2026-27 College Basketball Futures: Experience & Value Picks

Given the NIL, the transfer portal, everything that's going into college basketball, I can't get involved in the futures market until I see what these teams look like, even from a wins perspective, winning a conference championship perspective. How are you approaching the handicap this coming college basketball season with all the movement? But Matt, it's really tough. And, you know, what I've tried to lean on is teams with experience. When you look at Florida. You bring it back, Condon and Howe and Chinaloo. They have, I thought last year, the best front line in college basketball, right? So they all come back. Now you get the court judgment that Denzel Aberdeen is back for this year. So you got to start to look at teams in regards to who has a lot coming back. And that's where you kind of lean. I think experience. Matt, I really think experience matters. So you got to look at Florida. You got to look at UConn getting those guys back. And obviously, I'll tell you right now, folks, if you did not watch Seton Hall last year, they got a kid named Najee Hines, a.k.a. Baby Shaq. He is going to do wonders. Think about what Dan Hurley did with Terrence Reed Jr. coming from Michigan. This kid may be a little bit better. So this is a big-time recruit. So I'm going to lean on those experienced teams. And, Matt, here's the tough part. Besides handicapping in the L, we got court ruling, court ruling, appeal, appeal. Someone today could be ineligible tomorrow. So I think that's the hard part is I'm not really willing to put a lot of money up front now to start the year because we don't know who's going to be there. Guys are going to be here until right now. St. John's at 30-1 is going to be a play-in, all right? You get Ian Jackson back, right? You get Tussifu, you get him. And now you get Keyshawn Hall, if he can stay, right? Keyshawn Hall, a dynamic scorer at Auburn, gives Rick Pitino his best, in my opinion, offensive lineup that he's had at St. John's. If they can get him to play defense. And they can all play 30 to one St. John's. I think it should be at 20 and not 15 to one based on who they have coming in. No bias there, right? No bias at all in the backyard. No bias. A little bit, a little bit bias. I didn't say Seton Hall. That's good. Good, man.