The Big Ten is deeper this year
Everyone would say that the Big 12 got the best part of the disbanded Pac 12, but the Big Ten and those members of the former Pac 12 made the conference a lot deeper. There are going to be the normal suspects at the top of Wisconsin, Purdue, and Michigan State. Then you throw in Oregon, which just beat Alabama into the mix with a legendary program like UCLA. Nebraska has the deepest roster coach Hoiberg has ever had. They have two of the best freshmen the league has ever seen at Rutgers, Penn State is much improved, and Maryland has one of the best frontcourts in the nation.
The league has already beaten Arizona, Creighton, LSU, Pittsburgh, Xavier, Alabama, Texas A&M, Ole Miss, NC State, Arkansas, San Diego State, and North Carolina. The entire league can beat everyone else outside the bottom four teams. It is a tough league this year and extremely deep.
West Virginia makes the tournament this year
This is not a drill; the Mountaineers are legit, and they proved that at the Battle 4 Atlantis. West Virginia went into the season in full-on rebuild mode with head coach Darien DeVries. No one expected much out of them, and that got further reinforced when they got blasted in a rivalry game against Pitt. Then the Battle 4 Atlantis tournament came, and West Virginia opened the tournament, beating what I consider to be one of the best Gonzaga rosters ever. They followed that up with a close loss to Louisville before beating Arizona.
Coach DeVries built the team with many older players who have played much basketball. The Big 12 is a gauntlet, but if West Virginia keeps up the same intensity they showed in the Bahamas, they will get wins, and good ones. They will hear their name called in March.