Fearless Basketball Predictions

We're not quite fearless enough to predict UNC won't win the national title. John Biever/SI The Year in College Sports   2007-2008 Rankings: SI.com ranked the top 25 programs in Divison-I sports, and the Arizona State Sun Devils top the list. Austin Murphy: Fearless predictions for the upcoming college football season. Luke Winn: Fearless predictions for the 2008-2009 college basketball campaign.   NCAA Champions From the Wonderdogs of Fresno State to the Lady Vols of Tennessee, this year was full of champions both surprising and strong. See them all. Breakout Freshmen These 22 freshman exploded onto the scene this season, making a name for themselves and tasting success on an individual and team level. The Year in Pictures From the beautiful to the awe-inspiring, we've put together a gallery of the most stunning and striking pictures from the year in college sports.

With just over two months separating the end of the 2008 College World Series and the start of the 2008 college football season, college sports aren't out of the limelight for very long. With that in mind, we asked one of our experts to peer into his crystal ball during this down period and give us an idea of what might transpire in the upcoming season. Among the many things he predicts is Duke falling short of the Final Four yet again.

Check out our college football predictions as well.

1. When it's all said and done, we'll once again be talking about two freshmen in contention for the No. 1 pick in the '09 NBA Draft. Ohio State center B.J. Mullens and USC shooting guard DeMar DeRozan aren't Oden and Durant, but they should make a decent splash this season. Athletic 7-footers (like Mullens) and powerful perimeter players (like DeRozan) are in higher demand than power forwards like Oklahoma's Blake Griffin, who's currently projected in the top spot.

2. The Big East will finally break through the eight-bid ceiling and send nine teams to the NCAAs. The league is going to be that good.

3. Marquette's Buzz Williams will have the lowest Q Rating of any coach fresh off the major-conference carousel ... but he'll also win more games than any of the others. With what Williams is inheriting, he'd have to seriously botch things not to make the Sweet 16.

4. Stephen Curry will still be a thrill to watch, but Davidson won't be the top-20 team that some folks are expecting it to be. To rank the Wildcats that high is to seriously underestimate the impact of losing Jason Richards, perhaps the country's most underrated point guard last year.

5. For the third-straight season, "This Year's George Mason" will not exist.

6. The final verdict on Detroit as a Final Four city will be: Bad logo, bad location. (A burning tire? Really?)

7. Purdue will win its first of three straight Big Ten titles.

8. Illinois coach Bruce Weber will get a couple of extremely satisfying wins over Indiana this year.

9. This year's freshman class is a major step down from the last two, but DeRozan will average more points as a USC rookie than O.J. Mayo did. DeRozan is also far less likely to break his point guard's jaw in the preseason.

10. USC will continue to plead ignorance about the Mayo scandal ... and the Trojans won't get in any real trouble from the NCAA.

11. Be on the watch for a breakout from ... Texas A&M's Bryan Davis. Now that Joseph Jones has graduated and DeAndre Jordan has turned pro, the burly Davis can finally be the Aggies' main man in the post.

12. UCLA's Darren Collison might give North Carolina's Tyler Hansbrough a nominal challenge for the Wooden and Naismith Awards, but unlike last season, there isn't going to be much of a debate.

13. He sort of fell off the national radar for a year, but we'll be talking about VCU's Eric Maynor again this season -- as a possible first-rounder, and the best mid-major guard not named Curry.

14. Under-appreciated soph most ready to become a household name, I: James Harden, Arizona State. The big lefty was overshadowed in the Pac-10 by Kevin Love and O.J. Mayo, but now he's the league's best returning scorer. Harden was killing at LeBron's camp in Akron this week.

15. Under-appreciated soph most ready to become a household name, Part II: DeJuan Blair, Pitt. Local boy was quietly a beast last year in a league full of quality big men. He might be the best offensive rebounder in the country.

16. One key draft-deadline decision that no one paid attention to: Lee Cummard's return to BYU. He should repeat as Mountain West Player of the Year and establish himself as one of the college game's best shooters.

17. Chase Budinger will help his draft stock by going back to Arizona ... but his junior season won't be all that enjoyable without Brandon Jennings around. Another drama-filled year in the middle of the Pac-10 pack for the 'Cats.

18. Guy who has the chance to be an unsung senior hero: Michigan State's Goran Suton. He's a workhorse vet who will help usher the young-and-talented Spartans into the Post-Neitzel Era.

19. If Jamont Gordon can get Raycom on his TV in Europe (or some NBDL outpost), he'll tune in and realize he could have made Mississippi State the champs of the SEC West ... but now, no one in the entire league will really challenge Tennessee.

20. Australia's next big contribution to the NCAA will be UConn freshman Ater Majok, a 6-foot-10 forward whom the Huskies landed in the late signing period. He could be dangerous in a front line with 7-3 Hasheem Thabeet and 6-7 Jeff Adrien.

21. Duke will look, statistically, like a national-title contender ... and yet fall short of the Final Four once again.

22. When the Milwaukee Bucks play their first road game at Conseco Fieldhouse, assistant coach Kelvin Sampson will get heckled.

23. Super-recruit Tyreke Evans isn't going to fit as perfectly into Memphis' offense as Derrick Rose did. That doesn't mean the Tigers won't win Conference USA ... it just means that Evans is likely to be far more interested in creating his own shots than Rose was.

24. Wisconsin, despite losing its lockdown defender (Michael Flowers) and the focal point of its offense (Brian Butch) will find a way to be ranked again. When you defend as well as the Badgers do, you don't need stars.

25. North Carolina won't win the national ti-- wait. That would be the most fearless pick of all. But I'm not about to confuse fearlessness with stupidity.