Sam Federman's Way Too Early Top 25

By Sam Federman

I hate "Way Too Early Top 25s," but I have to start somewhere in terms of building out my Top 100. The portal just closed yesterday, and rosters are starting to fill up. So here's what I'm thinking for the top 25 teams in college basketball, with one nugget on each team.

1. Florida: Thomas Haugh will be a contender for national player of the year

2. Duke: There isn't a better backcourt in terms of four players in the sport than John Blackwell, Cayden Boozer, Caleb Foster, and Deron Rippey.

3. Texas: David Punch and Matas Vokietaitis makes the Longhorns frontcourt extremely physical.

4. Illinois: Year-two David Mirkovic feels like an easy All-American breakout.

5. Vanderbilt: Tyler Tanner might be my Preseason National Player of the Year.

6. Michigan: To me, Dusty May is the best coach in college basketball at taking any roster and maximizing it regardless of style.

7. UConn: Najai Hines should develop in a similar path to Tarris Reed.

8. Miami: Shelton Henderson showed flashes of becoming an All-ACC First Team level player.

9. Michigan State: Jasiah Jervis might just be that sharpshooter that they sorely missed last year.

10. Virginia: Like Mirkovic, year 2 Thijs de Ridder feels like an easy pick for All-American.

11. Houston: Kelvin Sampson will love having Delrecco Gillespie's rebounding and post-up game.

12. Purdue: I kinda think there are six legit guards here between Luke Ertel, Omer Mayer, CJ Cox, Gicarri Harris, Jack Benter, and Antoine West.

13. Iowa State: Good luck to opposing guards facing a backcourt of Jaquan Johnson and Killyan Toure.

14. Tennessee: Terrence Hill and Dai Dai Ames will be one of the highest scoring backcourts in the country.

15. St. John's: If there's one coach in the country who can get the right stuff out of Donnie Freeman, it's Rick Pitino.

16. Nebraska: Braden Frager will be All-Big Ten.

17. Iowa: Tate Sage is a sleeper breakout candidate in the Big Ten.

18. Louisville: Flory Bidunga will completely reshape the Cardinals' ability to defend.

19. Arkansas: Jordan Smith Jr. will be the best defensive freshman guard that John Calipari has had since Cason Wallace.

20. Alabama: There's a lot of athleticism on the wings between Jaxon Richardson, Amari Allen, and London Jemison

21. Auburn: I'm in on a year-two transfer leap from Kevin Overton.

22. Arizona: Still waiting for the Cats to finish out some of the roster stuff, but would expect them to end up higher than this.

23. North Carolina: Matthew Able is the right shooting fit next to two poor shooting ball handlers in Brown and Avdalas.

24. Gonzaga: Another underrated breakout candidate is Mario Saint-Supery

25. Missouri: The Tigers are set to play some jumbo bully ball around freshman guard Jason Crowe.