It's Champ Week, which can only mean one thing: It's time once again to try to extend what has become known far and wide in college basketball circles simply as The Streak.
Yes, we're referring to the 350 teams that will not win the 2022 men's college basketball national title. Every year this storied feature selects eight contenders out of the 358 Division I members. And every year since this piece's inception in 2016, the NCAA champion has indeed been one of those eight teams.
Here are the 350 teams that will not win the national championship, divided into three categories: ineligible, near misses and no clear path.
Ineligible (nine teams)
Bellarmine Knights
California Baptist Lancers
Dixie State Trailblazers
Merrimack Warriors
North Alabama Lions
Oklahoma State Cowboys
St. Thomas-Minnesota Tommies
Tarleton Texans
UC San Diego Tritons
Near misses (20 teams)
1. Alabama Crimson Tide
Nate Oats has worked miracles programmatically and, possibly, overachieved in 2022 specifically. Last year we grew accustomed to the idea that the Crimson Tide will make 3s and play excellent defense.
This year the first half of that statement has gone missing and the second half has become markedly more sporadic. Yet here is Alabama once again, marching toward a really nice seed. Well done, Coach! But perhaps Bama doesn't quite measure up to magic-eight material this time around.
2. Arkansas Razorbacks
Well these picks became terrifying right away. Arkansas can very easily make this "near miss" classification look ridiculous, and in fact the Razorbacks have been one of the strongest teams in the country over the past seven weeks.
Still, even if we ignore the 0-3 start to SEC play, Eric Musselman's team was measurably less accurate from the field than the league average over the other 15 conference games, too. Then again, the Hogs did great work to offset that with shot volume. Again, this is a risky pick.
3. Auburn Tigers
Did someone just say "risky pick"? Auburn was No. 1 in the AP poll for three weeks. Jabari Smith is the presumptive No. 2 pick in the 2022 draft. Walker Kessler is arguably the best rim defender in the nation. Bruce Pearl took this program to the Final Four three years ago, and he might win 2022 national coach of the year. Worried? Who could possibly be worried about saying Auburn won't win the national title?
The only thing weighing against all of the above — and maybe it shouldn't — is that the Tigers have been surprisingly ineffective on offense away from home since late January. Pearl's group scored an anemic 0.96 points per possession over those six games, two of which were against the otherwise unprepossessing likes of Missouri and Georgia.
4. UConn Huskies
These are the best of days for a UConn program that's about to play in a second consecutive NCAA tournament for the first time since Jim Calhoun was head coach. The Huskies have reached this height in 2022 with a big three consisting of R.J. Cole, Adama Sanogo and Tyrese Martin.
Great players all, it's just that Sanogo gets into foul trouble from time to time. The sophomore has been whistled at least four times on each of the past four occasions he has stepped onto the floor. Fouling out in 18 minutes didn't matter against Georgetown, but it certainly would in the NCAA tournament. The Huskies' best attribute on offense is excellent shot volume, and that comes in no small part from Sanogo pulling down his teammates' missed shots.
5. Illinois Fighting Illini
Brad Underwood's group began Big Ten play 6-0 with some impressive scoring displays. Ah, we all said, so this is the post-Ayo-Dosunmu Fighting Illini. Surround Kofi Cockburn with well-spaced shooters, many of whom are older than Dosunmu and a fair portion of the rest of the NBA.
Then the scoring dropped precipitously, but the Illini still bobbed and weaved their way to the top seed at the Big Ten tournament. Ah, we're all saying, Illinois outscored its conference opponents by a total of seven points (1,011 to 1,004) over the final 14 games of the Big Ten season. It was riveting spectator sport, and several close wins included a Trent Frazier 3 in the 40th minute. But the template might prove difficult to replicate six straight times.