Bridges, Colson and Wichita State will help erase college basketball's worst offseason ever

Mercifully, we have come to the end of the worst offseason in college basketball history.

It’s like the end credits rolling on a terrible movie that was painful to endure. At least it’s over now. But will we ever completely shake it all?

We don’t know what all will come out of the Justice Department case against 10 men, including four Division I assistant coaches, involving alleged corruption in basketball. We don’t know what will happen with the three UCLA players arrested in China for alleged shoplifting. We don’t know if the NCAA infractions committee will ever recover its reputation after the unpopular ruling in the case against alleged academic misconduct at North Carolina.

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One thing is certain: The word “alleged” is getting far too much use around this game.

Let’s quit with all of that for now. There are games to be played, starting Friday night, accelerating Tuesday with the Champions Classic (Duke vs. Michigan, Kentucky vs. Kansas) and continuing on to the Final Four in San Antonio on March 31 and April 2.

Here are 10 reasons to get excited about all of that – and to forget the months just passed.

1. Championship contenders. If you look at the top 25 rankings compiled by Sporting News, CBS Sports, ESPN or the AP, you find there’s a consensus regarding the identity of the likely top teams. Duke, Michigan State, Arizona, Kansas, Kentucky and Villanova are expected to excel.

However, nearly all those teams are young and unproven at a majority of the five positions. Which means it’s hard to say exactly how good they will be, and when (or if) they’ll get there.

ESPN’s Jonathan Givony projects nine different colleges will produce draft picks in the top half of the 2018 first round, with Duke having three such players and Michigan State and Miami two each. That distribution of game-changing talent is another indicator there could be many legit title contenders by the time we get to March.

2. Miles Bridges. While the Sixers’ Ben Simmons tries to create a rebel image for himself by continuing to bash the NCAA – even though he moved more than 9,000 miles from his home to take advantage of its promotional value -- Bridges openly embraces what college basketball demands of him and provides to him. College hoops could use about 3,000 more Miles Bridges. But Michigan State’s got the only one.

DECOURCY: Why Miles Bridges dodged the NBA Draft to stay at Michigan State?

3.Mizzou back from the dead. We don’t know how good Missouri will be this season. It’s obvious the Tigers will be better than they were the last few seasons, though that’s a low bar to clear. What’s important is that this program whose passion had completely lapsed now has people caring again. Although Michael Porter Jr. will not be there long, he already is having an impact.

Good luck trying to buy a single-game ticket to a Mizzou home game. Seats on the secondary market for the home opener against Iowa State were $120 or more.

4.Grayson Allen is still here. Let’s be honest about this: There’ll be no player whose season will be more closely monitored and that’s exactly as it should be. He placed himself in this position by failing basic sportsmanship, but he also is famous for exceptional play. Will his final season be a triumph or a tragedy? Who doesn’t want to find out?

5. Jock Landale. That there’s a star player named Jock is cool enough on its own, and behind his double-double production it’s possible Saint Mary’s could flirt with accomplishing what Butler did twice, what VCU did in 2011, what Wichita State did in 2013: reaching the Final Four as a true mid-major.

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The Gaels were 29-6 in Landale’s first season as a starter, and they’re 58-11 in his two seasons as a regular. They have back five of their top seven players from last season, when they tortured Arizona for most of a second-round NCAA Tournament game and only lost three times to teams not named Gonzaga.

It’s possible this Saint Mary’s team is superior to the Zags.

6. Wichita’s move. The decision of Wichita State to accept an invitation from the American Athletic Conference might turn out to be misguided in the end, but for now it invigorates a conference that already had some exceptional teams in place.

The games between Wichita and Cincinnati or Wichita and UConn or Wichita and Central Florida should be compelling, and the media’s respect of the Shockers because of their accomplishments this decade will help the league to gain attention.

7.The Arizona mystery. When the offseason began, the greatest question facing the Wildcats was whether they at last would break through to coach Sean Miller’s first Final Four. Then assistant coach Book Richardson was arrested, and now there’s cause to wonder if all of that will affect the current season – or if there’ll be any greater repercussions than losing a coach and a committed recruit or two.

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8.The promise of blossoming talent. Jacob Evans of Cincinnati, Brian Brown of Miami and Robert Williams of Texas A&M all averaged fewer than 14 points per game last season – and yet two of the three are projected lottery picks and all have the ability to produce extraordinary seasons.

There’s nothing more fun in college basketball than watching players turn potential into production, in the way Wisconsin’s Frank Kaminsky did in 2015, Tyler Ulis did in 2016 and Justin Jackson did in 2017.

9.Villanova is going to be great again. What Jay Wright is achieving at Villanova is staggering, and perhaps unappreciated. In the four years of the new Big East, Villanova has won the league each time – by an average of 3 games – and owns a 129-17 record.

All that with only a single NBA first-round pick (to date).

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Remember when people were trying to “hot-seat” Wright because the Wildcats didn’t make the NCAAs in his first three years? Now he’s headed toward the Hall of Fame.

10.Bonzie! How can you not love a guy who is 6-5, averages a double-double and shoots better than 40 percent on 3-pointers? Notre Dame’s Bonzie Colson has made just about every preseason All-America team. The mock drafts are somewhat less kind, but a player this great is going to find a way to make it.