NCAA basketball: Predicting the 2023 Final Four and national champion

The 2022 edition of March Madness just ended but it’s never too early to see who will make the 2023 Final Four in Houston.

The 2022 Final Four was one of the most highly-anticipated groupings in the history of the NCAA Tournament with four blue bloods fighting to cut down the nets in New Orleans. March Madness always provides plenty of thrills every year and 2023 should be exciting as all 368 Division I teams look to reach Houston for the Final Four next April.

It may seem crazy to project the Final Four for next season when we haven’t seen the impact of the NBA Draft, transfer portal or final decisions from key recruits. Even though we are nearly a year away from crowning the next national champion, here’s a way-too-early look at who will get to Houston as well as who wins it all.

Projecting the 2023 Final Four and national champion

UCLA Bruins

The Bruins made the Final Four in 2021 in the Indianapolis bubble but failed to live up to the hype of a No. 2 preseason ranking this season as they got bounced in the Sweet 16 by North Carolina. The good news for Mick Cronin’s team is that the bad taste from this season could entice Johnny Juzang, Jaime Jaquez and Peyton Watson to forgo the draft and return to Westwood in pursuit of March Madness glory.

Getting that trio back, along with the return of guards Tyger Campbell and Jaylen Clark, will give UCLA plenty of experience that should prove valuable when the NCAA Tournament rolls around. The pending addition of five-star recruits Adem Bona and Amari Bailey will add more talent to a roster that is loaded with it, creating an excellent mix that should cruise to the Final Four.

Kansas Jayhawks

The afterglow of a historic championship run should stay with Kansas for a while but there are plenty of reasons to expect a potential repeat. Even with the likely departure of Ochai Agbaji to the NBA, the Jayhawks will have Dajuan Harris and Jalen Wilson back in the starting lineup while Christian Braun could bring Kansas back to an elite level if he opts to return to school for his senior season. A fringe pick at the top of the second round, Braun would become a favorite to succeed Ogbaji as the Jayhawks’ offensive leader if he comes back to Lawrence.

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The biggest reason to be bullish on Kansas is their loaded recruiting class which features three five-star prospects who could come in and start right away. The headliner of the group is small forward Gradey Dick, a McDonald’s All-American who is ranked inside the Top 10 of the ESPN 100, who could become the latest one-and-done superstar for the Jayhawks, who have seen Ben McLemore, Andrew Wiggins and Josh Jackson use Kansas as a springboard to the NBA Draft lottery.

Arkansas Razorbacks

Eric Musselman has shown an ability to be a strong NCAA Tournament coach with a litany of upsets on his resume and the Razorbacks are poised to be the class of the SEC next season. Arkansas is losing a few key rotation players if their seniors don’t exercise their bonus COVID years, with JD Notae being the most notable of them, but Jaylin Williams took a big leap forward this season and could be Arkansas’ best player if he forgoes the NBA Draft this summer.

The reason that the Razorbacks will get into the Final Four is that Musselman has put together a Top-3 recruiting class littered with five-star talents like Anthony Black, Nick Smith and Jordan Walsh. Those three rank among the seven most prolific recruits in the history of Arkansas’ program and should add rocket fuel to a rugged defensive team that needed a bit more offensive punch to take the next step from the Elite Eight into the Final Four.

Houston Cougars – National Champion

What the Cougars managed to do this season while turning over the vast majority of a 2021 Final Four roster was remarkable. Head coach Kelvin Sampson deserves a ton of credit for managing to get his team to the Elite Eight without the services of two key starters, Tramon Mark and Marcus Sasser, who were both lost for the season to injury by mid-January.

Both guys should be back this season along with several key rotation players, including point guard Jamal Shead and big man J’Wan Roberts. That continuity will be massive for Houston, which also adds Top 10 recruit Jarace Walker to add a five-star recruit at the power forward spot. Walker’s addition and the healthy returns of their two best players will be a tremendous boost for the Cougars, who are the favorites to cut down the nets at NRG Stadium, which is just over 90 minutes away from their campus.

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