Even though Michigan’s basketball season has come to its sad end, college basketball is still at a fever pitch – after the 48 games last weekend, sixteen teams are left with Final Four (and possibly National Championship) aspirations. I’m here to sort out which teams you should be rooting for; of course, it’s a free country and you’re perfectly at liberty to root for whoever you want. There’s no set criteria here, and I’ll try to avoid personal biases as much as possible for the most part. The list came together quite quickly, and without further ado, here it is:

1. Wichita State

Fred VanVleet is a badass. Is that a Dutch name, Freddy? If so, you’re joining the pantheon of West Michigan Hoops idols alongside Kaman, Korver, and – sigh – Neitzel.

Wichita State tops the list for several reasons:

• They eliminated Tom Crean and Indiana.
• Their win over Kansas was one of the better early round games in recent memory, if only for the storyline: due to scheduling disputes, the teams hadn’t played each other since the early nineties, despite Wichita State’s emergence into a legitimately great program in recent years. The committee faced a lot of criticism for some dubious selections and seedings this year, but KU – WSU in the 2 / 7 game was a gift from the basketball gods.
• And they gave Kansas that work. Wichita State looked like they were clearly better than the Jayhawks and watching the Shockers go to work behind Fred VanVleet and Ron Baker, their normal stars, and Tekele Cotton, typically a defense-first pest on the wing. After trailing 24-16 early in the game, Wichita State outscored Kansas by 21 points.
• Demerits come because of the relative lack of trash talk after the game by Wichita State players. I guess they’re better men than me because I would be woofing about how Kansas was right in being afraid to play us.
• I still feel like the Shockers’ draw last season was patently unfair.
• Looking ahead past Notre Dame, there’s the potential for an absolutely outstanding Elite Eight game between Kentucky and Wichita State: the Wildcats ended WSU’s undefeated year last season and even though WSU is worse and UK is better, it would still be a good contest – Wichita State’s backcourt is probably better than Kentucky’s and the Shockers are seventh nationally in Kenpom, perfectly within range of the Cats. An upset there would be one for the ages.

Even with all of those legitimate points in their favor, Wichita State is just a very fun team to watch for some basic reasons: very good point guard play, unselfish ball movement, stingy defense, and that unmistakable underdog je ne sais quoi.

2. Oklahoma

Buddy, my favorite non-Michigan college hoops player, after hitting the game-winner against Kansas in the season finale.

I’ll be up front in admitting my Sooner love here – my grandfather graduated from OU with the help of the GI Bill, he’s a diehard fan who had football and basketball tickets for decades, and I grew up with Oklahoma as a clear but definite #2 behind Michigan. BOOMER!

But seriously, check the schedule and Oklahoma plays… Michigan State. As expected, the media follow-up to MSU’s upset win over Virginia has fixated on the “Tom Izzo is a March God” phenomenon, and frankly, who wouldn’t like to see that nipped in the bud as soon as possible? For that reason and that reason alone, you should all be joining in and rooting for Oklahoma – it’s them, or it’s State.

Beyond that though, OU is an objectively likable team. Fast-talking Bahamian swingman Buddy Hield was named Big XII player of the year as a junior and even though he’s a serial whiner, his game is enough to redeem him and then some. For some reason, I fixate on a possible parallel between he and an idealized Zak Irvin; Hield’s usage was at levels Zak’s will never reach, but watch the way they play and let me know if I’m just imagining this or not. Flanking Hield is Houston transfer Tashawn Thomas, and for those of you that appreciate a bruising, classic four man, Thomas is your guy. He’s a load on the low block and helps anchor the Sooner defense alongside Ryan Spangler (who looks like a stereotypical Oklahoman).

There are other dudes: Jordan Woodard, a tiny, audacious and fearless point guard with a frustrating propensity for turnovers; Isaiah Cousins, a chucker who’s hitting 45% of his threes as the two guard; Frank Booker, who hit some big shots in a win over Dayton; and backup big man Khadeem Lattin, the grandson of the starting center on Texas Western’s trailblazing national title team (Khadeem lists Glory Road as his favorite movie on OU’s official site because of course). Lon Kruger is a Beileinesque head coach in that he’s been a successful nomad and seems like a fairly decent dude, as far as I know.

If nothing else, root hard for the Sooners against Michigan State, but I’m hopeful that you’ll stick around if they advance. OU is a frustrating team – at their best, they look like a reasonably-priced knockoff Kentucky (though with a more fun, guard-oriented offense); at their worst, it looks like it’s the first time they played together. Come for the Spartan haterade, stay for the roller coaster.

