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Stats don’t lie, one of these six teams will win the national championship

By Presley Meyer

LOUISVILLE, KENTUCKY - FEBRUARY 12: Marques Bolden #20 of the Duke Blue Devils shoots the ball against the Louisville Cardinals at KFC YUM! Center on February 12, 2019 in Louisville, Kentucky. (Photo by Andy Lyons/Getty Images)
LOUISVILLE, KENTUCKY - FEBRUARY 12: Marques Bolden #20 of the Duke Blue Devils shoots the ball against the Louisville Cardinals at KFC YUM! Center on February 12, 2019 in Louisville, Kentucky. (Photo by Andy Lyons/Getty Images) /
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Louisville

Adjusted offensive efficiency: 20

Adjusted defensive efficiency: 16

The final team to make the list isn’t Tennessee, Gonzaga, or Michigan… it’s Louisville.

The Cards are certainly the least likely on the list to win it all in 2019, but the fact still remains that they are one of the toughest outs in the country. Outside of Jordan Nwora, Louisville’s leading scorer, there’s not really any player on this squad that stands out as being dynamic or head-and-shoulders above the competition. However, first year head coach Chris Mack has done a tremendous job of getting his team to work as a unit.

Someone different steps up each night. Nwora, along with do-it-all junior forward Dwayne Sutton and ACC assists leader Christen Cunningham, steady the Cards as a triumvirate of consistent leadership. Centers Malik Williams and Steven Enoch make for the most versatile tandem in the country at their position, as they are both 7 feet tall but have excellent range from deep.

Don’t expect Louisville from a sheer logistics standpoint to win it all this year, but the analytics give them just as good of a shot as anyone. There have been much bigger longshots to take the crown in the KenPom era.

Don’t write off Chris Mack’s squad quite yet, either. Louisville beat two other teams on this list (MSU and UNC), and led by a considerable margin against a third (Duke). Mack has become synonymous with taking higher seeded teams deep into the NCAA tournament.

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