Tyran Stokes, Mark Pope, Elliot Cadeau, Will Wade & Tyler Tanner ESPNJeff BorzelloCloseJeff BorzelloESPN Staff Writer Basketball recruiting insider. Joined ESPN in 2014. Graduate of University of Delaware., Myron MedcalfCloseMyron MedcalfESPN Staff Writer Covers college basketball Joined ESPN.com in 2011 Graduate of Minnesota State University, Mankato, Joe LunardiCloseJoe LunardiSenior Writer, ESPN.com Resident college basketball bracketologist for ESPN Contributor to SportsCenter, ESPN Insider Published first public bracket in 1995, Neil PaineCloseNeil PaineNeil Paine writes about sports using data and analytics. Previously, he was Sports Editor at FiveThirtyEight.Multiple AuthorsOct 27, 2026, 08:00 AM ETOpen Extended ReactionsIn the seven months since Michigan bulldozed its way through Division I to claim the 2026 national title in April, a lot has happened.Players moved through the transfer portal (last season’s top scorer Milan Momcilovic is now at Kentucky!).
Coaches moved to new programs — and, in the case of Dusty May, to the pro ranks. The NCAA also announced a new eligibility rule that has led to lawsuits and roster uncertainty across the country.With all the news, it’s time for one final look at the top storylines, players and coaches who will shape this 2026-27 season. ESPN’s Jeff Borzello, Joe Lunardi and Myron Medcalf answer eight burning questions — and make their picks, with Neil Paine, for everything from Final Four participants and conference winners to All-America teams and beyond.Jump to: Picks & predictionsSTORYLINESHow feasible is a Michigan title repeat?Borzello: Michigan is coming off the most turbulent and chaotic offseason of any recent national champion, losing four starters from the title team in the weeks after the buzzer sounded. Then it lost its head coach in late June and its most talented incoming recruit in late August.
Based purely on those things, a repeat championship is not the most likely outcome for the Wolverines this season. Elliot Cadeau and Trey McKenney should be one of the best backcourts in the country, and incoming transfers J.P. Estrella and Moustapha Thiam are hoping to be the next Michigan big men to develop into first-round NBA draft picks while in Ann Arbor. But the loss of coach May deep into the offseason will hurt, as will five-star freshman Brandon McCoy’s torn ACL that will keep him out all season.
There’s still enough on the roster for Michigan to advance to the second weekend of the NCAA tournament, but a repeat championship seems too ambitious.Medcalf: It is slightly feasible, mostly because this year’s field doesn’t have a 2025-26 Michigan. There isn’t a team with three veteran future lottery picks and a supporting cast to help blitz the field. The upcoming season won’t feature physically imposing freshmen such as A.J. Dybantsa, Caleb Wilson and Cameron Boozer, who were all top-five picks in this year’s draft.
There were eight or nine teams that seemed capable of making a dominant run in the NCAA tournament at the beginning of last season. This year, the numbers seem closer to three or four — and none are as good as last year’s championship squad. McCoy’s injury puts drastically more weight on the shoulders of Thiam, Cadeau, Estrella and McKenney in Ann Arbor, but the gap between good teams and great teams going into 2026-27 just seems smaller. There is a path for Mike Boynton’s team to go back-to-back, but an early NCAA tournament collapse seems more likely.Lunardi: Michigan is one of the least likely repeat candidates of the recent past.
Florida was an excellent choice a year ago, with a loaded roster of returnees, but only reached the round of 32. UConn, of course, did repeat in 2024, and Villanova captured two titles in three years before that (2016 and 2018). Going back to back is hard under the best of circumstances, and the Wolverines have little stability compared to those Florida, UConn and Villanova teams. Heavy roster turnover, an unexpected coaching change and the Big Ten being arguably the toughest top tier of any conference are hardly a favorable combination for cutting down the nets in April.
Michigan will remain very good but will be nowhere near the dominant champions of 2025-26.Which storyline are you most closely watching?Borzello: Duke’s approach to the season will be fascinating to watch in the early weeks. The Blue Devils are coming off heartbreaking NCAA tournament defeats the past two seasons. They don’t have an impact one-and-done lottery pick such as Cooper Flagg or Boozer entering the program. But they still enter the season ranked No. 2 in the country — higher expectations than they had in either the Flagg or Boozer year.
Coach Jon Scheyer also faces more roster questions than he has in recent campaigns. Will it be Caleb Foster or Cayden Boozer at the point? Is Wisconsin transfer John Blackwell ready for the spotlight? How fast will Scheyer bring along Joaquim Boumtje Boumtje, the potential No. 1 pick in the 2028 draft?
Is Scheyer ready to go 10-, 11-, 12-deep? If Scheyer pushes the right buttons at the right time, the Blue Devils could erase the demons of the past two tourney exits and cut down the nets.Medcalf: The start of the college basketball season is always packed with unknowns — key players coming back from injuries, new coaches in new places, five-star freshmen on the verge of stardom. But we’ve never endured the uncertainties created by the fifth-year eligibility drama and the hundreds (yes, hundreds) of legal cases that could impact rosters around the country. LSU had just four players on its official roster a few weeks ago.
Through NCAA clearances and court cases, coach Will Wade has added more pieces, but transfers Donovan Dent and Skyy Clark, both standouts at UCLA last season, are in the crosshairs of an NCAA that has vowed to fight every Class of 2022 player seeking additional eligibility. In an exhibition game between Louisville and Kansas last week, there were four players, including sixth-year case Trey Kaufman-Renn, combined on both rosters dealing with eligibility uncertainty. With days before the season is set to begin, the NCAA has not expressed any desire to back down. If anything, it is fighting harder, seemingly gaining ground in the Wisne federal class action case in Colorado that, if ruled in favor of the 2022 high school class, would give those athletes a blanket waiver.
Get your popcorn ready, because we can’t actually be sure if everyone on a roster today will be allowed to play college basketball this season.Lunardi: Naturally, NCAA tournament expansion to 76 teams this season is my top story and area of concern. Most every reasonable projection has the majority of the eight new bids going to middling teams from power conferences. This is the wrong approach on many levels, but the current selection and seeding mechanism rewards the kind of scheduling only major conferences can achieve. It has never been more important to create a system for teams to become tournament eligible comparable to college football’s bowl eligibility criteria.
It has also never been less likely to happen.Which team has the most to lose this season?Borzello: Florida is in a unique position that we might not see again in college basketball for a long, long time. Depending on Denzel Aberdeen’s eligibility status, the Gators could have four of their top seven players back from their national championship team two seasons ago. That type of retention is uncommon from year to year, let alone from two seasons ago. Multiple first-round picks passed up chances at the NBA two years in a row, and only a few players entered the transfer portal — and one key player who did leave (Aberdeen) is trying to return a year later.
Technically, Thomas Haugh, Alex Condon and Rueben Chinyelu could all come back to Gainesville for 2027-28, but this might be coach Todd Golden’s last chance with the core of a title-winning team. Throw in that Florida will
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