NCAAB

Big 12 expert picks, predictions 2019-20: Kansas picked to win league even after streak of 14 titles is snappedIn the Big 12, our experts believe Kansas has the talent to reclaim its spot atop the league standings Kansas' reign of dominance in the Big 12 with 14 consecutive league titles was snapped last season when Texas Tech and Kansas State shared the regular-season conference crown and stole it from the Jayhawks, ending one of the most remarkable runs of sustained success in college basketball history. A run like that may never be seen again with as much parity that exists in the sport, but who's to say Kansas can't start a new streak? Our panel of experts believe it can happen, as KU is the consensus favorite to win the league entering the 2019-20 season. Bill Self's team not only boasts CBS Sports' Big 12 Preseason Player of the Year, but they're the only team in our Preseason All-America projections to have multiple players on the first, second or ..

College basketball rankings: Michigan State makes school history, debuts at No. 1 in preseason AP Top 25The first edition of the AP poll has Michigan State ahead of Kentucky, Kansas and Duke For the first time in school history, Michigan State will begin the season as college basketball's No. 1 team. The Spartans are the overwhelming favorite in the preseason AP Top 25, released Monday. Sparty returns many of its pieces from the 2019 Final Four team, led by CBS Sports Preseason All-American and Player of the Year Cassius Winston. The rest of the top five fleshes out with familiar big-time programs: Kentucky is No. 2, Kansas is No. 3, Duke is No. 4 and Louisville is No. 5. In a coup for the sport, the top four teams will all be featured in the annual season-opening Champions Classic, which will be held at Madison Square Garden on Nov. 5. MSU will play Kentucky; Kansas will play Duke. Florida checks in at No. 6, which is its highest preseason ranking since 2006, when it returned ..

Putting the 16 college basketball teams with a realistic shot at the NCAA Tournament title into tiersThe front runners, contenders, dark horses and wild cards who could with the title this season Good news, college basketball fans. I've brought a cheat sheet for the campaign forthcoming. We're five months away from Selection Sunday, but I can already promise you that this story will provide the answer for who will win the 2020 NCAA Tournament. 2019-20 Preview CBS Sports Preseason All-America teamsCBS Sports preseason awardsWhat team exactly? Ah, if only it were that easy. But broadly speaking, we already know. Fortunately, forecasting which teams are built to withstand the rigors of nearly 40 games and win a title is something of a computable science in college basketball. (Still, it's much harder than college football, which maybe has eight teams capable of winning it all.) In 2016, I identified 19 candidates. The past two seasons have brought about 16 schools with a..

College basketball recruiting: Juwan Howard lands first five-star recruit in forward Isaiah ToddTodd picked the Wolverines over Kansas, giving Michigan its first five-star commitment since 2012 When Michigan tabbed former Fab Five star Juwan Howard as its coach to succeed John Beilein, the expectation was that he'd bring in top-end talent. And thus far, he's living up to the hype. Howard on Thursday reeled in his first five-star commitment since taking over the program, beating out Kansas and Hall of Fame coach Bill Self for blue-chip power forward prospect Isaiah Todd. Todd is just the third five-star to ever commit to Michigan according to the 247Sports database and the highest-rated pledge in program history, edging out 2012 signee Glenn Robinson and 2003 signee Dion Harris. Todd narrowed his list to Kansas and Michigan and made official visits to both in the past month. He ultimately sided with Michigan, telling 247Sports the bond he formed with Howard -- himself a onc..

Kentucky basketball recruiting: Wildcats land five-star Class of 2021 guard Devin AskewAskew is a top-10 player in the 2021 class who could reclassify to be eligible in 2020 The rich got a little bit richer on Thursday night as five-star guard Devin Askew, the No. 10 overall prospect in the 247Sports Composite rankings for the Class of 2021, committed to the Kentucky Wildcats. Askew made visits to Louisville, Arizona and Memphis, but the Wildcats -- who offered this summer and made a spirited push for him in recent months -- won out. The 6-foot-3 Askew is the first top-50 recruit in the 2021 class to have already made a commitment, which itself is interesting. Adding to the intrigue is speculation that the blue-chip combo guard could reclassify to the 2020 class, which would qualify him to be at UK in the fall of 2020. Kentucky already has the No. 2 recruiting class in 2020 with four commitments from top-50 prospects. Another level to Askew's recruitment centers around what it mea..

