CBS believes that we are 1 of 16 teams that can make the final 4.
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The democratic approach and feel of college basketball's postseason competition is a major selling point of the sport.
2018-19 PREVIEW
Ranking every team, from No. 1 to 353
The 100 (and one) best players
Ranking the 15 best point guards
March is synonymous in sports with only one thing: college hoops. That's a benefit and a burden, but it ultimately reminds us that any school with Division I alliance is in competition for the college basketball's ultimate prize. We get to see this in tangible form through high-stakes league tournaments that beget one of the most beautiful sights in the world: an NCAA Tournament bracket. An arrangement that can include Duke, Kansas and Kentucky in the same vat of frenzy as Tennessee Tech, Murray State, Lehigh and UC Davis.
Whereas college football, which is obviously fantastic in its own ways, has formal, informal and plutocratic ways of limiting its national playoff and championship to a select sect of programs, college basketball at least allows teams for the hopes of getting in and then becoming Loyola-Chicago, Butler, George Mason, Wichita State or VCU. There is no school getting wrongly suppressed the way UCF football was last year ... and, though still undefeated as of now, could again this season.
The reality is, college basketball's mid-majors (and UNLV under Tark does not count) haven't won national titles because it's excruciatingly hard to do so. Schools in power conferences have more resources, coaching advantages and recruiting assets to withstand four months of play -- and then go on to beat five or six good-to-great opponents when it matters most.
Every year college basketball has more national title contenders than college football, but the cache of teams is seldom larger than 20. In 2016 I identified 19 candidates. Last year it was 16 -- as is the number for the season ahead. And not all championship hopefuls can be grouped together.
But I do guarantee to you that one of these 16 will wind up at the end of "One Shining Moment" on the night of April 8,
Kansas
Breakdown: With KU's annual ownership of the Big 12 (if you've lost count, it's going for 15 straight regular season titles, which shouldn't be possible in the material world), it gets tough to sort one really, really good Jayhawks team from another really, really good Jayhawks team as the years go on. But this one truly could be a top-five Kansas crew under Bill Self. Even with the college basketball corruption trial becoming an appendage to the Kansas story of 2018-19 (Silvio De Sousa is indefinitely on leave because of what was uncovered in federal court), the Jayhawks have a stock of veteran talent up front and promising freshmen in the backcourt. Dedric Lawson, who came by way of Memphis, will join forces with Udoka Azubuike to make up what might be the most intimidating 1-2 big man combo in college basketball. Flashy guard Quentin Grimes is likely one-and-done, while Lagerald Vick is back for his senior season. This should be a better team on defense than the one from last season ... which made the Final Four.
Stat to know: The Jayhawks have 10 guaranteed or potential matchups during the regular season against teams that are reasonably projected to finish first or second in their conference: Michigan State, Vermont, Louisiana, Tennessee, Marquette, Wofford, New Mexico State, Villanova, South Dakota and Kentucky. And this doesn't
Kansas State
Breakdown: Claws, Xavier Sneed and The Flush Jr. all come back from an Elite Eight team that got devastated by 16 points to Loyola-Chicago. But since there are seven teams with at least three players on our top 100 (and one) list of the best players in college basketball, and K-State is one of them, they have to be put in this company. After all, the other six are: Kansas, Kentucky, Gonzaga, Nevada, Virginia, Duke. Of those six, Kansas State should be better on defense than Duke, Nevada and maybe Gonzaga and Kentucky. It might be hard to reconcile K-State as a contender for the natty, but this the dark horse category. By its nature it's hard to envision. Still, there's enough on that roster to make this team a threat to win four, five or six games in March and April. Very much will be about the matchups with these Wildcats.
Stat to know: Between Wade, Brown and Sneed, Kansas State returns 43 points, 14 rebounds, seven assists and nearly five steals per game."