3. Arizona

FUTURE PISTON STANLEY JOHNSON. PLEASE. GIVE US STANLEY.

Yes, Michigan got stomped by these guys. No, I can’t really hold it against them.

Arizona is the trendy pick as Kentucky’s best foil, especially after Villanova crashed and burned and Wisconsin struggled to overwhelm a pesky Oregon squad. Look at the frontcourt and you’ll see why: veteran seven-footer Kaleb “Zeus” Tarczewski mans the paint and protects the rim and he’s joined by two versatile – not to mention big and athletic – power forwards, Brandon Ashley and Rondae Hollis-Jefferson. One-and-done freshman big Aaron Gordon was replaced by one-and-done freshman wing Stanley Johnson, who’s currently second-place in Kenpom’s NPOY algorithm and is an absolute joy to watch. He did dunk all over Michigan a few times, but hopefully he’ll be putting on the Piston red, white, and blue for the next decade or so.

Like the teams above, the Wildcats make the list because of Basketball Reasons as well as situational circumstances. They have just enough shooting – thanks Gabe York! – to augment their elite frontcourt; they have a scrappy floor general who just plays the game the right way, bringing his hard-hat and lunch pail to the court every day (I sense a lot of Aaron Craft white guy platitudes for T.J. McConnell from the national media). They’re one of the few tolerable blue-bloods (or the next tier down, depending on your perspective) and if you’re a fan of good basketball, you’ll like Pomeroy’s second-rated team. Oh, and they wound up knocking out Ohio State and making D’Angelo Russell’s college finale a miserable game.

Plenty of teams can beat Kentucky – hello home OT win over Ole Miss minus their star player in that overtime, or a road OT win over Texas A&M, who didn’t make the tournament – even though most almost certainly wouldn’t. If you don’t like Kentucky, Arizona is the team to circle: they may very well be the Cats’ equals more or less. And if they lose to UK in the Final Four, at least they’ll have given Kentucky the toughest test possible before the coronation.

I know plenty of you hate Wisconsin and they’re on track to face the Badgers in the Elite Eight. So there’s that too.

[After the jump, 4 through 8]

4. Gonzaga

Bulldog legend Adam Morrison has more NBA Championships than Charles Barkley, Reggie Miller, Patrick Ewing, John Stockton, and Karl Malone COMBINED.

Gonzaga’s become polarized in the years after ascending to being the face of mid-major hype and eventual tournament disappointment. Two years ago, the Zags, led by crazy-looking Viking time-traveler Kelly Olynyk, received a one-seed before bowing out in the Round of 32 to Wichita State (who hit an absurd amount of threes and eventually made the Final Four). It was the year for Gonzaga and they ultimately fell way short. This year’s much like that, except they’re still around for the Sweet 16.

As a college kid, I have some constants in life – one of them is a very late bedtime. As a result of that, I watch more Gonzaga basketball than anyone probably should, so I know their team fairly well. And, despite foolishly picking Iowa over them in the Round of 32 – Gonzaga destroyed the Hawkeyes – I believe in these Bulldogs. There are some teams you should just never trust in the NCAA Tournament: Texas (lol), NC State (who pulled a massive upset!!!), Georgetown (at least they lost to a team with a single-digit seed this time), Kansas (Bill Self’s so lucky Memphis missed those damn free throws), and Gonzaga. But I trust them, for one big reason:

DAT FRONTCOURT.

Gonzaga’s three-man frontcourt rotation is the Platonic Ideal of college big men: they have a stretch-four who’s ruthlessly efficient, capable of scoring from anywhere (former Kentucky Wildcat – and national champion – Kyle Wiltjer, who’s reinvented himself as an alpha dog in Spokane); they have a mountain of a man at the five spot, Polish national Przemek Karnowski,* who stands at a listed 7’1 and has to weigh over three bills – Karnowski is a peerless destroyer against the feeble WCC and the question is if he can excel against major-conference teams; and backing up both frontcourt spots is the wiry Domantas Sabonis – a fluid 6’10 matchup nightmare much like his famous father. Any combination of those three is incredibly effective and downright fun to watch.

*That I spelled “Przemek right on the first try tells you that I watched enough Gonzaga this year.

The Zags feature senior Canadian PG (and former Michigan target) Kevin Pangos in the backcourt and flesh out the rotation with token scrappy white dude Kyle Draginis, senior glue guy Gary Bell Jr., and former USC Trojan Byron Wesley.

