2008 Men's College Basketball Preview

Can Anyone Stop the Tar Heels?
2008 Men's College Basketball Preview
A LayupDrill.com exclusive

My personal favorite postseason of every major sport I follow is Men's College Basketball, and March Madness. Anyone has a shot to make history and make a run at the National Title. The optimism that is on campuses across the country in November turns to reality by January.

LayupDrill.com separates the contenders from the pretenders and makes the bold prediction that one of these five teams will be cutting down the nets in April as National Champions.

1. North Carolina - The consensus choice of every major media outlet and basketball expert this year is Roy Williams' group. With the talent that returned to Chapel Hill, with the primary goal of winning it all, it makes a lot of sense.

You have Tyler Hansbrough, along with the best guard tandem in the country in Ty Lawson and Wayne Ellington, to make the Tar Heels really tough to beat. Many feel that the 2008 Tar Heels are better on paper than the Sean May led 2005 group that won the title.

Carolina will be tested early and often and will have the bull's-eye clearly on them throughout the season. But the wonderful thing about sports is that this will be decided on the court, not by anyone's opinion. When it is all said and done, Carolina will make it to Detroit for the Final Four, but they will come up just short, breaking the hearts of the legions of Carolina fans across the country.

2. Louisville - Rick Pitino’s Cardinals are loaded again. Edgar Sosa, Earl Clark, Jerry Smith and Andre McGee all return, and Louisville added some help in the frontcourt. While Carolina will get the headlines and deservedly so, Louisville will arguably be the best team in America by seasons end.

3. UCLA - Ben Howland has Darren Collison back running the show in LA for his Bruins, who look to make it to the Final Four again. The Bruins chances will look good, though they lost Kevin Love to the NBA this past season.

4. UConn - There is a lot of optimism for this years UConn team, which combines veteran leadership with some new young talent for Jim Calhoun. The Huskies will be right there competing for a one seed in the spring and expect them to go very deep in the tournament.

5. Notre Dame - Luke Harangody is a name some people may not be familiar with right now, but you will hear a lot about him in South Bend this season. The Irish will compete to be the third best team in the best conference in America, the Big East. Sometimes third isn't bad though, as they still will be favored to make it to Detroit in the spring.

6-10.

6. Michigan State

7. Pittsburgh

8. Texas

9. Duke

10. Gonzaga

My Final Four Picks:

UConn, UNC, Louisville, UCLA

National Champion - Louisville