6 teams with a chance to be college basketball's next first-time champion

6 teams with a chance to be college basketball’s next first-time champion

FAYETTEVILLE, ARKANSAS - FEBRUARY 08: Wendell Green Jr. #1 of the Auburn Tigers drives against JD Notae #1 of the Arkansas Razorbacks at Bud Walton Arena on February 08, 2022 in Fayetteville, Arkansas. The Razorbacks defeated the Tigers 80-76. (Photo by Wesley Hitt/Getty Images) /

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CHAMPAIGN, ILLINOIS – FEBRUARY 24: Kofi Cockburn #21 of the Illinois Fighting Illini takes a shot over E.J. Liddell #32 and Zed Key #23 of the Ohio State Buckeyes during the first half at State Farm Center on February 24, 2022, in Champaign, Illinois. (Photo by Justin Casterline/Getty Images) /

Baylor made history by winning its first NCAA Tournament last year. These 6 teams can join the Bears in 2022 as a first-time national champion.

Unlike college football, where the usual suspects rack up national championships, college basketball is a sport where anyone can get hot for six games in March to win it all. Baylor became a national champion for the first time last April by knocking off Gonzaga in Indianapolis, making the Bears the fifth program in the past 20 years to become a first-time national champion.

This year’s field doesn’t feature a heavy favorite like the Bulldogs or Bears, which is evident in the constant shakeups in bracketology reports or the polls. You can make a case for upwards of ten teams to win the title this year but these six schools stand the best chance of joining Baylor in the first-time title club on April 4.

March Madness: Schools that can become a first-time national champion

6. Alabama Crimson Tide

There may not be a more frustrating team in the country than Alabama, which has lost some mind-boggling games this season, but few teams have better quality wins than the Crimson Tide. Alabama beat Gonzaga in Seattle earlier this season, which was a de facto road game and the last loss the Bulldogs have suffered, as well as elite AAC foe Houston.

The strength for Nate Oats’ team is in his backcourt where the three-headed monster of Jaden Shackleford, Jahvon Quinnerly and J.D. Davison is nearly impossible to stop. Alabama’s bread-and-butter is the three-point shot and if those triples are falling it will be very difficult for anyone to knock the Crimson Tide out.

5. Illinois Fighting Illini

It takes game-wrecking players to win a national championship and Illinois has the nation’s best big man in Kofi Cockburn. The 7-foot junior averages 21.2 points per game and 10.8 rebounds a game, numbers that have put him in the conversation for National Player of the Year honors.

Few opponents have a big man that can match up with Cockburn, giving him the potential to wreck games and carry the Fighting Illini through the bracket. Illinois also has strong perimeter play headlined by Alfonso Plummer, Andre Curbelo and Trent Frazier so it is truly a case of picking your poison to try and stop the Illini.

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