Last March was college basketball at its finest.
Saint Peter’s made history as the lowest seed to ever reach the Elite Eight. ꧒North Carolina went from an underachiever to falling three points shy of a national championship. Legendary Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski reached the Final Four in his final NCAA Tꦇournament.
The 2022-23 season tips off Monday with storylines galore. There is no clear favorite. A number of elite players — from Gonzaga’s Drew Timme and Kentucky’s Oscar Tshiebwe to North Car🐓olina’s star duo Armando Bacot and Caleb Love and Indiana’s Trayce Jackson-Davis — have returned for another season. Two of the nation’s top programs, Villanova and Duke, will enter new eras with new coaches Kyle Neptune and Jon Scheyer, respectively.
The Post’s Zach Braziller breaks down the coming season with his p🧸reseason top 25:
1. North Carolina
There were two North Carolina teams last year: the one that started the season looking like a flop at 12-6, and the one that went 17-4 from late January on to reach the national championship game as an eighth seed. The entire unit will ﷽be back — minus Brady Manek, who will be replaced by Northwestern transfer and sharpshooter Pete Nance as a court-spacing forward — creating title-or-bust expectations for Armando Bacot, Caleb Love and⛄ company.
2. Baylor
Experience? Check. 🦋Starters Adam Flagler, LJ Cryer and Flo Thamba are back. High-end talent? Check. Five-star recruit Keyonte George, coveted West Virginia transfer Jalen Bridges and highly regarded guard Langston Love, coming off a torn ACL that cost him his entire freshman year, are in the fold. Coaching? Check. Scott Drew may be the best coach in the country, compiling a 91-13 record the past three seasons.
3. Kentucky
The Wildcats most recently reached the Final Four in 2015, an eternity ago in Lexington. Following the stunning first-round ouster last season by Cinderella Saint Peter’s, there is pressure on John Calipari to have a big March. He has something he has lacked: experience. Senior Oscar Tshiebwe is a National Player of the Year front-runner. He will be complemented by senior marksman﷽ CJ Fredrick, playmaking senior point guard Sahvir Wheeler and two five-star freshmen wings, Cason Wallace and Chris Livingston.
4. Gonzaga
This feels like old-school Gonzaga. No hot-shot freshmen such as the past few years, but loads of experience. It begins with Drew Timme, the mustachioed two-time All-American big man, and two other key seniors, Anton Watson and Rasir Bolton. The most important player for the Zags, though,🌠 may be Chattanooga transfer Malachi Smith, a high-scoring guard who will get the keys to Mark Few’s offense following Andrew Nembhℱard’s departure for the NBA.
5. Houston
Before Kelvin Sampson’s arrival in 2015, Houston last won an NCAA Tournament game in 1984. Since he was hired, the Cougars have won 10 of them, reaching the Sweet 16 each of the last three tournaments, and are a strong bet to get to a fourth. Marcus Sasser’s retu🧜rn, after a left foot injury co🌠st him most of last season, gives Houston one of the nation’s elite guards. He will be joined in a loaded backcourt by Jamal Shead and Tramon Mark.
6. Kansas
The 2021-22 national champions have a lot of holes to fill, after four of the Jayhawks’ top five scorers moved on. The one returner in that group, skilled wing Jalen Wilson, will be counted on to carry the 🍒load, along with point guard Dajuan Harris Jr., key transfer addition (from Texas Tech) Kevin McCullar Jr. top-30 recruits Gradey Dick and MJ Rice.
7. Duke
Jon Scheyer’s 🧸first head-coaching job is 🎐as the guy after Mike Krzyzewski at Duke. Talk about pressure. Scheyer, with some help from Coach K, did bring in the nation’sജ top recruiting class — a group of seven led by the ove🐟rall top two prospects, center Dereck Lively II and wing Dariq Whitehead. Ultimately, the key to the Blue Devils may be junior point guard Jeremy Roach, an instrumental part of last year’s Final Four team.
8. Creighton
Who knows how far Creighton would have gone last season if not for injuries to starting point guard Ryan Nembhard and center Ryan Kalkbrenner? With that duo back — along with fellow starters Trey Alexander 🔥and Arthur Kaluma and the addition of high-scoring impact South Dakota State transfer Baylor Scheierman — there is legitimate Final Four hype in Omaha.
