College basketball season tips off Friday night with every Top 25 team in action. To celebrate the end of the offseason, here are 68 fearless predictions for the new season.

1. Last season was the year of the senior in college basketball. This season will be the year of the freshman. Of the 14 lottery picks in next year’s NBA draft, DraftExpress projects 12 of them will be college freshmen. What’s more, almost all of the marquee players in the 2016 class landed with name-brand programs.

2. Freshmen who will have the biggest impact this season: Kansas’ Josh Jackson, Washington’s Markelle Fultz and Duke’s Jayson Tatum.

3. Freshmen ranked outside the top 10 who will have the biggest impact this season: Arizona’s Rawle Alkins, St. John’s Shamorie Ponds and Syracuse’s Tyus Battle

4. Freshmen ranked outside the top 40 who will have the biggest impact this season: Maryland’s Anthony Cowan and Iowa’s Tyler Cook

5. National title favorite Duke has comparable talent to 2014-15 Kentucky if its freshman standouts recover from preseason injuries, but let’s halt all talk of the Blue Devils making a run at an unbeaten season. The ACC is way too loaded this season for any team to emerge with fewer than three league losses, let alone unscathed.

6. Bill Walton will remain college basketball’s most polarizing TV analyst. Walton’s irreverence can keep a dull matchup entertaining, however, his outlandish opinions and off-topic anecdotes will make you want to throw a brick through your TV if it’s your team playing and you’re emotionally invested.

7. First-team All-Americans: G Monte Morris (Iowa State), G Grayson Allen (Duke), G Josh Hart (Villanova), G/F Josh Jackson (Kansas), F Thomas Bryant (Indiana)

8. Exhibition loss that will be long forgotten by Thanksgiving: Queens College 75, VCU 73. The Rams will clean up their turnover and shot selection issues in time to contend in the Atlantic 10.

9. Exhibition loss that’s a sign of things to come: Mansfield 79, Duquesne 74. With Micah Mason and Derrick Colter both having graduated, the Dukes are headed for a bottom-three finish in the Atlantic 10.

10. The sight of Lonzo Ball hitting an unsuspecting teammate in the nose with a pass will be a regular occurrence in November and December. The highly touted UCLA freshman has passing ability and court vision that draw comparisons to Jason Kidd, however, it will be an adjustment for the rest of the Bruins to learn how to play with him.

11. Whether UCLA can stop anyone will determine how big a jump it can take this year. The Bruins lost their most versatile defender, combo forward Jonah Bolden, from a team that finished 119th in points per possession allowed last season. Offensive talent abounds on this year’s roster, but elite freshmen Ball and T.J. Leaf are much more polished scorers and passers than defenders at this point.

12. Football schools that will have more success on the hardwood than the gridiron this school year: Oregon, Texas and Notre Dame

13. Basketball schools which will have more success on the gridiron than the hardwood this school year: Temple and Tulsa

14. Injury-plagued Michigan State will have at least three losses by the end of November. The Spartans play the nation’s toughest November schedule, a 20-day gauntlet that includes the loaded Battle 4 Atlantis tournament and single games against preseason top 10 teams Arizona, Kentucky and Duke, all away from home.

15. But in the long run Tom Izzo’s team will be fine. As Michigan State’s injured frontcourt players get healthy and its freshman class becomes more comfortable, the Spartans will blossom into one of the Big Ten’s top teams and an opponent nobody wants to see in March.

16. Remember Kentucky’s reputation for being too soft and timid around the basket last season? Bam Adebayo will be a one-man solution to that problem. The long-armed, powerfully built freshman is a powerful dunker, energetic defender and ferocious rebounder

17. ACC breakout star: Donovan Mitchell, Louisville

18. American Athletic Conference breakout star: Jacob Evans, Cincinnati

19. Atlantic 10 breakout star: James Demery, Saint Joseph’s.

20. Big East breakout star: Jalen Lindsey, Providence

21. Ben Ten breakout star: O.G. Anunoby, Indiana

22. Big 12 breakout star: Carlton Bragg, Kansas

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