One Team That Will Surprise in Each Major NCAA Basketball Conference in 2015-16

Really, how many folks outside Lexington wanted Kentucky to win it all? Most college basketball fans want upsets and surprises. It's what we pull for, in general, every year.

And that's what we're here to discuss: not the favorites, but the one-offs who could be right on.

Can anyone take out Kansas in the Big 12? Can there be a surprise contender in the ACC? There's got to be an Angel out there somewhere (tease alert!). Could the nation's most talked-about freshman actually be a Diamond in the rough (you'll see what we did there, too).

Summon your inner Lloyd Christmas.

We're sayin' there's a chance for these teams to do the unexpected.

ACC Surprise: Miami Hurricanes

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Miami was picked to finish fifth in the preseason ACC poll. It makes perfect sense.

But it doesn't mean the Hurricanes are stuck there.

North Carolina will be the favorite, but it needs Marcus Paige to be healthy after foot problems hurt him last year. And he's already not healthy again.

Sure, Virginia will be right at the top. But it lost Justin Anderson somewhat surprisingly to the NBA draft and that's a big hole to fill.

You say Duke's young again? We'll say "so what?" to that alibi after what it accomplished last year, though truth be told, the Blue Devils aren't quite as talented this year.

Notre Dame is also listed above Miami, if you believe media and coaches.

But don't totally scoff at Miami, which returns the regular rotation and also adds power forward Kamari Murphy (previously at Oklahoma State).

Senior center Tonye Jekiri is looking like a capable 7-footer after some early offseason conditioning work following tonsil surgery.

But a deep NIT run (championship game) with this group and a healthy, more confident Angel Rodriguez could put UM in contention not only for a return to the NCAA tournament, but a trip to the top of a terrific league.

Remember, this is a team that climbed to No. 15 in the polls last year. It has the same ability and experience to get there again, and stay there.

American Surprise: SMU Mustangs

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This is a backhanded compliment, because there aren't many worlds where SMU should be considered a surprise.

The Mustangs should be good. Dang good.

But the problem now is having no reward come March, after the school accepted a postseason ban.

So here's the surprise, if you want to call it that: SMU is still going to win the AAC. There won't be a significant letdown just because of the road facing a definite, sad dead end.

Nic Moore and Markus Kennedy, pictured above, will be freewheeling and keep the team unified.

The unfortunate thing is, this isn't totally surprising that Larry Brown is facing these issues. Schools he's been with before—whether it's fair or not to have this totally linked to him—have been put on probation shortly after he left.

But here would be a nice, big surprise: We know LB is historically a vagabond, but he'll stick this one out for Moore and Kennedy, among seven returning players.

The motivation for the Mustangs will be unified in keeping someone else out of the NCAA tournament, like Stanford (Nov. 19) or a few AAC at large-bid hopefuls like Tulsa.

Brown's left some tough situations. If he can see this one out, it could put a big print on his sometimes-tattered legacy. And it would allow the Mustangs to stick out their tongues at the disappointment.

Atlantic 10 Surprise: Rhode Island

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Someone call Prince. There's one basketball team out there that's going to party like it's 1999.

That's the last time Rhode Island made the NCAA tournament.

Sure, it's an obvious lead-in. But here's something a little less so: The Rams may have the most talented team in the A-10 and should make Top 25 noise before then.

If the stars align in Cancun, Rhody will defeat TCU—and national favorite Maryland will beat Illinois State on Nov. 24.

That would set up a meeting the next day which, perhaps even with a loss, could propel URI into the national conversation.

Led by E.C. Matthews and Hassan Martin, along with an experienced cast and fourth-year head coach Dan Hurley, expectations are a lot higher after getting to the NIT. Transfers Kuran Iverson and Four McGlynn will shore up the group.

Martin is a 6'7'' forward who averaged a top-20 3.1 blocked shots per game and 7.7 rebounds, which will also help Rhode Island get past any deficiencies.

In the long run, it may not totally get this program to the forefront of a league that is featured by Davidson, VCU and Dayton.

But the Rams will be more than good enough to garner some attention—and end a 16-year absence.

Big 12 Surprise: Oklahoma Sooners

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It's not many times a preseason top-10 team can be a surprise.

But Oklahoma hasn't produced an ordinary train of thought so far.

The Sooners were picked to finish second in the Big 12 by coaches. Yet the national media peg it in the preseason as the third-best Big 12 team (No. 8-ranked) behind Kansas (fourth) and Iowa State (No. 7).

Even in the league, the Sooners weren't given a first-place vote by conference coaches (who could not vote for their own teams). Kansas received nine votes and the Cyclones got the other one.

But how about this surprise: Oklahoma snapping Kansas' 11-year conference title run.

Oklahoma has finished second in the league in back-to-back seasons and has four starters back. Couple that experience with Lon Kruger's wisdom and dexterity, and the Sooners may do just enough to maintain the consistency that's needed through an 18-game conference schedule.

Oklahoma winning the Big 12 would be an upset considering Kansas' dominance, and the level of experience the Jayhawks return.

