With college basketball’s transfer portal season possibly winding down, it seems like a good time for a pre-preseason Bracketology and a projected NCAA Tournament bracket. I say winding down, but there were at least three noteworthy transfers just this week, so it’s not over yet. I’m not sure it ever really ends.
One team that has taken full advantage of the portal is preseason overall No. 1 seed Kansas. The Jayhawks added Hunter Dickinson from Michigan and Towson 3-point machine Nick Timberlake to the roster. They also return KJ Adams, Dajuan Harris and Kevin McCullar and add a five-star recruit in Elmarko Jackson. Bill Self’s squad looks poised to make a run at another title.
The projected No. 2 overall seed is Duke, which looks to be strong again this season with its top four scorers returning and bringing in the second-ranked recruiting class. It took a while for last season’s team to gel. The Blue Devils finished strong, winning their last nine games in the regular season and conference tournament before bowing out in the second round of the NCAA Tournament.
Projected overall No. 3 seed Purdue welcomes back the bulk of its production from last season, which saw the Boilermakers win the Big Ten regular-season championship by three games and the conference tournament. The Boilers’ NCAA Tournament loss as a No. 1 seed to No. 16 seed Fairleigh Dickinson is what everyone will remember though. Purdue needed to get more athletic on the perimeter and freshmen Cam Heide and Myles Colvin should help with that. Consensus national player of the year Zach Edey will try to repeat those honors, but this team knows that it will be solely judged on how it does in March.
Michigan State rounds out the projected top four. The Spartans got some welcome news at the NBA Draft deadline when guards Jaden Akins and A.J. Hoggard decided to return to MSU. That means coach Tom Izzo has five of his top six…
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