Predicting the Most Fun Teams to Watch in the 2014-15 College Basketball Season

Every college basketball team is fun to watch for one reason or another, but herein lie our 20 nominees for the teams who will be the most fun to watch in 2014-15.

The start of NFL season and the near conclusion of the MLB season means that college basketball's regular season is just over two months away.

Obviously, we can't wait for November 14 to get here.

But—aside from your favorite team—there are 350 teams in the country that you'll have the option of watching, and you need to know which ones will be most worth your entertainment dollar.

Without our help, would you have known that it's going to be an adventure to watch Ole Miss integrate four new transfers into the rotation? Or did you know that Louisiana Tech might rival VCU for the honor of most exciting team to watch on defense?

Sure, there are a lot of obvious powerhouses like Arizona, Duke, Kansas, Kentucky and North Carolina who will be fun to watch just because they'll dominantly contend for a title, but this list is intended to be more than just a ranking of the best teams in the country.

For example, Wisconsin will open the season as one of the top five teams in the country, but you won't find them on this list because Bo Ryan basketball—while beautiful to a college basketball purist—will put many common fans to sleep.

Besides, watching Wisconsin fans react to the Badgers being included in or excluded from a list is at least as fun as watching the Badgers play basketball.

Teams on the following slides are listed in reverse alphabetical order, because, come on, we're all getting sick of seeing Arizona at the beginning and Wichita State near the end of every list.

Wichita State Shockers

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Spoiler alert: Wichita State isn't going to go undefeated for a second straight season.

Oh, the Shockers will be good. They're all but a lock to make the NCAA tournament and will be the team to beat in the Missouri Valley Conference once again. But they don't have the interior strength to go four months without a loss again.

And that's what is going to make them so fun to watch this year.

Between Fred VanVleet, Tekele Cotton and Ron Baker, Wichita State will easily have the best mid-major backcourt in the country. But there's not a single returning player on this roster who stands taller than 6'7".

If the Shockers happen to run into Kentucky in the NCAA tournament for a second straight year, it would be even more of a David vs. Goliath battle than it was this past March. They might finish that game with a rebounding margin of negative-30.

Watching them play small ball all season should be a blast.

VCU Rams

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Wichita State won't go undefeated, but could VCU pull it off?

The Rams will have some seriously difficult games against Villanova, Virginia, Northern Iowa, Cincinnati and either Michigan or Oregon. But if they happen to get to A-10 play without a loss, that conference is plenty weak enough this season for them to run the table.

Even if VCU suffers a loss in the first week of the season, the Rams will still be fun to watch simply because they always are. Shaka Smart's defensive pressure and fast-paced offense make for a great spectator sport.

Briante Weber has gone drastically underappreciated over the past three years, but he might be the best individual defender that has ever graced the college basketball court. According to KenPom.com, (subscription required), he has led the nation in steal percentage in each of the past three seasons.

Seriously, when is the last time you tuned into a game with every intention of watching one player on each defensive possession? Do yourself a favor and give it a try this year with Weber.

Utah Utes

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It's been a solid five years since we've paid any attention to Utah on a national level, but there isn't another team in the country that has gotten as much "sleeper hype" this summer as the Utes.

It has gone so far that they'll likely be overrated by the time the season begins.

Can they stand up to that scrutiny?

The Utes did a great job of beating up on no-name teams while no one was watching, but they really struggled to seal the deal in close games against good teams. They went 1-8 in games decided by four points or less.

But instead of occupying the role of feisty up-and-coming team, there are now mathematical arguments for Delon Wright becoming the most valuable player in the nation.

Quite the 180 for a team that went 6-25 just three years ago.

UNLV Rebels

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Plenty of teams across the country will be counting on a number of freshmen to help shoulder the load, but perhaps no team is relying as heavily on as many freshmen as Dave Rice and the UNLV Rebels.

Their leading scorer from last year? Transferred to Iowa State.

Their second- and third-leading scorers from last season? Declared for the NBA and didn't get drafted.

Their fourth-leading scoring from 2013-14? Graduated.

Surely, the fifth-best scorer is still around? Nope. He transferred to Tennessee-Martin this summer.

Jelan Kendrick (20.8 MPG and 6.3 PPG) is the only returning player who averaged 15.0 minutes or 5.0 points per game.

Instead of returning players, the Rebels will bank on members of the 2014 class like Rashad Vaughn, Goodluck Okonoboh and Dwayne Morgan as pivotal contributors. It wouldn't even be a surprise if they were UNLV's three leading scorers at the end of the year.

Kentucky has proved in recent years that there's no telling what you'll get when you give a ton of minutes to a bunch of freshmen and expect them to lead the team, but it should be fun to watch the Rebels progress throughout the year as they jell together as a unit.

