Gary Parrish picks Kentucky Wildcats to repeat as NCAA Basketball Champions

At this point, preseason basketball prognostications are about as useful as Terrell Owens begging to join the New York Jets on Twitter. (yea, that happened)  It’s nice to read and talk about, but the fact of it happening is far from reality. With that said, Gary Parrish of CBS Sports has picked Kentucky to win the NCAA Championship this year. That in itself is not to shocking, but what does raise the eyebrows is the fact that Parrish is not only the only one of CBS’s experts to pick Kentucky to win, but is the only one of the experts to pick UK to make the Final Four.

All this proves is that there is no dominant team in college basketball this year as each CBS expert had their own national champion.  Besides Kentucky, Louisville, Indiana, Arizona, and Missouri were picked to win the big prize and a total of 10 teams were tabbed for the Final Four.  Even the conference races predicted seem to reflect the uncertainty of this basketball season.  Four of the five experts pick Kentucky to win the SEC and three of five pick Louisville to win the Big East and the freshman of the year award is wide open.

Meanwhile, Dick Vitale has released his top 40 for the upcoming season and Kentucky is third in the country.

 

Most coaches  would consider landing the Harrison Twins as a once in a lifetime recruitment.  Not so for John Calipari.  The Kentucky Kernel had a list of Calipari’s top five recruits and the Harrisons came in at number four and five:

 

The newest players to commit to UK, Andrew and Aaron Harrison, are twins. Together they round out the top five recruits during the Calipari era. Individually they are the top-rated players at their respective positions. Each standing at 6-foot-5 and 205 pounds, Andrew and Aaron have NBA ready bodies at just 17 years old. There may be other individuals that warrant the chance to have their names placed in the top five recruits in the Calipari era, but there is no denying that together the Harrison twins provide a uniqueness that will be unmatched for years to come. The duo is arguably the most prolific package deal in the history of college basketball and they have yet to set foot on UK’s campus.

 

As surreal as it seems, I have to say that I agree with the Kernel’s list.

When Julius Mays committed to Kentucky, there was speculation as to how much he would actually play. That thought went through May’s head as well and he wanted to make sure he would be able to contribute at whatever school he landed at:

 

So when UK Coach John Calipari and assistant Orlando Antigua called to express interest earlier this year, Mays was inclined to say, thanks, but no thanks. He believed they were just looking to fill a uniform.

“Nah, I didn’t think I wasn’t good enough,” Mays said in explaining his hesitancy about UK. “I just thought they had another powerhouse, and they just needed another body. I didn’t want to go somewhere and just be another body.”