Even in the one-and-done era, teams that have been around the block are as dangerous — and, ultimately, as successful — as ever. Give me Gonzaga.
In this college basketball season of Duke mega-sensation Zion Williamson and the fabulous fellow freshmen who are his running mates, picking any team other than the Blue Devils to cut down the nets in Minneapolis might come off as disingenuous.
Hey, I’ve been called worse.
But I promise I’m not predicting a Duke stumble just to be different. Rather, it’s that I can’t get behind the idea of picking a bunch of first-year players to successfully navigate a tournament in which experience, togetherness and nerves of steel are every bit as vital as extraordinary talent.
Yes, freshman-led teams — Kentucky in 2012, Duke in 2015 — have won it all before. But most champions through the years have more closely resembled Louisville in 2013, Connecticut in 2014, Villanova in 2016, North Carolina in 2017 and Villanova again in 2018.
