News Archive

Preseason Bracket

November 2

The season is upon us and my preseason bracket is now posted. The top of the bracket is loaded with deep, experienced teams. Not to mention, well coached. One is led by a Hall of Famer and two others by locks as future inductees. The fourth? He�s merely looking to repeat as national champion.

Purdue

The Boilermakers are coming off their sixth season in the last eight of making at least the Sweet 16. The pinnacle of those teams was the 2024 runner up that lost to UConn in the title game.

Purdue returns four starters from last season, three of which are seniors. Preseason National Player of the year PG Braden Smith could join former teammate Zach Edey with the postseason award. He is 319 assists away from breaking Bobby Hurley�s all-time record. He plays a lot of minutes (37 mpg in 2025), but never seems to wear down. 6-4 Israeli freshman Omer Mayer may be able to give him some more time on the bench this season.

Sharpshooting guard Fletcher Loyer is the third senior in the starting lineup. He has shot 44% from three each of the last two seasons and bumped his scoring average up to 13.8 ppg. He is often the player they look to for big shots in key situations.

Trey Kaufman-Renn is also a preseason first team all-American after a standout season last year in which he averaged 20.5 points and six rebounds per game. At 6-9, he�s small for a back to the basket player, but has a variety of moves and shots to be highly productive.

CJ Cox started the last 23 games of his freshman season and while he wasn�t a consistent scorer � it�s hard to get a lot of shots with Smith, Loyer and Kaufman-Renn on the floor- he was productive when given good looks.

The problem Purdue had last season was unusual for them � rim protection and rebounding. The Boilers are known as Big Man U because they always have a good one but last season, 7-4 Daniel Jacobsen broke his leg in the first minute of the second game and was out for the season. Coach Matt Painter tried a few guys to fill in, but none were effective enough. Jacobsen is back now and joined by 6-11 Oscar Cluff, a transfer from South Dakota St who was second in the nation in rebounding last season. Few teams will be as deep and experienced as Purdue.

Houston

Last season�s runner up is looking to take the final step this time around. LJ Cryer is gone, but guards Milos Uzan and Emanuel Sharp, along with F Joseph Tugler, return to the Cougars backcourt to give Kelvin Sampson a steady core to a group that will rely on a couple of highly regarded freshmen.

Uzan was the leader in assists with 4.3 per game in his first season with the Cougars after transferring from Oklahoma, but his big NCAA Tournament moment came with a bucket. He scored the game winning layup against Purdue to advance to the Elite Eight. Uzan will likely be asked to look for his shot more this season.

Sharp was second on the team in scoring last season and was the Outstanding Player of the Midwest Regoinal in the NCAA Tournament. With leading scorer LJ Cryer gone, he will now likely take on the role of top scorer.

Tugler is the best defensive player on a team for which defense is a key part of their identity. In fact, the was the Big 12 Defensive Player of the Year. He�s only 6-8, but a force in the lane on either end of the floor.

One of those highly regarded freshman is 6-6 G Isaiah Hartwell, a five-star recruit from Idaho. Hartwell averaged over 17 ppg last season and he is widely regarded as a lottery pick in next year�s NBA draft. Even higher ranked coming out of HS is incoming C Chris Cenac, Jr. Cenac is 6-10 and very athletic and should give the Cougars a significant presence inside. Houston will get senior G Ramon Walker back from injury and adds C Kalifa Sahko, a senior transfer from Sam Houston, who will provide an experienced backup to Cenac.

Florida

The Gators go for two in a row, which would make them the first team to repeat as champions since UConn the two seasons prior to the last one. Florida has the one prior to that in 2006-07. Those teams were coached by Billy Donovan. They also had the same starting five each season, which is virtually unheard of in this day and age, at least for high level teams.

Todd Golden is at the helm now and he has some guys to replace. Most notably, Walter Clayton, Jr., the MOP of the Final Four. Also gone are Alijah Martin and Will Richard. That is a lot to replace.

His starting backcourt this season will likely include two transfers, Xaivian Lee from Princton and Boogie Fland from Arkansas. Fland was a 5-star recruit, but struggled with injury last season that limited him to only 21 games. Lee was All-Ivy League the last two seasons as the star player for the Tigers.

The Gators have three returnees starting on the front line, each 6-9 or taller. Thomas Haugh will move to the 3 position, where he can shoot, handle the ball and still crash the glass or post up if needed. He�s one of the most versatile players in college basketball. He�ll be joined by 6-11 Alex Condon and 6-10 Rueben Chinyelu. Like Haugh, Condon can play in the post and shoot the three, but he will play the four and not asked to defend guards. Chinyelu is strong and a menace on the boards. Florida�s front line will be a matchup nightmare for most teams.

St. John�s

Unlike the three teams above, which used the transfer portal to add a piece or three, St. John�s rebuilt the bulk of its roster through the portal. In fact, most of the roster either transferred in or is from outside the US. Most of the main rotation will be transfers, although not all are new to the team this season. Every player Pitino runs out on the floor will be able to score. The challenge with roster building this way is can they play better than the sum of their parts. Pitino showed last year (and most years) that he can get the team to do that.

Bryce Hopkins (Kentucky/Providence) is a sure thing to start for the Red Storm. Hopkins averaged 17.7 points and 7.7 rebounds per game last season for the Friars. Hopkins is coming off an injury, but should be ready to go.

Senior Oziyah Sellers from Stanford brings not just experience, but a 45% 3 point shooting percentage and a 8907% FT percentage. It�ll be hard to keep him off the floor

Ian Jackson (UNC) averaged almost 12 ppg for the Tar Heels last season, but his production tailed off toward the end of the season, and then so did his playing time. He was a top recruit for North Carolina. A change of scenery should do him well.

Zuby Ejoifor improved tremendously in his first year with Pitino after transferring from Kansas. He didn�t average even two points and rebounds per game in limited time at Kansas, but averaged 15 and 8 last season, his first at St. John�s. His teammates won�t have room for that kind of production jump, but if they improve their numbers a reasonable amount, this is a team that could go far.

Notes

There are 11 Big Ten teams to lead all conferences in the preseason bracket. The SEC had a record 14 teams in last year�s tournament. That will be difficult to top. It is projected to have ten this season. The Big 12 is close behind with nine, while the ACC has seven. The other multiple bid leagues are the Big East (4) and West Coast (2).

This past offseason, the NCAA lopped a year of the transition period to Division I for new members. The result is that we have more new teams this season than usual. New to postseason eligibility this season are: East TAMU, Lindenwood, Queens, Southern Indiana, St. Thomas, Stonehill. Two of those teams are in the initial projected bracket.

New Haven is the only new team to Division I this season. The Chargers will become postseason eligible for the 2028-29 season.

Others still waiting to become eligible are LeMoyne (2026-27), Mercyhust, West Georgia (2027-28).

Teams are still shifting from conference to conference, although not as much in the major conferences as before. The Conference USA added Delaware (Coastal ) and Missouri State (MVC). The WAC lost two teams: Grand Canyon to the Mountain West and Seattle to the West Coast Conference.

The WAC is now down to seven teams, one fewer than necessary to get an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament. However, they will have up to two years to get back to at least eight members.

The season tips off Monday. I can�t wait!