The Post’s Howie Kussoy and Zach Braziller make some fearless forecasts for the upcoming college basketball season:
Howie Kussoy’s predictions
Memphis falls before the Sweet 16
Heavy is the head that wears the hype. The Tigers begin the regular season ranked for the first time in six years, based on second-year coach Penny Hardaway landing the No. 1 recruiting class in the country, including likely No. 1 NBA draft pick James Wiseman. But chemistry won’t come easy for a group that may end up starting five freshmen, and a soft AAC schedule will leave Memphis with a low seed and unprepared come March.
Texas moves on from Shaka Smart
The slam dunk hire expected to turn Texas into an annual Big 12 contender has been a bust. In four years, Smart, 42, has landed NBA talent like Mo Bamba, Jarrett Allen and Jaxson Hayes, but failed to capitalize, going 71-66 — including 31-41 in conference play —while making two winless trips to the NCAA Tournament. After another disappointing season, Texas will swallow much of the $10 million remaining on Smart’s contract, and make a Godfather offer to Texas Tech’s Chris Beard.
Markus Howard leads the nation with over 30 points per game
Last year, Campbell’s Chris Clemons became the first Division I player to average over 30 points in 22 years. The wait for another won’t be long. The reigning Big East Player of the Year averaged 25 points as a junior — while scoring at least 45 points on three occasions and hitting over 40 percent on 3-pointers for the second straight year. Marquette will need more this season, following the transfers of the Hauser brothers. Howard’s efficiency may dip, but his increased opportunities will enable a historic campaign.
Chris Mack and Louisville make the Final Four
Barely two years after the program was devastated by an FBI investigation — resulting in the removal of the school’s 2013 national championship and 2012 Final Four banners — the Cardinals will start filling the rafters again. In Chris Mack’s first season, he took a team picked to finish 11th in the ACC back to the NCAA Tournament. In his second season, the former Xavier coach will make his greatest run yet, making the darkness of Rick Pitino’s final days an even more distant memory.
Utah State latest mid-major to make the Final Four
Meet the Aggies. They’ll be your new favorite team in a few months. Craig Smith’s crew returns nearly all of the core of last year’s 28-win team, and will reach a second straight NCAA Tournament with as much confidence as any team in the nation. Mid-majors have advanced to the Final Four multiple times in the past decade — Butler (twice), VCU, Wichita State, Loyola-Chicago — and the Aggies have the shooting, size and experience to bust millions of brackets.
Howie’s Final Four picks: Michigan State, Louisville, Florida, Utah State
Zach Braziller’s predictions
Big East will be a beast
The league sends 70 percent of its conference to the NCAA Tournament, with three programs — Seton Hall, Xavier and Villanova — reaching the second weekend, a first since realignment. Remember, this is the only conference with two players — Seton Hall’s Myles Powell and Marquette’s Markus Howard — on the Associated Press preseason All-American team and of the league’s top 17 scorers a year ago, 10 return. It’s not a coincidence the entire conference is in KenPom.com’s top 100.
Experience, yet again, wins out in March
The last teams of one-and-done prospects to reach the Final Four were Duke and Kentucky back in 2015. That trend will continue, as Memphis, Duke and Kentucky, among other not-old-enough-to-drink-led teams, all flame out in March, reminding everyone that experience still counts, as Virginia taught us last April and Villanova the year before.
Isaiah leads the pack
Shield your eyes, Syracuse fans. The nation’s best freshman will come from your backyard, coached by one of your favorite sons. Isaiah Stewart, the polished 6-foot-9 forward with a 7-foot-5 wingspan from Rochester, N.Y., leads Washington and former Orange coach-in-waiting Mike Hopkins to the Pac-12 crown, and is in play, along with Memphis big man James Wiseman and North Carolina point guard Cole Anthony, to be the top pick in the 2020 NBA Draft.
Patrick Ewing breaks through at Georgetown
He went from 15 wins in his first season to 19 and a .500 record in the Big East last year, and now comes the big jump, a top-four finish in the league and the school’s first tournament berth since 2015. Sophomores Mac McClung, James Akingo and Josh LeBlanc, all named to the All-Big East freshmen team last year, continue to develop and 7-foot N.C. State transfer Omer Yurtseven keys the Hoyas’ much-needed defensive improvements.
A bittersweet ending for Self and Kansas
Kansas — balanced, experienced and deep — wins it all, cutting down the nets in Atlanta behind MOP Devon Dotson, an elite guard who becomes a top-10 NBA draft pick. But all is not well in Lawrence. Coach Bill Self, facing a year-long suspension for lack of institutional control and violating coaching-responsibility standards relating to the Jayhawks role in the FBI investigation into corruption in the sport, calls it quits after 17 seasons. His departure leaves the program, facing a postseason ban for Level 1 violations, reeling.
Zach’s Final Four picks: Kansas, Kentucky, North Carolina, Xavier