9. Texas
It was too much, too soon. Too many new players for a coach in his first year at his new job. Texas didn’t live up to the hype last season under Chris Beard, but the Longhorns will su𓂃rpass lower expectations in 2022-23. Beard didn’t forget how to coach, and returnees such as Marcus Carr, Timmy Allen, Christian Bishop and Dylan Disu didn’t forget how to play. Add in Iowa State transfer guard Tyrese Hunter and top-10 wing recruit Dillon Mitchell, and Texas has Final Four potential.
10. TCU
If not for a bogus no-call on a clear foul at the end of regulation, the Horned Frogs would have gotten past Arizona in the NCAA Tournament last March and reached the Sweet 16, and they might have gone even further. That same grit𒁃ty, physical, defensive-minded team returns, reminiscent of Jamie Dixon’s best groups fr💝om his Pittsburgh days, with Mike Miles Jr. playing the role of LeVance Fields.
11. UCLA
Mick Cronin is going old-school this season, relying on experienced returners, development and high school recruits. Seniors Jaime Jaquez Jr. and Tyger Campbell will lead the Bruins, but help is needed from the likes of five-star freshmen Adem Bona in th🌱e paint and Amari Bailey on the perimeter, along with junior guard Jaylen Clark, who will see his role expand significantly this winter.
12. Arkansas
This will be a different kind of team for Eric Musselman. The ceiling is high, but he took a different route with this group, loading up on elite high school recr꧅uits after riding transfers his first three seasons with the Razorbacks. The five-star trio of Nick Smith Jr., Anthony Black and Jordan Walsh will have to learn quickly in the rugged SEC — though they will have help in impact transfers Ricky Council IV (Wichita State), Trevon Brazile (Missouri) and Jalen Graham (Arizona State). It’s almost anꩵ entirely new team from the one that reached the Elite Eight last year — guard Davonte Davis is the only significant contributor who returned — raising the degree of difficulty for Musselman.
13. Indiana
There hasn’t been this much preseason hype in Bloomington in almost a decade. Five of the top six scorers from the NCAA Tournament team this past March return, and Indiana added a top-10 recruiting class featuring five-star guඣard Jalen Hood-Schifino. But the big reason that Hoosiers fans believe this could be a special year revolves around T𓂃rayce Jackson-Davis, the do-it-all forward who surprisingly came back for his senior year.
14. Tennessee
The Volunteers bring back Santiago Vescovi, Josiah-Jordan James and Olivier Nkamhoua, a trio that s💛tarted a combined 87 games last year, and add top-20 freshman Julian Phillips and high-scoring Indiana State transfer Tyreke Key to the core. Zakai Zeigler, an overlooked recruit out of Our Saviour Lutheran in The Bronx, was impressive as a reserve his freshman season, but more will be expected now out of the 5-foot-9 spark plug. He will be asked to run the show for Rick Barnes’ team.
15. San Diego State
One of the premier non-power conference schools in the country, the Aztecs have won at least 20 games in 16 of the past 17 seasons, and have reached the NCAA Tournament 10 times in that spa⛄n. This team projects to be better than merely a March participant, though. It features one of the best guards in the country in sharpshooter Matt Bradley, menacing big man Nathan Mensah and added two key transfers: wing Micah Parrish from Oakland and guard Darrion Trammell out of Seattle.
16. Virginia
The Cavaliers missed the NCAA Tournament last season for the first time since 2013, which won’t become a trend. Not with an experienced core led by dynamite wing Jayden Gardner, fifth-year point guard Kihei Clark and Ohio transfer Ben Vander Plas — a versatile forward who can score inside and out. A top-15 recruiting class will supplement the nucleus and send Vir𒁃ginia back to the dance after a one-year absence.
