Take a guess who Brovada likes as the favorite to win the 2015 national title. My hint to you is WVU is familiar with this team.

 

Melo Trimble is coming back and Jake Layman is a very nice partner piece. Diamond Stone (that is his name) is a super center recruit and Robert Carter is a 6-foot-8 transfer who sat out last season but was a known double-double threat at Georgia Tech. At the NCAA tournament, the word was Trimble would return and Stone would commit — he and previously committed junior college transfer Jaylen Brantley, who is no slouch, grew close during their recruitment. If both were to happen, and they did a short while after the NCAA tournament, then Maryland was a preseason top-10, maybe even top-five team.

Then dismissed Duke guard Rasheed Sulaimon transferred in with the ability to play right away and, yeah, that’s a pretty good squad in what might be a skinnier-than-normal Big Ten. So 9-to-1 it is, and I never would have thought that as I headed to the Sweet Sixteen, mostly because I had to wonder about Trimble and the NBA, but he made a good decision and kept his name out of a bloated draft.

As for 100-to-1 WVU, it plays three teams with odds at or better than 20-to-1, and the word is the Mountaineers will draw fourth, Cal, in the first on-site game of the Las Vegas tournament. (This assumes San Diego State, a MWC team that typically draws well at the conference tournament in Vegas, beats Richmond in the opener so that the final has two very good teams no matter what). The Bears have a silly recruiting class and return their top two scorers and five of their top six. They’re stacked. Cuonzo Matin, y’all.

Anyhow, let’s assume WVU draws and beats Cal and SDSU beats Richmond. That’s nine opponents and 14 games against teams with equal or better national title odds.

Maryland                       9/1

Duke                            10/1

Kentucky                      10/1

North Carolina               10/1

Kansas                         16/1 

Michigan State              16/1

Arizona                         20/1

California                      20/1 

Iowa State                     20/1 

Virginia                         20/1 

Gonzaga                       25/1

Indiana                          25/1

Villanova                       25/1

Wichita State                 25/1

Oklahoma                     28/1 

Michigan                       33/1

Purdue                          33/1

Louisville                      40/1

LSU                              50/1

Notre Dame                  50/1

Ohio State                    50/1

Syracuse                      50/1

Texas                           50/1 

Texas A&M                   50/1

UConn                          50/1

Utah                             50/1

Wisconsin                     50/1

Florida                          66/1 

Miami FL                       66/1

SMU                             66/1

Baylor                           75/1 

Butler                            75/1

NC State                       75/1

Auburn                          100/1

Cincinnati                      100/1

Dayton                         100/1

Florida State                 100/1

Georgetown                  100/1

Georgia                        100/1

Illinois                           100/1

Iowa                             100/1

Providence                   100/1

San Diego State            100/1 

UCLA                            100/1

West Virginia                 100/1 

Vanderbilt                     125/1

Arkansas                      150/1

Oregon                         150/1

Alabama                       200/1

Marquette                     200/1

Memphis                       200/1

Northern Iowa                200/1

Pittsburgh                     200/1

UNLV                            200/1

VCU                             200/1

Xavier                           200/1

Stanford                       250/1

BYU                             300/1

Colorado                      300/1

Colorado State              300/1

Creighton                      300/1

Minnesota                     300/1

Missouri                        300/1

Murray State                 300/1

Oklahoma State            300/1 

Ole Miss                       300/1

South Carolina              300/1

St. John’s                     300/1

Temple                         300/1

Washington                   300/1

Arizona State                500/1

Boston College             500/1

Clemson                       500/1

DePaul                         500/1

George Washington       500/1

Georgia Tech                500/1

Harvard                         500/1

Kansas State                500/1 

LaSalle                         500/1

Nebraska                      500/1

New Mexico                  500/1

Penn State                    500/1

Richmond                     500/1

Seton Hall                     500/1

St. Joe’s                       500/1

St. Louis                       500/1

Tennessee                    500/1

Texas Tech                   500/1 

UMass                          500/1

USC                             500/1

Virginia Tech                 500/1 

Wake Forest                 500/1