According to the AP top 25, the top five Men’s College Basketball teams are Duke, Kentucky, Kansas, Villanova, and Oregon in that order. This college basketball season has the potential to have powerhouses reclaim the title, and have an underdog come from nowhere to take it away.

Every year there are teams that people think are overrated. According to ESPN, the top five overrated teams are the UCLA Bruins, the Wisconsin Badgers, the Creighton Bluejays, the Rhode Island Rams, and the Maryland Terrapins. Wisconsin is in the top 10. Elder senior Zach Fries told me he thought St. Mary’s was the most overrated team this year. He said, “I know they got a lot of guys back, but they did not even make the tournament last year, so I’m not buying into the hype.”

Elder junior Bailey Dennis, cousin of Zach Fries, decided to attack the number one ranked Duke Blue Devils calling them the most overrated team.

Everyone also has their own teams that they think are underrated. For Fries’ underrated team, he decided to go against ESPN saying, “I think Wisconsin is fantastic. They’re going to win the Big Ten. They’re getting everybody back.”

“I think the UC Bearcats are an underrated team,” said Dennis. He is a die-hard Bearcats fan, and he admitted to being “slightly” biased towards the Bearcats. Dennis also decided to go against the ESPN rankings saying that Rhode Island is another underrated team.

I mentioned earlier ESPN’s top five teams. Most of them are the normal power houses of college basketball that are good every year. They always have people leave early for the draft, by they just replace them with the top recruits in the country. Duke, followed by Kentucky, are the most talented teams in the country. Fries agreed with ESPN on the best teams. His cousin decided to give another shout out to his Bearcats saying, “Well obviously UC will be one of the best (teams).”

There is always that one league that dominates every other league. In recent years, that has been the ACC. With teams such as Duke, North Carolina, Louisville, Notre Dame, and Florida State it is hard to argue against them. Dennis, Fries, and Nieman all agreed that this year’s best league would be the ACC. Dennis also added that he thought the Pac-12 will be good this.

Our local teams had a good year last year. Xavier got a two seed, and then had a heartbreaking loss in the round of 32. UC got an eight seed, but also had a tough loss. Xavier opens up this year ranked number seven by ESPN, and UC is just outside of the top 25. Fries thought that both UC and Xavier would have very good teams. He said, “I think Xavier really has a final four caliber roster this year.”

Dennis decided to attack to attack the Muskies saying, “Xavier is ok, but UC is better.”

Everybody has their team they think will win it all. Some people just say their favorite no matter how good they really are. Some people just say the number one ranked team will win it all. Fries went with the number one team Duke saying, “It’s just hard to argue against them.”

This basketball season season is definitely going to be a good one. There are a lot of very good teams looking to make this year their year. May the best team win.