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ESPN's John Gasaway Lists 8 Teams That Can Win It All

Gasaway concludes his piece after eliminating all the other teams, with this: "By my calculations, that leaves eight teams that may win the national championship. Congratulations to Arizona, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Michigan State, North Carolina, Oklahoma, and Villanova. Make me look good."
 
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Gasaway concludes his piece after eliminating all the other teams, with this: "By my calculations, that leaves eight teams that may win the national championship. Congratulations to Arizona, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Michigan State, North Carolina, Oklahoma, and Villanova. Make me look good."

He left out Louisville.......oh, wait......

YOU CAN'T SPELL PROSTITUTION WITHOUT: P-I-T-I-N-O
 
If the selection committee has its way, then Duke is still a possibility.
Here is what Gasaway says about Duke:

Duke Blue Devils
I thought Duke could have mounted a strong title defense with a healthy Amile Jefferson, and in fact for the balance of the season this team's performance wasn't too different than what we saw from the Blue Devils during the 2014-15 regular season. But now we know Jefferson won't be coming back, and without him, this team has shown it has problems.
 
If the selection committee has its way, then Duke is still a possibility.
In the majority of tournaments I would tend to agree with you. But this duke team is just not that good. They aren't bad but the truth of the matter is that they don't stand a chance unless their 3s are falling. Look at Saturday for example, they couldn't rebound and were decent at 3. and that was home.
 
UNC, Virginia, UK, Kansas, Oklahoma, Michigan State, Indiana, West Virginia
 
I can make a pretty quick list of teams that definitely won't win it:

1. Louisville.
2. SMU.
 
I believe that in the last month or so that we have 4 or 5 teams that have really looked outstanding and could win it all. Those teams are Kansas, Michigan State, Kentucky, Nova, and UNC. Some of the other teams mentioned have showed potential at times but these 4 or 5 teams have looked great the last month or so.
 
Agree with others. Indiana should not be on any list to win it. They've played well but had a weak big ten schedule. Plus...their coach. Ughhhhhh.

Strike Nova too until they prove they can do anything at all in the tourney. I like OU and KU but the big 12 continually falls flat in the tourney. UNC and MSU should be near the top of the list. UK of course with our guard play and fully healthy can make a legitimate run at it.

Don't sleep on Utah, Iowa and Miami.
 
I believe that in the last month or so that we have 4 or 5 teams that have really looked outstanding and could win it all. Those teams are Kansas, Michigan State, Kentucky, Nova, and UNC. Some of the other teams mentioned have showed potential at times but these 4 or 5 teams have looked great the last month or so.

I'd love to see Good UK for 9 straight if only to have 9 more games of dazzle to remember.
 
I believe that in the last month or so that we have 4 or 5 teams that have really looked outstanding and could win it all. Those teams are Kansas, Michigan State, Kentucky, Nova, and UNC. Some of the other teams mentioned have showed potential at times but these 4 or 5 teams have looked great the last month or so.
I am not going in with crimson colored glasses but (knowing how little love IU gets here) in the last month they six w's with one loss at Michigan state. Four wins were against top 25 ranked teams (Maryland Purdue and Iowa twice all top 25 in ap rpi Kenpom and Sagarin). All aside from letting Purdue and Iowa (on road) come back to make it scary all were well handled.

And the last two without a key player in Robert Johnson and a key sub playing mostly injured in Morgan.

Yes IU schedule early and in first half of B1G was weak. But from the second half of notre dame game on they held serve every time against weaklings and competed well against others.

From mid December forward IU's resume has been as good as anyone's.

I am not predicting an IU championship but this year with parity it is not laughable. Even with crean calling the plays.
 
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I think it may come down to who has lost in their conference tournament or at least who doesn't have a long winning steak heading into the NCAA. Over the past twenty years, nine of the champions have lost in their conference tourney, another 8 lost one of their last three regular season games, and only 3 had winning streaks heading into the NCAA of 7 games or more-UofL had a ten game winning streak going into the NCAA. Combine that with the fact that no team outside of Kempom's top ten (final) has won the championship over the past 20 years, and you'll have a pretty short list of championship pretenders following the conference tournaments this weekend.
 
Last time Villanova or Virginia did much in the tourney?

Virginia has been to the Sweet Sixteen more recently than IU.

Villanova has been to 2 Elite Eights since the last one for IU.
 
If IU is knocking down 3's they can play with anyone in the country. Tv announcer said IU has 8 players shooting over 40 percent on 3...not sure if thats right or not.
 
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