This is a new Gonzaga. I promise. Please don’t trip over yourselves against UCLA and please don’t let Jahlil Okafor devour poor Przemek in the Elite Eight.

A Brief Interlude

Each of these four teams fall into separate regions: Wichita State in the Midwest, Arizona in the West, Oklahoma in the East, and Gonzaga in the South. My ideal Final Four would pit Wichita State against Arizona and Oklahoma against Gonzaga, and would feature WSU and OU in the title game. Objectively, I’d have to say a Wichita State championship would be the most fun for most of you, but just think of me – living and dying with each hoist from Buddy – and my family, including my WWII vet grandfather, who bleeds crimson and cream. You love America, right? Oklahoma. America.

Seriously, that would be a great Final Four: no one-seeds (but two twos and a three), no irritating blue-bloods like Kentucky or Duke, no Wisconsin or Michigan State. These teams are ranked 11th or higher in Kenpom too, so it would be some quality hoops.

Let’s hope it happens.

5. North Carolina State

Cat Barber, good college basketball player, or niche profession? (The answer is both).

If there’s an “upset of the tournament” thus far, NC State making the Sweet 16 probably wins over the two 14-over-3 wins (though shouts to Georgia State and UAB for making Thursday afternoon very compelling. Special thanks to Ron and RJ Hunter for giving us the Vine of the tournament). The Wolfpack benefited from a legendary LSU collapse in the 8 / 9 game and few expected much against a Villanova team that, with its poise and consistency, seemed staunchly antithetical to the schizophrenic North Carolina State Wolfpack.

Because college basketball never makes any dang sense, NCSU looked like the composed veterans and Nova seemingly choked in the big moment. Four, um, Wolves(?) finished in double figures: a junior, Trevor Lacey, two sophomore, the excellently-nicknamed Anthony “Cat” Barber and Lennard Freeman, and a freshman big guy, Abdul-Malik Abu, who you should definitely root for. Bizarrely, NCSU – typically one of the most inconsistent and untrustworthy teams in college hoops, looked better than Villanova for most of the forty minutes and coolly held onto the lead in the face of a frenzied Wildcat comeback.

Barber and Abu are their two most exciting players – Cat, true to his name, is a precocious, lightning-quick point guard who defends well and Abu is a bouncy, burly freshman who complements NC State’s host of big guys very well. Add in BeeJay Anya, who made the game-winner against LSU, and you have a legitimately fun team.

Now, it’s perhaps time to consider NC State as a Final Four darkhorse: during the regular season, they beat Duke at home and Louisville and North Carolina on the road – proof that the Pack can hang with and beat anyone. They get a rematch with Louisville in the Sweet 16, the first intra-conference matchup of this year’s tournament, before potentially facing the winner of Oklahoma and Michigan State. They’re the second-lowest seed left in the dance (ahead of wholly undeserving UCLA) and the NCSU chaos engine could continue their surprising run.

6. Utah

Delon Wright have it all and Jakob Poeltl is only scratching the surface.

One of the most underseeded teams in the tournament, the Utah Utes are, frankly, amazing. Just three years ago, they were arguably the worst major-conference team in the country; Utah finished 6-25 and 297th nationally in Kenpom back in 2012. Fast forward and they’re a long, terrifying two-way team that should scare the bejeezus out of Duke if all goes according to plan.

The headliner is Delon Wright, perhaps the nation’s best combination of talent and anonymity. Since he’s a fifth-year senior, his draft stock belies his level of production: he’s incredibly efficient, distributes the ball well without turning it over, rebounds the ball well for his position (SG), and has a top-50 steal rate. If Buddy Hield is the ideal Zak Irvin, Delon Wright may be the ideal Caris LeVert – a lanky Swiss Army Knife two guard who serves as the hub on the offensive end and disrupts the opponents on the other end. Somehow Wright didn’t win PAC-12 POY over Oregon’s Joseph Young, a remorseless and inefficient chucker who put up gaudier point totals in a higher-tempo offense. Wright’s an awesome player to watch, a man among boys, but not because of unparalleled physical strength.

