Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images) /

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Tony Bennett the head coach of the Virginia Cavaliers (Photo by Andy Lyons/Getty Images) /

3. Virginia could be undervalued right now

A few places have put out brackets this summer, and as silly as some may think that is, I wanted to look for a team that might be a little overlooked. I wanted to find a team that was outside of the top four seed lines in the preseason that has a chance to find themselves there when it matters. The one team that fit those parameters that jumped out to me was Tony Bennett’s Virginia Cavaliers.

The Hoos haven’t had much postseason success over the last couple of years, but this season Virginia has some key returners and brings in some fresh talent, but still has some questions. Bennett’s defense always travels but offensively there are questions. Kihei Clark, Armaan Franklin, and Jayden Gardner return for their senior seasons but shooting has been a major issue for this team. Neither Franklin nor Clark reached 40% from the field last season, and have to be better this season. To that end, Bennett brought in Ben Vander Plas from Ohio where he averaged 14 points and shot nearly 46% from the field.

Bennett also brings in three top-100 recruits and combo guard Isaac Mckneely would certainly help the backcourt offense. With a better shooting season from the guards and the additions of Vander Plas and freshman, Isaac Traudt in the frontcourt and Virginia could find themselves as a top-4 seed in March.

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