Putting the 16 teams with a realistic shot at winning the 2019 NCAA Tournament title into tiers

[PhDhawk]

https://www.cbssports.com/college-baske ... nto-tiers/

Frontrunners

Frontrunners sit atop the sport heading into the season and make the most sense right now to be considered favorites.

Kansas

Breakdown: With KU's annual ownership of the Big 12 (if you've lost count, it's going for 15 straight regular season titles, which shouldn't be possible in the material world), it gets tough to sort one really, really good Jayhawks team from another really, really good Jayhawks team as the years go on. But this one truly could be a top-five Kansas crew under Bill Self. Even with the college basketball corruption trial becoming an appendage to the Kansas story of 2018-19 (Silvio De Sousa is indefinitely on leave because of what was uncovered in federal court), the Jayhawks have a stock of veteran talent up front and promising freshmen in the backcourt. Dedric Lawson, who came by way of Memphis, will join forces with Udoka Azubuike to make up what might be the most intimidating 1-2 big man combo in college basketball. Flashy guard Quentin Grimes is likely one-and-done, while Lagerald Vick is back for his senior season. This should be a better team on defense than the one from last season ... which made the Final Four.

Stat to know: The Jayhawks have 10 guaranteed or potential matchups during the regular season against teams that are reasonably projected to finish first or second in their conference: Michigan State, Vermont, Louisiana, Tennessee, Marquette, Wofford, New Mexico State, Villanova, South Dakota and Kentucky. And this doesn't even include the road game against Arizona State.