25 Predictions about the 2012-13 College Basketball Season

By Michael Schneid

• UConn will miss the NCAA tournament
• Frank Martin will have a better record at South Carolina than Bruce Webber at Kansas State, who will have a better record than Jim Groce at Illinois
• Sean Kilpatrick and Cashmere Wright from Cincinnati will provide one the most explosive backcourt duos in the country and lead the Bearcats to their first ever Big East regular season title
• Kentucky's wins will be vacated due to recruiting violations
• Of all the team's switching conferences, Missouri will have the most immediate success, and will upset Kentucky on February 23 (you heard it here first)
• Arizona and UCLA will breathe life into west coast basketball. Arizona will win the PAC-12 and UCLA will finish 3rd or 4th.
• Syracuse will falter in their final Big East season and finish 3rd behind Cincinnati and Louisville
• Pittsburgh, with a healthy roster including Tray Woodall and transfer Trey Zeigler, will finish in the top eight of the Big East and return to the NCAA tournament
• VCU and Butler will make the Atlantic 10 one of the most competitive leagues in the country, and will have more NCAA tourney bids than one of the six major conferences
• TCU, who went 18-15 last year, will not finish last in their first year in the Big 12. The worst Big 12 team will be Texas Tech, who will face all sorts of turmoil in 2012-13, following the removal of Billy Gillispie as head coach.
• UNC or Duke will not play in the ACC Championship game. The two schools combine for 36 ACC tournament championships all-time. NC State and Florida State, led by arguably the ACC's two best players in CJ Leslie and Michael Snaer, will both be the cream of the crop in the ACC.
• It's been 26 years since Indiana won the NCAA championship. They will begin 2013 season having gone 27 years without winning a championship.
• Cincy and Xavier will meet again this year, following last season's chaotic brawl. This time, however, they meet on a neutral court in downtown Cincinnati. Our prediction? 0 punches thrown, 2 technical fouls (both on Xavier players), 0 ejections (on the court, a dozen or so fans will leave the arena with security), and Cincy will avenge last year's blowout loss with one of their own
• Indiana center Cody Zeller will be drafted before two Kentucky players are drafted in the 2013 NBA Draft
• Depaul's streak of last place finishes in the Big East will end.
• March of 2013 will end Tubby Smith's tenure in Minnesota
• Towson University will win at least 5 times as many games as they did in 2011-12 (1-31)
• Memphis will run away with the Conference-USA title in their final year
• Detroit plays games at St John's, @ Miami, @ Pitt, @ Syracuse and @ Temple. They will win two of those five
• Creighton, led by All-American forward Doug McDermott, will crack the top 10 at some point during the season. 
• USC, who went 1-17 in PAC-12 play last season, will finish .500 or better
• Kentucky will not finish SEC play undefeated
• Florida, whose season ended bitterly blowing a big lead against Louisville in the Elite 8, will return to the Elite 8 in 2013
• 48 D-1 teams have never made the NCAA tournament. That number will be reduced to 47
• While doing analysis for ESPN, Bob Knight will not say "Kentucky" on air