By Kyle Beery97.1 The Ticket
What a run that was.
The college basketball season came to an end Monday night in Minneapolis with one of the most exciting title games ever.
Virginia's 85-77 overtime win over Texas Tech is right up there with Villanova-UNC in 2016, Kansas-Memphis in 2008 and just about any other title game ever.
The Cavaliers completed the ultimate redemption tale, having become the first 1-seed to ever lose to a 16-seed in last year's tournament. Tony Bennett's bunch persevered and delivered one of the best seasons wire to wire in recent memory, having only lost three times all season, thanks to a dominant defense and an offense capable of lighting up the nets, as we saw Monday night.
"It goes from stunned in Charlotte to redeemed in Minneapolis."Soak it in, @UVAMensHoops --#NationalChampionship pic.twitter.com/l650WrgTQB
— NCAA March Madness (@marchmadness)
April 9, 2019 The 2018-19 college basketball season will go down as one of the best ever in the state of Michigan. Both Michigan and Michigan State were top-notch teams near the top of the sport all season long. While both teams were bounced by national runners up Texas Tech, the Spartans and Wolverines both were top-tier teams all season long and put on a show to remember.
Well guess what. Next season is going to be pretty fun, too.
Say what you will about the instant release of "way-too-early" polls and bracketology, but for us diehard college basketball fans -- fans of any sport immediately following a championship game, really -- it's never too early to start looking ahead.
A handful of predictions are already out there, and national media members are giving the local teams a lot of love.
CBS Sports' Jon Rothstein has Michigan State as his No. 1 team in his early 2019-20 Top 25. Right on their heels? Rival Michigan.
Early 19-20 Top 25:1. Michigan St2. Michigan3. UVA4. UK5. Duke6. Auburn7. Marquette8. UNC9. KU10. Louisville11. Maryland12. Houston13. LSU14. Gonzaga15. Iowa16. Baylor17. Cincy18. FSU19. Arizona20. Purdue21. Oregon22. SHU23. Florida24. Nova25. Texas Tech
— Jon Rothstein (@JonRothstein)
April 9, 2019 The Spartans are set to return everyone but seniors Matt McQuaid and Kenny Goins, the hero of the Elite 8 win over No. 1 overall seed Duke. That includes All-American Cassius Winston, rising sophomores Aaron Henry and Gabe Brown, Nick Ward, and of course Joshua Langford, who is set to return from injury.
On top of bringing back a roster loaded with talent, Michigan State is bringing in Rocket Watts, a 6-foot-2 combo guard
ranked No. 32 in the country, who played his last year of high school ball at SPIRE Academy in Ohio alongside LaMelo Ball.
Tom Izzo, still in search of an elusive second national championship, will be looking to build off his eighth career Final Four appearance by bringing in 6-foot-7 power forward Malik Hall, who ranks No. 55 in the class of 2019, to join his roster.
Michigan, meanwhile, could return its entire roster, as Charles Matthews was the only senior on this season's roster, but he still has a year of eligibility. He and Ignas Brazdeikis may test the NBA Draft waters, but it's likely they'll return to Ann Arbor, where the Wolverines challenged for the Big Ten title this season and earned themselves a 2-seed in the Big Dance. They could come back to join the likes of Zavier Simpson, Jordan Poole, Isaiah Livers and John Teske. If this group of guys can improve again like they did from last season to this year, John Beilein's team could be quite dangerous.
Beilein is bringing in a pair of 4-star forwards in Jalen Wilson (No. 46 in the class of '19) and Cole Bajema to bolster a roster that also looks to be bringing back a ton of experience and players.
Rothstein isn't the only one giving high praise to the Spartans and Wolverines. ESPN bracketologist Joe Lunardi sees it too.
Other national writers are high on the in-state teams as well.
NBC Sports' Rob Dauster has MSU No. 1 and U of M right behind them.
Mike DeCourcy of The Sporting News has both teams in his Top 25, with the Spartans second behind the reigning national champions and the Wolverines at 4th.
Others will release their lists and projected fields throughout the day Monday and many will bash the writers for getting too far ahead of themselves. But they are typically a pretty good gague for what the season will shape up to be.
Gary Parrish of CBS Sports had 13 of this year's Sweet 16 teams in the top 21 of his Way-Too-Early Top 25 and One a year ago.
Sure, it's fair to rag on these early rankings -- seven and a half months into the future is an awful long time away. Things will change, teams will come out of nowhere to surprise us (hey, Texas Tech!) and teams on these lists will disappoint (yeah, you West Virginia).
But if these polls are any sort of accurate barometer for what we'll be in for next college basketball season, you should be starting your countdown until early November when we run this whole thing back.