17. Alabama
Something was missing last year in Tuscaloosa. Consistency proved elusive — leading to losses to Iona, Davidson, Mississippi State and Vanderbilt, and an early NCAA Tournament exit. The good news is the core this season will be very different, but that doesn’t necessarily mean better. Nate🧸 Oatꦡs brought in a top-five recruiting class — top-15 wing Brandon Miller is the headliner — and secured two of the better guards on the transfer market in Mark Sears (Ohio) and Dominick Welch (St. Bonaventure). Jahvon Quinerly’s return from a torn ACL suffered last March could wind up being a major factor in this team’s fate.
18. Arizona
The loss of the big three of Bennedict Mathurin, Dalen Te🐓rry and Christian Koloko created a scoring void that well-rounded forward Azuolas Tubelis and steady point guard Kerr Kriisa can at least partially fill. Two transfers, guard Courtney Ramey from Texas🦄 and wing Cedric Henderson Jr. from Campbell, will be counted on as key contributors as Arizona looks to build off of its 33-win season under Tommy Lloyd.
19. Auburn
The duo won’t be Walker Kessler and Jabari Smith Jr., the forward tandem that led Auburn to a 28-win season and SEC regular season crown, but five-star recruit Yohan Traore and Morehead State transfer Johni Broome should be lethal in their own rꩲight. The Tigers will need more consistency, and improved shooting, out of retur꧂ning guards K.D. Johnson, Wendell Green Jr. and Allen Flanigan.
20. Villanova
There’s no Jay Wright, no Collin Gillespie and nobody knows what Villanova can get out of J🍎ustin Moore after he tore his Achilles tendon in March. It seems there are more preseason questions surrounding the Wildcats than in the past decade combined. New coach Kyle Neptune will inherit some key veterans in Brandon Slater, Caleb Daniels and Eric Dixon, and Cam Whitmore is one of the premier freshmen in the country, though he will miss some𓄧 time after undergoing right thumb surgery. Again, more questions.
21. Oregon
We’re going to bet on this past season, just the second time since 2013 that Dana Altman failed to get Oregon into the NCAA Tournament, being an anomaly. There is continuity in Eugene, after stand🌌out point guard Will Richardson, wing Quincy Guerrier and big man N’Faly Dante returned. Altman added difference-making talent in blue-chip freshman Kel’el Ware and South Carolina transfer Jermaine Couisnard, who will miss some time at the start of the year with a knee injury.
22. Michigan
The Wolverines are one of just two programs to reach the Sweet 16 in five consecutive tournaments (Gonzaga is the other), and the group this season has a shot to make it six. That’s mostly because star center Hunter Dickinson opted to come back to Ann Arbor for his senior year. Everything revolves around him. Michigan lost its next four top scorers, though 🦂it did add highly sought after Princeton transfer guard Jaelin Llewellyn and a top-10 recruiting class.
23. Illinois
Back-to-back second-round losses after strong regular seasons won’t cut it in Champaign. There are higher expectations. Brad Underwood did well this offseason in landing potential difference-making transfers from Baylor (Matthew Mayer) and Texas Tech (Terrence Shannon Jr.) who are joined by a top-10 recruiting class composed of a quartet of four-star recruits. It’s still hard to see the Illini having a better regular season af💦ter losing the big three of Kofi Cockburn, Alfonso Plummer and Trent Frazier — though nobody will care if a big March follows.
24. Dayton
The inside-out duo of NBA big man prospect🉐 DaRon Holmes II and Bronx point guard Malachi Smith leads the projected top team in the Atlantic 10, a young group that went 15-4 to close last regular season and appears primed to be a March factor this year.
25. Texas Tech
In Mark Adams’ first year as head coach, he equaled the third-most wins (27) in Texas Tech history, which will be hard to match this season. Adams lost top scorer Bryson Williams and valuable two-way guards 🍬Kevin McCullar Jr. and Terrence Shannon Jr., and though h🤪e returns key forward Kevin Obanor, his transfer class — featuring big man double-double machine Fardaws Aimaq (Utah Valley), and skilled guards De’Vion Harmon (Oregon) and D’Maurian Williams (Gardner-Webb) — has taken a hit with Aimaq’s foot injury that will cost him a large part of the season.
Zach Braziller’s Final Four picks: North Carolina, Baylor, Houston, TCU
