Coaches give their picks, drama at Arizona, more

Who will be taking Florida's place as NCAA champion this year? Coaches have different opinions. Bob Rosato/SI

The 'Bag hopes everyone is enjoying "Championship Week," a.k.a. Cheap TV Drama Week, a.k.a. "Let's Pump Up Bad Teams as Bubble Teams Week." But here at the 'Bag, we've always been a curmudgeon about the inanity of conference tournaments, and that will probably never change.

The 'Bag is very much fired up for the NCAA tournament, however, and so as we worked the phones with a few top coaches in recent days we asked them a simple question: Aside from your own team, who do you think is the team to beat in the NCAA tournament?

Last year everyone I spoke to said the same thing: Florida (even though the Gators had lost three of four late in the season). But this year the 'Bag heard a range of responses.

Who's the team to beat?

Kansas' Bill Self: "From what I've seen the last month, UCLA and North Carolina impress me more than anybody else. There are a lot of teams you could make a case for -- Memphis, Tennessee, Duke -- but over the last month those two have been the most impressive teams. I think it's more wide-open this year than in quite some time."

Tennessee's Bruce Pearl: "North Carolina. They've got it all: the size, the quickness, the center, the point guard, the shooters, the athletes, the depth, the coaching, the tradition. They have the strongest team in the country right now."

Texas' Rick Barnes: "I've got a lot of respect for what Kansas has. They've stayed together, they've got guards that defend you and they've got great balance. They're not just counting on one guy every night."

UConn's Jim Calhoun: "Out of the Big East I'd say Louisville. I still fear Carolina. Carolina has the guy I'd vote for for national Player of the Year [Tyler Hansbrough] and a one-man fast-break in [Ty] Lawson and guys who run their system as well as anybody. UCLA has some very good players. Tennessee's athleticism is astounding. Memphis scares you a little bit only because they don't have the pure size and not a particularly good shooting team, although they're very athletic."

Stanford's Trent Johnson: "I think Louisville is awfully good. They have a great inside-outside presence. But there are a bunch of teams: Memphis, Tennessee, UCLA, Kansas. You can go down the line."

Memphis' John Calipari unleashed the stream-of-consciousness: "You have North Carolina because they've got the inside-outside game. Kansas, who I think is off the chain. Kansas is ridiculous. We played Tennessee; talk about a ridiculous team because of how they play and shoot threes. They could make 15 threes in a game, and I'm talking bad threes. They shoot it and it goes. Georgetown, because of [Roy] Hibbert and [Jonathan] Wallace. Then Louisville, they play that zone to perfection and have [David] Padgett, who I think has had an All-America year. [I don't want to be] leaving out UCLA. I just hope they don't get calls in the tournament like they're getting now. If they get calls like that they're going all the way. Then Texas, because of guard play. That combination of guards may be the best in the country. And it could be Stanford because of the two big kids [the Lopez twins]. Connecticut is playing better, too. There are probably eight or nine teams [to beat]."

UCLA's Ben Howland: "Honestly, I think nine or 10 teams have a great chance to advance to the Final Four, and when you get there anything can happen. You start with Carolina and Duke, and I think Georgetown and Louisville have great opportunities to get there. Tennessee and Memphis, Texas and Kansas, Wisconsin and ourselves, so there are a lot of teams out there. Stanford has a shot, no question. I don't think it's clear-cut like it was a year ago. [Florida] was unique. In this day and age, to have all those kids return from a previous champion when two or three could have been lottery picks, I don't know how many times you'll see that again."

1 of 2