An even bigger upset would be if the Sooners won in Allen Fieldhouse. That would be a huge coup, but unlikely considering it comes right after the start of 2016, two days after OU plays Iowa State in Norman.

Big East Surprise: Marquette Golden Eagles

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Marquette was picked to finish sixth in the Big East this year, which would be three spots higher than its finish last season.

So there's that kind of respect. But we happen to think Steve Wojciechowski's second MU team is capable of even more. Like cracking into the code of being on the NCAA tournament bubble in the closing weeks.

We're not ready to say they'll get over that hump quite yet and get back to the NCAA tournament for the first time since 2013, but a team built on defense will have significantly better offense and avoid those debilitating scoring droughts it endured last season.

Marquette will be back in the mix, more than a sixth-place selection.

It won't play like a 13-19 team because it didn't recruit for this year like a 13-19 team. MU will get Henry Ellenson, a top-tier in-state recruit who was already pegged to the Big East's second team.

Ellenson—the program's first McDonald's All-America honoree in over 30 years—will be flanked by 6'11" junior center Luke Fischer, who averaged 11.0 points, 4.8 rebounds and 2.2 blocks per game in 2014-15.

Arguably the Big East's best frontcourt tandem will make life tough for some in-conference bubble teams. The Golden Eagles will also become one of those teams themselves.

Big Ten Surprise: Maryland Terrapins (Well, One Player Anyway)

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Diamond Stone isn't exactly unheard of. He's a top-flight recruit who made waves by spurning big-time programs (like home-state Wisconsin) to join a team that could really be in line to contend for a national championship.

What would be a surprise, but certainly feasible: Stone being the country's most talked-about freshman.

That was supposed to go to LSU's Ben Simmons, Kentucky's Skal Labissiere or perhaps even Cal's Jaylen Brown.

But the 6'10'' Stone may have picked the perfect place at the most prudent time.

He'll be teamed up with sophomore point guard Melo Trimble and a talented cast that should allow him to ease into the limelight.

"He's changed his body. He's lost a bunch of weight," coach Mark Turgeon said at the Big Ten media day. "His work habits have become a little bit better since he's been there. I think off the floor, he's managing his time. Those are things he'd really improved since he's been there. How good can he be? I think offensively he's already there. He's got a great feel."

Stone should be welcomed with open arms. Trimble returned because he wasn't a sure-thing first-round NBA draft pick. But he can improve his own profile by helping the big fella adapt to the college game.

"He's a talent, and he's going to help us win a lot of games," Turgeon said of his rolling Stone.

Sorry, we couldn't resist. And America won't be able to resist talking about him.

Pac-12 Surprise: Oregon State Beavers

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Will the Pac-12 coach who thinks his team will finish better than sixth please raise a hand?

See, Wayne Tinkle's so confident, he raised both arms for Oregon State.

We're with the second-year coach, whose team will continue to defy expectations after building a solid foundation last winter.

Arizona is the obvious favorite. Cal, behind a bevy of talented recruits, is the popular outlier pick. They combined for most of the Pac-12 media-day first-place votes. Somehow, UCLA and Oregon were selected, too, and Utah will get some preseason respect.

But it's Oregon State that could be a real threat. Dam straight, Beavers.

Point guard Gary Payton II is one of only two first-team all-conference players in the fold in 2015-16, among the 10 from last year's list (Cal's Tyrone Wallace is the other).

Oregon and Utah each lost a standout talent (Joseph Young and Delon Wright, respectively), and Tinkle's second-year team loses no one of significance as it chases an NCAA tournament bid that has been elusive since 1990.

Tinkle will bring in his own son, highly recruited Tres, to the roster.

A team that should score better this year should also get some more easy baskets, too, with Payton returning as the NCAA's best turnover producer.

The Pac-12 could be wide open. Which makes it a wonder OSU was pegged so low to even allow for a surprise nomination.

SEC Surprise: Florida Gators

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What if we said Mike White's going to win SEC Coach of the Year?

The Gators will be good enough—not champs, mind you, but good enough—to get back to the NCAA tournament, perhaps under First Four consideration. And the new head coach is going to be rewarded for the guts it takes to replace a school legend.

The Gators were picked to finish sixth in White's first year, after he left a pretty cush job at Louisiana Tech. He had won three consecutive regular-season conference titles and also took home Conference USA's Coach of the Year honors last year.

"Let's not question how good we are," White told Matt Baker of the Tampa Bay Times recently. "We know we're better than this, and these are the areas that we need to fix, that we can improve upon. That's more the approach that we've taken. Challenging our guys rather than questioning our abilities. We're a different team. We're a new staff. We're going to have a bunch of new ways of doing things."

Dorian Finney-Smith should be better after a nudge-above-OK season (team-best 13.1 points, 6.2 rebounds). Michael Frazier questionably left for the NBA draft, but that merely opens room for a pretty talented recruit—KeVaughn Allen.

We're not out to say Florida's going to be a world-beater. But it'll be better than expected. And with everyone focusing on what would convince someone to try and replace Billy Donovan, White's going to do a fair job. His colleagues and the media will reward him for it later, even if there are trying times (and impatient Gators fans) at UF during the first year.