I won’t profess to being well-versed in Utah’s personnel, but there’s another guy you should watch: seven-foot Austrian freshman Jakob Poeltl. Poeltl could be the first-ever Austrian to reach the NBA, and it’s easy to see why: he cleans the glass on both ends as well as you’d ask for a guy his size, he possesses both the athleticism and timing necessary for intimidating rim protectors, and he’s absurdly efficient – shooting a Jordan Morgan-level 69% on the year from the field. Terrible at free throws though. Poeltl against Duke’s Jahlil Okafor might be one of the best individual matchups in the Sweet 16 – Poeltl is extremely raw in comparison but Okafor could be exposed against a bigger and more athletic foe.

I guess I buried the lede here: Utah plays Duke this weekend. That’s all you need. Go Utes.

7. Xavier (or, um, Matt Stainbrook)

LOOK AT THIS GUY ^

Like most schools in the Old Big East – still named the Big East, as opposed to the “American” which features a Frankenstein amalgam of all your former Big East football dregs and CUSA whatevers – Xavier struggles with exposure: Fox’s deal with the Big East effectively freezes the league out from attention or televised appearances on ESPN, the looming near-monopoly of regular-season college basketball consciousness. Villanova got their due props from the Worldwide Leader because they were damn good, but the second class of the league went largely unnoticed. Sorry Xavier, Butler, and Georgetown – Fox Sports One isn’t in my channel rotation when searching for hoops.

So I hardly know anything about Xavier. I guess Jalen Reynolds, a sophomore center who poured in 27 in the Round of 32 against Georgia State, is from Detroit? That’s cool. But I do know one thing: MATT STAINBROOK IS A MUSKETEER.

Look at the guy pictured above. Does he look like a big time college basketball player or does he look like the guy who lazily dominates inside at the Y between leisurely reps on the stationary bike? Does he look like an Uber driver? He is! Matt Stainbrook is, as far as I know, the only remaining hipster left in the NCAA Tournament and I couldn’t be happier for that. As for myself, I’m not really a hipster, but I do hail from Grand Rapids (with its famous hipster haven in Eastown) and live in Ann Arbor (which needs no introduction) so I know hipsters when I see them. The other thing: Stainbrook started his career at Western Michigan before transferring to Xavier – where he plays a modest, but important role in a job share at the power forward spot. It’s just funny watching this guy play basketball. Unfortunately, the senior will be facing Brandon Ashley and Rondae Hollis-Jefferson in the next round. We’ll remember you, you husky, begoggled wonder.

Possible demerit: Xavier is in Ohio. Counterpoint: is Cincinnati even Ohio really?

8. Notre Dame

HOW DOES ANYONE GET THIS HIGH IN THE AIR?

It’s just hard to muster the same enmity for Notre Dame hoops. Michigan hasn’t played the Irish in nine seasons, the last contest a thrilling 2OT NIT win in Ann Arbor. On the hardwood, it’s not a rivalry in any sense of the word, so ND hoops is alright by me (at least until I realize the overlap between Notre Dame football and basketball fans – though the worst ND football fans turn their jackets inside out to reveal Indiana colors in the winter).

This year’s Notre Dame squad is a Beileinesque offensive juggernaut – the Irish play four-out offense around a solitary big guy (seriously, 6’10 junior center Zach Auguste is the only rotation guy listed above 6’5), chuck a ton of threes, utilize a gritty Novak analogue – Pat Connaughton, who’s pretty much a Fighting Irish fever dream personified. The Irish are powered by two excellent guards: Jerian Grant was suspended last year for academic issues and Notre Dame sucked, quite frankly, but now he’s back and they’re a three-seed! He’s a ball dominant lead guard who doesn’t shoot all that well from three but has every other club in his bag on the offensive end, so to speak. Former Michigan target Demetrius Jackson is effectively a shooting guard who capitalizes on efficient opportunities created by Grant’s presence.

Notre Dame is a legitimately fun team, especially when you strip away, well, the whole Notre Dame rivalry thing. It will be hard for some of you, but those who wouldn’t begrudge the hoops team, this is an aesthetic pleasure, the closest thing to the high-flying Michigan offenses of the last two years that you’ll find in college basketball this year. Since Connaughton – who’s “sneaky” athletic – and Steve Vasturia man the wing, ND still has the pale white dudes you’d expect.

One thing that I think is definitely worth noting: before ND’s big overtime win over Butler in the Round of 32, head coach Mike Brey (who is a terrific guy, by all accounts) lost his mother to a heart attack. Amazingly, Brey coached later that day without informing anyone of the news before the post-game press conference. It really goes without saying, but obviously some things are far bigger than sports and it’s going to be extremely easy to pull for Brey as he continues through this tough time. Thoughts are with you, Coach.

Up tomorrow: HATE HATE HATE