SMU Mustangs

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At the opposite end of the recruiting spectrum from UNLV, Larry Brown and the SMU Mustangs don't have a single incoming freshman after losing Emmanuel Mudiay to the world of professional basketball overseas.

Having no freshmen isn't what will make them fun to watch, though.

SMU has one of the most underrated inside-outside duos in the nation in Nic Moore and Markus Kennedy. Both will legitimately contend for AAC Player of the Year for a team that was widely regarded as the biggest snub from the 2014 NCAA tournament.

Not only did the Mustangs miss out on the 2014 tourney, but they haven't been invited to the Big Dance in more than two decades.

Without question, this is the team that has been away from the tournament for at least a decade that is the most likely to get there this season. And the Mustangs will get there in style.

Seton Hall Pirates

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Like SMU, it's been a long time since we've seen Seton Hall play like an elite team.

The Pirates have been to three tournaments in the past two decades, but it has been 21 years since the last time they finished a season with fewer than 10 losses.

Thanks to a couple of high-profile recruits, this might finally be a year to remember in South Orange, New Jersey.

Isaiah Whitehead is expected to be one of the best (freshman) shooting guards in the country, and Angel Delgado could very well start at power forward for Seton Hall in his first collegiate season.

The Pirates lost some critical players from last year's team in Fuquan Edwin, Brian Oliver and Gene Teague, but they should be a better team in a conference that figures to be weaker than last year. With Creighton, Marquette and Xavier losing so much from last season, third place in the Big East is very much up for grabs.

If the Pirates claim that spot, their return to glory will be one of the most talked-about stories of the year.

Ole Miss Rebels

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Who needs high-profile freshmen when you can build a starting lineup almost entirely out of transfers?

That appears to be Andy Kennedy's line of thinking, as he adds a quartet of players immediately eligible to play this season in the form of M.J. Rhett (Tennessee State), Terence Smith (Tennessee-Martin), Stefan Moody (JUCO) and Roderick Lawrence (JUCO).

Fred Hoiberg has made a habit of relying on transfers at Iowa State, but the Rebels of Ole Miss are taking it to a whole new level this year.

Transfers have gotten out of control in college basketball. Nearly 700 players have changed schools since the beginning of last season—and that doesn't even include players transferring from JUCO to D-I. But if Ole Miss has a successful season, it could push us even deeper into the world of college basketball free agency.

Another SEC team playing transfer Whac-a-Mole is Auburn.

In Bruce Pearl's first season back as a coach, he's adding Antoine Mason (Niagara), K.C. Ross-Miller (New Mexico State) and Cinmeon Bowers (JUCO). Even Trayvon Reed could sort of be considered a transfer, as the would-be Maryland Terrapin will now be a Tiger after being dismissed from Maryland for petty theft at a convenience store.

We're expecting both squads to be competitive in the SEC, but it should be fun to watch how quickly they become a team as opposed to a mishmash of players from across the country.

North Carolina Tar Heels

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While we were busy obsessing over the quality depth at both Kentucky and Texas, it flew pretty well under the radar that North Carolina is legitimately two deep at every position.

See for yourself.

• Point Guard: Marcus Paige and Joel Berry
• Shooting Guard: Justin Jackson and Nate Britt
• Small Forward: J.P. Tokoto and Theo Pinson
• Power Forward: Brice Johnson and Isaiah Hicks
• Center: Kennedy Meeks and Joel James

Few coaches in the country are afforded the luxury that Roy Williams will have next season.

Will it be a gift or a curse?

For some players, the threat of a quick hook is the perfect amount of pressure to turn coal into a diamond. Others get tight and don't play as well when they're in constant fear of making a mistake that could send them to the bench for the rest of the game.

If they can find the right balance, the Tar Heels will be the most talented team in the ACC and could play their way into a No. 1 seed in the NCAA tournament.

Massachusetts Minutemen

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Massachusetts was one of the biggest surprises of the 2013-14 season.

The Minutemen didn't receive a single vote in either the AP or coaches preseason poll, but they had ascended to No. 13 in the country after opening the season 16-1.

But the wheels came off over the course of the final two months of the season, as Cady Lalanne fell apart at the seams. They made the tournament for the first time since 1998, but picking them to lose to Tennessee was one of the most obvious upsets to take in the tourney.

Let's be honest, though, you're watching Massachusetts this season because the Minutemen have the first openly gay college basketball player. And unlike Michael Sam becoming the first openly gay player who ended up on an NFL practice squad, Derrick Gordon could well be the most important player in the A-10.

With Chaz Williams (15.6 PPG, 6.9 APG and 1.6 SPG) graduating this summer, there's a pretty big void in Massachusetts' backcourt.

Gordon should be the one to benefit from Williams' departure. In his first season with the Minutemen, Gordon averaged 9.4 points, 2.0 assists and 1.5 steals while starting all 33 games. But his usage rating (18.6 percent) was one of the lowest on the entire roster.

