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00:02 >> John, let's start big picture.
00:04 Let's look at the national championship odds as we enter this season.
00:10 Kansas is the favorite, the number one team in the country in the preseason poll
00:15 enters the year with the shortest price alongside Duke to win a national
00:20 championship in Purdue in the mix as well.
00:23 John, quickly welcome in our Sports Good radio audience, they're all here.
00:25 John Rothstein joins us on this Monday on the early line.
00:28 John, as you evaluate the best teams in the country entering this season,
00:32 who would you book as your favorite to win a national title entering this new season?
00:37 >> I have Kansas number one in the Rothstein 45 right now with FanDuel, but
00:40 I do think that the best roster in college basketball resides in Durham,
00:45 North Carolina.
00:45 It's such a rarity for
00:47 programs to bring back a high percentage of players from the last year's team.
00:52 But Duke has, when you look at the chemical makeup of this team,
00:56 and starting back returning with Jeremy Roach and Tyrese Proctor, Mark Mitchell and
01:00 Kyle Filipowski up front, and Ryan Young.
01:02 And Duke also brings in a terrific recruiting class,
01:06 headlined by a pair of guards, Caleb Foster and Jared McCain.
01:09 >> We take a look at some of these top ranked teams heading into the season, and
01:14 we got a long way to go.
01:15 But I know one of the things your specialty is in the offseason,
01:17 the secret scrimmages out there.
01:19 Are there teams that we need to be known to be made aware of that say,
01:22 you know what, you're not thinking that highly of them as a betting public right
01:25 now, but heading into the basketball season, some of these teams are gonna
01:28 surprise.
01:30 >> Secret scrimmages mean nothing.
01:32 Charity exhibitions mean nothing.
01:34 Exhibitions mean nothing.
01:36 And I will say this again, secret scrimmages mean nothing.
01:40 Charity exhibitions mean nothing.
01:42 Exhibitions mean nothing.
01:43 I'm gonna go back to this example.
01:45 Prior to the 2009-10 season, Syracuse lost an exhibition game to Lemoine,
01:53 and Syracuse wound up as a number one seed in the NCAA tournament.
01:57 Might have won a national championship if Orense Onoaku didn't go down
02:01 with a knee injury.
02:03 And one of the things that I've gathered from talking to coaches around the country
02:06 lately, we are seeing a situation where a lot of coaches rarely prepare for
02:13 these games, rarely run offense during these games.
02:16 So they are by no means a barometer of what we can expect.
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