Jonathon Warriner

SEC Predictions 1.Florida - Haugh, Condon and Chinyelu will continue to be a wagon up front, Fland and the other guards will determine whether they win a title. 2.Vanderbilt - Tyler Tanner is the best guard in the league, Byington is great, and they have great rotation pieces. 3.Arkansas - The best freshman class with Smith, Toure, Andrews, and Muurinen, look for this team to be great talent wise. 4.Texas - Vokie, Punch, and Spears will be an elite front line, the guards will determine its ceiling 5.Alabama - Holloway and Allen will be great guards, while Oats’ offense will continue to make Alabama quite good. 6.Kentucky - Momcilovic and Moreno are NBA level players already, if the backcourt sets them up they’ll be pretty good. 7.Tennessee - Harris, Hill, and Ames make for a great backcourt offensively but how does this team defend? 8.Texas A&M - Haggerty will be able to put up his stats, while the depth for Bucky will work out well. 9.Georgia - Blue Cain and Marcus Millender make a good backcourt that should get the Bulldogs back in the dance. 10.Missouri - Crowe Jr is an exciting freshman, while Mitchell and Tiller will raise their floor. 11.Oklahoma - Decent roster that better get into the Tournament now that it’s a 76 team tournament. 12.Auburn - Pettiford will be the go-to guard, while Steven Pearl has the talent to dance. 13.LSU - I have no idea who’s playing but could be good. 14.Ole Miss - Chris Beard doesn’t necessarily have great talent but I guess they could dance. 15.Mississippi State - Josh Hubbard will average 20 PPG once again 16.South Carolina - Women’s College Basketball School. POTY: Tyler Tanner DPOTY: Rueben Chinyelu 6MOTY: Urban Klavzar FOTY: Jordan Smith Jr NCOTY: David Punch COTY: Mark Byington

Big Ten Predictions 1.Illinois - Size shooting and playmaking all around, good luck stopping all of Mirkovic, Vaaks, Stojakovic, and Coleman. 2.Michigan State - Tom Izzo with the best PG in the sport is a floor raiser, good play from the bigs and shooting will determine the ceiling. 3.Michigan - Cadeau, McKenney, and Gayle have title pedigree and a good front court that will help Mike Boynton in Year 1. 4.UCLA - Like the backcourt with Perry and Petty, if Kusturica is as good as advertised the Bruins are Final Four good. 5.Purdue - Need Cox, Mayer and Harris to step up but this is right where Painter proves he’s the best coach in the Big Ten. 6.Iowa - Combs and Sage will need to fill in the void left by Stirtz but excited to see McCollum with a big like McKeever. 7. Wisconsin - Like the Rapp/ Winter front court, Elmer and Carrington should help Greg Gard keep Wisconsin going. 8.Indiana - DeVries built a big 3 headed trio up front and just needs a healthy Burton to make this a Top 25 team. 9.Nebraska - Keeping Sandfort and Frager should help them dance but a lot of questions with the rest of the roster. 10.USC - Rodney Rice and Alijah Arenas will raise the floor considerably but Musselman doesn’t get the most out of his talent. 11.Ohio State - John Mobley Jr paired with a Top 10 freshman in Anthony Thompson, this roster will inevitably keep Diebler around another year. 12.Maryland - Wagner and Boswell were good pickups, that paired with a usual Buzz front line will get Maryland to the dance. 13.Minnesota - Cade Tyson and Kyan Evans should help Niko Medved contend for a tournament bid. 14.Washington - A Yates/ Watts backcourt will help Washington avoid the bottom of the Big Ten. 15.Northwestern - Don’t particularly like the roster but Chris Collins will make this team stay completely out of the bottom. 16.Rutgers - Jamichael Davis and Tariq Francis should help Rutgers win some games. 17.Oregon - Has some talent but Dana Altman tried coaching these players and elected to retire. 18.Penn State - Mike Rhoades should go back to VCU when Martelli gets another job, there’s no hope here. POTY: Jeremy Fears Jr DPOTY: Moustapha Thiam 6MOTY: Jake Davis FOTY: Quentin Coleman NCOTY: Eian Elmer COTY: Matt Painter

Big East Predictions 1.UConn - Best team in the league. Good 1-4 with scoring and positional size with a defense monster in Hines. 2. St. John’s - Yessoufou will have a big season, add in Hall and Jackson with Pitino’s coaching and a great team 3.Villanova - Good experienced roster with good positional size and scoring, if Luigi Suigo hits look out. 4.Providence - Bryan Hodgson brings new energy, that with Mela, Byrd and Vanterpool should help them dance. 5.Marquette - Nijel James looks to be the best player in the league. Fru and Parham will help him lead this team to the dance. 6.Creighton - Huss takes over for McDermott, Enis, Schwartz, and McAndrew is a good trio to build around 7.Xavier - Richard Pitino has a more talented roster this year which should help them avoid the basement. 8.DePaul - Chris Holtmann has the Blue Demons in their best chance to dance in decades. 9.Seton Hall - Roster isn’t good but I trust in Shaheen Halloway to keep them from dead last. 10.Butler - I like the Ronald Nored hire but not a fan of the roster. 11.Georgetown - Roster has talent but Ed Cooley has inspired 0 confidence since moving to DC POTY: Nijel James Jr DPOTY: Najai Hines 6MOTY: Colben Landrew FOTY: Luigi Suigo NCOTY: Tounde Yessoufou COTY: Jai Lucas

Apparently having Jerome Tang on staff just turns Baylor into a National Championship contender automatically. Who knew?