Inevitably becoming a bigger part of the offense this year, Gordon could lead Massachusetts in scoring on its quest for a second straight tournament berth.

Maryland Terrapins

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As if it isn't intriguing enough that Maryland is making the transition from the ACC to the Big Ten, the Terrapins are also essentially hitting the reset button on their roster.

Seth Allen, Shaquille Cleare, Nick Faust, Charles Mitchell and Roddy Peters all transferred away from College Park this summer.

It's not easy to lose 36.6 points per game in a summer where your only graduating senior is a reserve forward who scored a total of 21 points in his college career, but the Terps pulled it off.

Mark Turgeon did hang onto a number of key players in Dez Wells, Jake Layman and Evan Smotrycz, but he'll be leaning on new players like Romelo Trimble and Dion Wiley in Maryland's first year in a new conference.

It probably won't be pretty, but it'll definitely be fun to watch.

Louisiana Tech Bulldogs

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For my money, there's not a better inside-outside duo in the nation than Louisiana Tech's Michale Kyser and Kenneth "Speedy" Smith.

Last season, Smith ranked second in the country in assists (278) and finished in a tie for third in steals (90). Kyser was fifth in blocked shots (109) and eighth in defensive rating (87.6).

Neither does much of anything in terms of points scored—they combined to average just 14.8 points per game—but the way they fill up the rest of the stat sheet makes them a blast to watch.

With Tulsa departed to the AAC, the Bulldogs need to be considered the favorite to win Conference USA. If nothing else, you might as well try to catch a couple of their games so you know whether you can trust this seven- or eight-loss No. 11 seed to pull off a tournament upset.

And when you do tune in, have fun watching those two guys at work.

Kentucky Wildcats

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Do we really need to explain this one?

Bleacher Report's C.J. Moore already dove into the fact that Kentucky might be a historically great college hoops team. It's all but a guarantee that the Wildcats will open the season ranked No. 1 in the country.

Each and every game they play could be an instant classic; they are forever a threat to score 120 points in any given game with the most talented roster in the past decade.

What's really going to make them fun to watch, though, is Tyler Ulis.

The 5'9" point guard looks like a small child next to giants like Willie Cauley-Stein, Dakari Johnson, Karl Towns Jr. and Trey Lyles, but Kentucky's trip to the Bahamas demonstrated that he might be the most talented player on the roster.

He probably won't start, but he'll be the change-of-pace point guard who plays uptempo and turns the Wildcats into Dunk City 2.0 with exciting lob passes either from mid-court or from right under the hoop as he's weaving in and out among the trees.

Kansas Jayhawks

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Having 10 straight Big 12 championships and 25 consecutive appearances in the NCAA tournament is ridiculous, but so is making it 11 and 26, respectively.

No team has been as consistently dominant as Kansas has been over the past quarter-century. The last time the Jayhawks entered Selection Sunday with 10 or more losses was in 1989.

Just let that one sink in for a second.

For most teams, a 25-10 record and a No. 2 seed in the NCAA tournament is a dream come true. For Bill Self and Kansas, it has to be considered the worst season of the past decade.

It's literally cliche to say that it should be another strong season at Allen Fieldhouse, but the Jayhawks will be fun to watch as they integrate Cliff Alexander, Kelly Oubre and Devonte Graham into the regular rotation as freshmen.

Alexander, in particular, will be one of the main candidates for USBWA Freshman of the Year.

Iowa State Cyclones

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Could the Cyclones be the highest-scoring team in the country?

They're certainly one of the favorites after five straight seasons averaging at least 73 points per game.

Last year was their highest scoring yet, as they tied for fifth in the nation at 82.9 points per game.

And they might be even better than last year. Losing DeAndre Kane and Melvin Ejim is a bummer, but they're adding some serious talent on the transfer market in the form of Bryce Dejean-Jones, Jameel McKay and Abdel Nader.

More importantly, Iowa State still has Dustin Hogue, Monte Morris and Georges Niang to lead the way. The Cyclones have seven players who could legitimately score 20 points on any night and have been one of the most uptempo teams in the game since Fred Hoiberg's arrival.

They might not be the most efficient team in the country, but highest scoring is a distinct possibility.

Illinois Fighting Illini

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Illinois was painfully underwhelming last season, losing 10 of 11 games between Jan. 4 and Feb. 15.

However, the Illini looked good in both the early and late stages of the season, and they will have quality guards on top of quality guards for the 2014-15 season.

Joining Rayvonte Rice, Tracy Abrams, Kendrick Nunn, Jaylon Tate and Malcolm Hill in the backcourt are great three-point shooting transfers in Ahmad Starks (Oregon State) and Aaron Cosby (Seton Hall).

