& BRACKET STRATEGY
Last time we caught you up on everything you've missed. Now it's time to get you ready for the tournament. Players to watch, teams built to make a run, and the analytics that'll make you the smartest person in your bracket pool.
Not including the freshmen we covered last time. Read Issue 1 here →
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Bennett Stirtz · Iowa
Plays every minute of every game. Iowa is nothing without him.
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Bruce Thornton · Ohio State
One of the best true bucket getters in CBB over the past 4 years but he's never made the NCAA tournament. This is his last chance, and Ohio State is firmly on the bubble.
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Joshua Jefferson · Iowa State
First team All-American favorite, will get some POTY votes.
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Milan Momcilovic · Iowa State
Shooting 50.8% from 3 on 7.8 attempts per game.
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Yaxel Lendeborg · Michigan
Likely a first team All-American, but not one to shy away from media controversy. You'll be hearing a lot about him.
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Christian Anderson · Texas Tech
Texas Tech's best player tore his ACL last week. An already thin rotation is now completely reliant on their lone remaining superstar talent.
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Thomas Haugh, Reuben Chinyelu & Alex Condon · Florida
Florida's frontcourt dominance is next level with these three.
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Reink Mast & Pryce Sandfort · Nebraska
Thunder and lightning. Sandfort is a lanky kid but his game is extremely similar to Steph Curry's. He never stops moving and if you give him a centimeter of space he's pulling up with one of the quickest releases in the game.
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Braden Smith · Purdue
The best true passer in college basketball.
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Alex Karaban · UConn
Yes, he's still there.
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Jaden Bradley · Arizona
The engine behind Arizona's historic season.
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Lamar Wilkerson · Indiana
Capable of dropping 40 any given night.
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Keyshawn Hall · Auburn
Apparently has a crazy ego and hates his teammates, but he's also a frontrunner to win SEC Player of the Year.
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Labaron Philon · Alabama
Top 3 point guard in CBB.
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Tyler Tanner · Vanderbilt
Twitchy guard with game-changing talent.
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Snapback's Cuties & Contenders format is our way of ranking the field — separating the teams that can actually cut down the nets from the ones that are just happy to be there. Here's the full CBB edition heading into March.
Every single team to ever have a Net rating above 35.00 on KenPom has reached the Final Four. There have been 12 teams to do it since 1999 — on average about 1 every 2.2 years. We have 4 teams right now above 35.00. That's ridiculous.
Duke is officially above 40.00, marking the first time a team has been above 40.00 since 1999 Duke in KenPom's inaugural year. These teams are so good, so well coached — their execution on both ends is NBA level.
Florida started the season playing middling basketball but figured it out in early January. In conference play the only team with a better Adjusted NET Efficiency on CBBanalytics is Duke.
Would be your favorites in any random year from 2013–2023. UConn is 10th on KenPom, but trust me — Dan Hurley is saving more stuff for March than any other coach in the country. They've narrowly escaped a lot of potential resume-killing losses but that's exactly what Hurley wants. A top 2 seed and the confidence that nobody will be able to prepare for sets they've never seen.
Illinois is the most efficient offense in the country but are outside the top 12 defensively. Nobody in the history of college basketball analytics has ever had an offense as efficient as Illinois — but Michigan stopped them relatively easily last Friday, which fits the "defense wins championships" mantra.
Houston could do it. They lost 3 straight games last week and learned a lot about what they need to adjust, and Milos Uzan broke out of a 3-month-long scoring slump.
100% have the talent and coaching to win a national championship — but the odds of dethroning multiple God Tier contenders en route to cutting down the nets is seemingly impossible without a little help.
Iowa State has one of the best Big 3's in the nation with 3 players ranked inside the top 75 in Bart Torvik's PORPAGATU metric. Purdue is aligned with the best of the best on the Very Important Graph from CBBanalytics.
Texas Tech isn't in the top right quadrant, but Grant McCasland has proven time and time again he can outcoach anyone regardless of metrics — even with the loss of Christian Anderson. The Red Raiders have wins over Duke, Houston, Arizona, and Iowa State, all away from home or at neutral sites.
Michigan State is coached by one of the last remaining legends of the game, with a team tailored for his brand of basketball and emerging scorers off the bench in Kur Teng, Jordan Scott, and Cam Ward.
Not contenders by anybody's definition, nor should they be — but the way they play sets them up for a potential Elite 8 or Final Four run that shocks the world. My favorite 8–11 seed Cinderella contenders. It's not looking likely we'll see a team seeded this poorly reach the Final Four given the pure domination of the God Tier, but if something crazy is to happen, I love the Canes and Longhorns.
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Full bracket · Seed reactions · First round upset picks
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