Big 12 Predictions 1.Arizona - Great starting 5 with 3 potential lottery picks in Holt, Krivas and Kharchenkov, they should win the Big 12 again. 2. Houston - A lot of new pieces in new roles but I trust Kelvin Sampson with elite rebounding bigs. 3.Kansas - Tyran Stokes will be good, get TKR, Council and White fully eligible and Bill Self has a squad. 4.Texas Tech - Built for March. JT Toppin with a great roster around him (assuming Atwell/ Williams are eligible). 5.Iowa State - Tamin Lipsey is back to surround a deep roster that defends. 6.BYU - Robert Wright next to Bruce Branch and good scorers will make Provo the place to be. 7.TCU - Jamie Dixon is immortal. He’s got good returning pieces that will dance. 8.Cincinnati - Jerrod Calhoun is a Cincinnati guy who will get them back to the Tournament. 9.Baylor - The Mingo brothers and some good role players should help Baylor return to the Tournament. 10.Arizona State - Don’t necessarily like the roster but Randy Bennett won’t let the floor fall. 11.West Virginia - Ross Hodge looks to take the Crown title momentum into a Tournament appearance. 12.Oklahoma State - Steve Lutz will have this roster competitive 13.UCF - Chaotic Roster that could compete in the Big 12 14.Colorado - Barrington Hargress and Tad Boyle should help this team not finish last. 15.Kansas State - Casey Alexander will need to prove it this year to get Tang’s level NIL funds 16.Spent all their money in football but at least Alex Jensen is a Utah guy POTY: Tyran Stokes DPOTY: Motiejus Krivas FOTY: Tyran Stokes 6MOTY: Dra Gibbs-Law-horn NCOTY: Dedan Thomas Jr COTY: Kelvin Sampson

I know we’re not even to the regular season but Jon Scheyer better win the National Championship this year.

ACC Predictions 1.Duke - Deepest Roster in College Basketball, have 9 starting caliber players and will be dominant on both ends. Now it’s time for Scheyer to win a title. 2.Virginia - Experienced roster led by De Ridder, well coached that will be Duke’s top competition. 3. Miami - Reneau raises the ceiling, great young core and coaching. 4.Louisville - Flory Bidunga surrounded by high level guards, Pat Kelsey needs to make a second weekend. 5.North Carolina - Malone will bring NBA concepts to an underrated 5 out roster. 6.Clemson - Experienced roster for Brad Brownell, this team will dance. 7. NC State - Underrated good roster, if Justin Gainey is good they will dance. 8.SMU - Andy Enfield’s roster is built to have him finish 50th in the country once again. 9.Florida State - Skilled front court that should get most out of talent. 10.Virginia Tech - Mike Young has a good roster but can he get this team to the Tournament? 11.Syracuse - A lot of Gerry McNamara guys and Kiyan Anthony. I’m intrigued 12.Stanford - Good Up Transfers to help Kyle Smith compete. 13.California - Talented enough to be tough at home 14. Boston College - Luke Murray is a great offensive mind, maybe he can make BC okay 15.Pittsburgh - Why is Jeff Capel still employed? 16.Notre Dame - Micah Shrewsberry’s son is the best player 17.Georgia Tech - Scott Cross is a nice upgrade at coach 18.Wake Forest - Steve Forbes has a bad roster POTY: Thijs De Ridder DPOTY: Flory Bidunga 6MOTY: Cayden Boozer FOTY: Joaquim Boumtje-Boumtje NCOTY: Flory Bidunga COTY: Jai Lucas

I’m all for 5 in 5 guys getting another year, I’ll even hear our a case for a Melvin Council getting another year. Trey Kaufman-Renn who has already completed 5 years of D1 basketball can get lost. Go play basketball in Barcelona or something like that.

The NCAA needs to just wave the white flag on the class of 2022 battle. They’re prepared to spend millions in lawyer fees just for players that are going to keep getting injunctions to play. Just let everyone play and stop with the potential inconsistencies across the board.

I get conferences are bigger than they used to be but do we really need 11 Players on the Preseason All Conference team?

College Basketball is just around the corner, making it time to release my annual Top 100 Players in College Basketball rankings. Please note: All players currently in court cases who had exhausted eligibility are not on the list.

Kentucky fans can be mad at Mark Mitchell all they want. At the end of the day, Mark Mitchell is a good player for a tournament team, if Kentucky was going to start him they weren’t going to win a Championship.

RJ Luis’ time being eligible to play College Basketball:

I’m all for 5 in 5 guys who’ve even played in Summer League getting an extra year but the idea we might be letting RJ Luis who intentionally left College to go play in the pros for a year is a disgrace.

As it stands by NCAA court of law Texas Tech isn’t very good. That said, if this 5 year ruling goes into effect, the Red Raiders have themselves a National Championship caliber team.

The NCAA could’ve easily passed and executed the 5 for 5 plan. All they had to do was wait until September to execute it when 95% of players were off to their next chapters of life. Instead they passed it in June and opened themselves up to every lawsuit coming their way.

With NIL the way it is, there’s simply no reason for any Top-25 player to not reclassify. You can get a nice NIL bag while still being able to play to your regular senior year.

Considering the way he finished the season and paired with his projected role. Along with the fact everyone in the portal has picked a location, losing Mario Saint-Supery is just a massive loss for Gonzaga.

The Mavericks get a Top-20 level prospect in Koa Peat at pick #30. Not a great shooter but great 4 man who is an absolute tank inside who will outplay this pick.