2019-20 CBS Sports college basketball preseason awards: Our player, coach and freshman of the yearIt's not often that the player of the year and the coach of the year come from the same program We are 19 days away from the start of the 2019-20 season, but we can't wait any longer to give up the goods. It's time to announce the biggest preseason proverbial hardware we've got. As you likely know, there are three major individual awards doled out in college basketball every pre- and postseason. Player of the Year. Freshman of the Year. Coach of the Year. 2019-20 Preview CBS Sports Preseason All-America TeamsThere's no Heisman Trophy-type award. (Maybe that's for the best.) As we sit here now, two-plus weeks before the season starts in earnest, it seems obvious who the choices have to be. Maybe we'll look back in five months and scratch our heads, as opposed to nodding them. If so, that adds to the fun. Unpredictability, etc. So, now's the time ..

College Basketball Podcast: Who missed the cut on the CBS Sports All America teams?Gary Parrish and Matt Norlander also discuss the hot-seat coaches fighting for their jobs The CBS Sports Preseason All-America teams have been published. If you haven't seen them yet, be sure to check them out. They consist of 15 players from 14 different schools -- which means only one team provided multiple players. And that team is ... Bill Self's Kansas Jayhawks. What did we get right? What did we (possibly) get wrong? Matt Norlander and I got together Wednesday to discuss the All-America teams player by player in this episode of the CBS Sports Eye on College Basketball Podcast. After that, the conversation went like this: 29:00: So which player omitted from one of our three All-America teams will make us most regret leaving him off by the end of the season? I think at least one player from Kentucky -- Tyrese Maxey? -- will probably emerge from that group. Somebody besides Tre Jones at D..

2019-20 CBS Sports Preseason All-America teams: College basketball's best and most talented playersMichigan State's Cassius Winston and Marquette's Markus Howard lead the CBS Sports All-America teams The 2019-20 college basketball season will get underway in less than three weeks with the Champions Classic serving as the sport's biggest early event. On that night, inside New York's Madison Square Garden, four of the 15 players who earned CBS Sports Preseason All-American honors will be on display. As always, it should be awesome. As always, I can't wait. And there's no better way to get pumped for that November launch than to unveil the complete CBS Sports Preseason All-American teams, which look a lot different from last season's CBS Sports Postseason All-American teams -- mostly because only two All-Americans from last season (Michigan State's Cassius Winston and Marquette's Markus Howard) returned to school. So there were lots of ..

NBA Draft prospect rankings: Three Kentucky stars make the top 13 SEC players who could be draftedA look at the 13 best NBA prospects from the SEC for this season and beyond For the first six years of John Calipari's tenure at Kentucky, the Wildcats could stake claim to bragging rights about having the first player from the SEC drafted. It played a huge role in his rise to building the UK empire -- and now that trend is turning. In 2016, LSU's Ben Simmons was drafted ahead of Jamal Murray and Skal Labissiere. In 2018, it was Alabama standout Collin Sexton who going ahead of Kentucky's Kevin Knox and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander. And this past summer, it was Vanderbilt standout Darius Garland who got the nod at No. 5 over PJ Washington, Tyler Herro and Keldon Johnson. 2020 could see another program steal the crown Kentucky once cradled. For a third consecutive year, it's looking like (for now) a non-Kentucky SEC program is in line to have a player drafted ahead of a Kentu..

2019-20 SEC expert picks, predictions, preview: Florida, Auburn capable of catching KentuckyThe arrival of Virginia Tech transfer Kerry Blackshear Jr. could be enough to put the Gators on top in the SEC The SEC saw continued success last season, flaunting its depth and its development as teams like Tennessee, Kentucky and Auburn battled for the conference's top spot all season long. Then, after winning the SEC Tournament, Auburn came out hot in the postseason and advanced to the Final Four -- the seventh time an SEC team made the trip to the tournament's final weekend for since 2011, tying the Big Ten for most appearances in that span. The SEC could do the same this season, as basketball continues to ascend in a conference where football is king. Although the SEC produced seven first-round picks in the 2019 NBA Draft -- meaning a ton of its top talent departed for the pros -- the conference brings in five top-25 recruiting classes. Kentucky has the country's No. 2 ranke..