The Posts preseason college basketball Top 25, Final Four picks
It was a typically wild offseason in college basketball.After winning his second straight national championship, Dan Hurley flirted with leaving Connecticut for the Lakers, but opted to return.John Calipari left Kentucky for Arkansas and was replaced by BYU’s Mark Pope, the captain of the 1996 championship Wildcats.
The transfer portal only increased in the frequency of players switching schools.It all sets up for a fascinating year.UConn is looking to make history as the first program to win three straight titles since UCLA won seven straight in 1967-73, and it will have a host of challengers — from Alabama to Kansas, Houston to Duke, and Baylor to Gonzaga, among many others.
The nation’s top high school prospects opted for college — led by Duke phenom Cooper Flagg, Rutgers duo Ace Bailey and Dylan Harper and Baylor’s V.J.Edgecombe.
Plus, it is the first year of the new super-power conferences, adding even more intrigue to an already anticipated season.It’s all here in The Post’s preseason top 25:The Crimson Tide featured one of the nation’s premier offenses a year ago, and the leaders of that potent group are back, led by National Player of the Year candidate Mark Sears and shot-making forward Grant Nelson.Nate Oats added to that with the second-best recruiting class in the country, according to 247Sports.com — five-star wing Derrion Reid highlights that quartet — and a strong transfer portal haul headed by Rutgers shot-blocking dynamo Cliff Omoruyi and Pepperdine marksman Houston Mallette.
For now, Alabama is a basketball school.Bill Self brought back three starters and added multiple high-level transfers, giving the Jayhawks hope of a big March on the heels of back-to-back second-round exits.There will be few frontcourt tandems better than Hunter Dickinson and K.J.
Adams Jr., and newcomers Zeke Mayo (South Dakota State) and AJ Storr (Wisconsin) provide explosiveness on the perimeter alongside fourth-year starting point guard Dajuan Harri...