IllInois- Illinois is coming off a round of 32 exit. They bring in freshman Brandon Lee who is ranked #98 in the class, Keaton Wagler, David Mirkovic, and Mihailo Petrovic who are all 4 star Freshman. They brought in Andrej Stojakovic from the portal who was a 4 star transfer and a 5 star out of High School. He averaged 17 points, 4 rebounds, and 1.8 assists on 42/32/82% shooting clips last season for California. They also brought in Big Z from Arkansas, who is teaming up with his brother this upcoming season. He averaged 8 points, 4 rebounds, and just shy of 1 assist a game last year for the Hogs, His shooting clips were 49/37/72. He started his career at Kentucky but fought the NCAA for his eligibility and didn’t get it till halfway through the season, so he didn’t get many chances to play at Kentucky then followed Calipari to Arkansas. He was much improved last year but didn’t get much of a chance to play. When he did though he usually played well. returnees, Ty Rodgers, Jake Davis, Tomislav Ivisic, AJ Redd, Kylan Boswell, and Ben Humrichous. Let’s start off with Tomislav Ivisic who averaged 13/7/2 on 49/35/75 shooting splits. He played a big role for Illinois last year as a big who could score at all levels. He had 5 games with 20+ points, he had 22/4/5 against Iowa last year and went 9/13 from the field. He is teaming up with his brother this year and his success will determine the height Illinois can reach this year. Kylan Boswell is back, he started 34 of 35 games last year for the fighting Illini. Over the last 8 games of the year he averaged 16.9 ppg. He looks to take another step up as he did last year for his senior season. Ben Humrichous returned; he played in 35 games and started 26. He led the team in 3 pointers made last year at 62 and hit at least one three in 29 of 35 games. He is a career 37.2 percent shooter from three and looks to get that number up as he shot 41 percent from three his sophomore year at Evansville but 34 percent last year at Illinois. Jake Davis appeared in 32 games with one start. He averaged 3 points a game shooting 34 percent from three. Ty Rogers is returning after not playing last year. He is a redshirt Junior and his sophomore year he started every game, and he ranked 5th on the team with 6.2 points a game, third on the team with 5.3 rebounds a game, and ranked 9th in the Big Ten with 2.3 offensive rebounds a game. 

Baylor- I believe Baylor is one of if not the most underrated teams in the country. They are bringing in Tounde Yessoufou who is the 14th ranked player in the class. He is 6 foot 5 and weighs 215 and "He's long, strong, athletic, and he’s a competitor who plays with a constant high motor”. They also bring in 3 star Mayo Soyoye, 3 star Andre Iguodala ll, and 4 star Maikcol Perez, along with Drew Perry, and Will Kuykendall. They brought in 7 transfers including Dan Skillings jr. from Cincinnati who averaged 9/3/1 last year and he shot at a 44/29/61 clip. They also brought in JJ White from Omaha. He played a very important role last year for an Omaha team that went to the tournament. He averaged 19 points a game in their conference tournament and scored 15 in their loss to St.Johns in the first round of the tournament. They brought in Michael Rataj from Oregon State who was the 35th ranked transfer in last year's portal class. He averaged 17/7/2 a game, and shot 48/35/78 last year. They got Wyoming transfer Obi Agbim. He averaged 17.6 points last year for Wyoming. He shot 43 percent from three. He is a very good addition to this stacked Baylor team. They brought in Juslin Bodo Bodo. He played a limited role on a solid High Point team last year that went to the tournament. They brought in Caden Powell from Rice who was a 3 star out of High School. This is his senior season coming up and he’s improved every year leading up to this season. He only averaged 1.9 points his freshman year and averaged 10.4 points last season as a junior. The final player they brought in was Issac Williams IV from Texas A&M Corpus Christi. He was the number 486th player in last cycle's portal class. 

NC State- I believe NC State is severely underrated. During the offseason they brought in Mcneese’s Will Wade. He was linked to many vacant coaching jobs and many analysts have said he was the best mid-major coach there was the last couple years. Will Wade got straight to work after he was hired and managed to haul in the 14th ranked overall class last season. They landed 3 freshmen including the 28th ranked kid in the class Matt Able. They also landed 4 star freshman Zymicah Wilkins and unranked Jayme Kontuniemi. Their transfer class is highlighted by Darrion Williams. He was a member of the Big-12 first team. He was the 5th ranked portal player last year. I think he will have a huge year for Will Wade and NC State. I think he might be atop the best players in the country.  They landed Michigan State transfer Tre Holloman. He averaged 9/2/3 last year for the Spartans. He started 16 games and appeared in 37 games and he played a vital role. Ven Allen-Lubin transferred in from North Carolina. He scored 14 points for Carolina in their first round tournament loss to Ole Miss. He shot a career high 68 percent from the field last season. Will Wade brought over Quadir Copeland and Alyn Breed with him from McNeese. They got Terrance Arceneaux who played for Kelvin Sampson's national runner up Houston squad. They got Florida State transfer Jerry Deng who averaged 7 points a game last season, and he shot 37 percent from three. Finally they got Colt Langdon from Butler.