John Groce's team played at one of the slowest paces in the country last season. According to KenPom.com, the Illini ranked 327th in adjusted tempo. But you have to think they're going to run, run and run some more this year with seven guards who can be subbed in and out like hockey lines.

They already had the 11th-best defense in the country, according to KenPom.com, but they should have the most swarming defense in all the land this year as they smother their way back into the upper tier of the Big Ten.

Harvard Crimson

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Can we finally start paying some mind to Harvard?

The Crimson have pulled off a pretty big upset in each of the past two NCAA tournaments, but they weren't ranked in the AP Top 25 at any point in either of those seasons.

They lost three key players this summer, but Tommy Amaker's squad still has at least one more year with its three most important players from the past two seasons: Steve Moundou-Missi, Siyani Chambers and Wesley Saunders.

If you like your basketball with a side of alley-oops, fast breaks and show-boating, go ahead and pass on Harvard in favor of other teams on this list.

But if you like teams that beat their opponents by simply being more fundamentally sound on both sides of the ball, make sure to set aside some time to watch the Wisconsin of the non-major conferences.

Gonzaga Bulldogs

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Gonzaga might be the best and most frequent three-point shooting team in 2014-15.

The Bulldogs were already one of the best, shooting 39.0 percent from downtown thanks to Drew Barham (47.5 percent), Gary Bell (42.4 percent) and Kevin Pangos (40.9 percent).

Barham graduated, but they're adding Kyle Wiltjer (39.0 percent in two years with Kentucky) and Byron Wesley (39.7 percent two years ago with USC) as forwards who have no problem stepping out to the perimeter to do their damage.

ACC teams have been struggling for years to figure out how to slow down Duke when the Blue Devils have had four legitimate three-point threats on the court, so do you really think the WCC is going to discover the secret formula?

Ball movement and an ability to put together incredible scoring spurts will make Gonzaga one of this season's must-watch teams.

Duke Blue Devils

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Who in their right mind doesn't want to watch this season's No. 1 recruiting class?

Jahlil Okafor is the early favorite to be the No. 1 pick in the 2015 draft, and Tyus Jones has to be considered a candidate to lead the nation in assists as a freshman.

Throw in Justise Winslow as an underrated small forward who plays exceptional defense and Grayson Allen—the three-point assassin who also won the McDonald's All-American dunk contest—and it's hard to imagine another lackluster season for Duke that ends with a second-round loss in the tournament to a team that 90 percent of college basketball fans had never seen play a game in their lives.

Unless you're one of the millions—and millions—of people who hate Duke basketball with every fiber of their being, you're going to have fun watching the Blue Devils play this season.

Connecticut Huskies

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Defending champions are always fun to watch. Either they make a legitimate run at repeating, or they drop completely out of contention and flirt with missing the tournament.

Regardless of which path Connecticut takes this season, the articles written about the Huskies will be endless.

What makes them fun, though, is the same thing that will have us tuning in to watch Wichita State on a nightly basis—great guard play but no established interior presence.

Amida Brimah is a fine defender and a capable scorer, but he only played 16.2 minutes per game last year as a freshman in large part because he averaged 7.1 fouls per 40 minutes. He may improve his ability to defend without fouling, but he's also going to have more defending to do without the help of DeAndre Daniels, Tyler Olander and Niels Giffey.

Phillip Nolan is the only other returning big man who played at least 5.2 minutes per game, and he played his way out of a starting job for about a three-month stretch in the middle of last season.

It should be a fun backcourt with Ryan Boatright, Rodney Purvis, Daniel Hamilton and Terrence Samuel, among others, but are those guys talented enough for this to be a successful small-ball team?

Arizona Wildcats

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Simply put, Arizona will be fun to watch because it might actually be these Wildcats—as opposed to the Kentucky Wildcats—who play the best basketball in the country this year.

They lost Nick Johnson and Aaron Gordon, but this is still a team with more talent than any roster should be allowed to have after losing two starters to the NBA.

Rondae Hollis-Jefferson might be the most improved player in the nation. T.J. McConnell is Aaron Craft with a better three-point stroke and without the Dan Dakich man crush. Kaleb Tarczewski is a good rebounder, a solid shot-blocker and one of the most reliable big men at the free-throw line.

Arizona gets Brandon Ashley back as a stretch 4 who scores efficiently and plays solid defense. And, oh yeah, Sean Miller is also adding a ton of outstanding new faces in Stanley Johnson, Kadeem Allen, Parker Jackson-Cartwright and Craig Victor.

The Wildcats had a legitimate shot at going undefeated last year, and they might be even better this time around.

If you don't think that arguably the best team in the country will be fun to watch, then it seems we can't help you here.

Kerry Miller covers college basketball for Bleacher Report. You can follow him on Twitter @kerrancejames.