With the season less than a week away, one of the final pieces of our preseason package is among the prettiest — and most hotly debated. As we always do right around this time of year, it’s time to give you a map of college basketball’s landscape.
The 2022-23 version represents my forecast for which team will be the best in its state over the next five months. Some states (Wyoming, Vermont, Maine, Hawaii) lack for drama, as they have no competition and get the same logo every year. Others (California, Texas, New York) are loaded with Division I programs and a privy to a map makeover every autumn.
Since Alaska does not have a Division I team, the best team in 49 states and the District of Columbia gives us 50 teams highlighted in these United States of College Basketball. (You may have to squint for Delaware, Rhode Island and D.C.) Below, you’ll find a pithy summary on the state of each state and why the teams that won out were chosen.
Each of the teams correspond to where they land in my Top 100 And 1 rankings, which you can read here.
State of the state: For the first time in a long time, the Yellowhammer State has a claim to three of the 40 best teams in men’s college basketball. Auburn, the state’s best team a season ago, is ranked 15th in the preseason AP Top 25 poll, while UAB received a vote. (All three are ranked in my top 40; UAB is my pick to win Conference USA.) It should be the Tide who emerge as the strongest basketball team this year. Know the name Brandon Miller. The 6-foot-8 freshman could be the key for a team with plenty of juniors and seniors to take a leap and compete alongside Kentucky, Tennessee and Arkansas in the SEC.
State of the state: There’s only four D-I programs in the Grand Canyon State, and in most years U of A has a comfortable stranglehold on the top spot. That will be the case again in 2022-23, thanks to ASU projected to be middle-of-the-pack at best in the Pac-12. Arizona lost three first-round NBA Draft picks but brings back C Azuolas Tubelis, PG Kerr Kriisa, SG Pelle Larsson, in addition to Texas SG/longtime starter Courtney Ramey. Arizona will again trade jabs with UCLA for Pac-12 supremacy.
Arkansas: Arkansas Razorbacks
State of the state: Huge gap between the Hogs and Arkansas State, which ranks 273rd at KenPom.com. Eric Musselman’s got a young team and a…
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