We offered up our list of the 50 best players in college basketball in July, and before that, we posted our Top 25 for this season. Not much has changed since then. With the season underway today (and good games all weekend!), we’ll use this space to make our 2012-2013 season predictions:

Elite 8
Maryland, Butler, Missouri, Florida, Indiana, Louisville, Memphis, NC State.

Final 4
Indiana, Louisville, Memphis, NC State.

Champion
Louisville

All-American 1st team
F: Cody Zeller, Indiana
F: James Michael McAdoo, UNC
C: Gorgui Dieng, Louisville
G: Aaron Craft, Ohio State
G: C.J. McCollum, Lehigh

All-American 2nd team:
F: Doug McDermott, Creighton
F: Le’Bryan Nash, Oklahoma State
C: Jeff Withey, Kansas
G: Isaiah Canaan, Murray State
G: Trey Burke, Michigan

* Note: This does not mean I hate the Big East. I love the Big East. It is my favorite conference. It just isn’t as strong as in previous years.

Jason Lisk’s picks

I’ll admit to not knowing anything at this point. I look forward to digging in to night with the first night of games and then catching the CBE Classic and other tournaments next week. It “feels” like this year is as wide open as any recently, subject of course, to how dominant the most recent group of Kentucky Wildcats are. They will be in the mix, but surely they can’t be as good as what Anthony Davis and company brought last year, right? (Please be right).

Elite 8

Kentucky, Kansas, Florida, Indiana, Louisville, Ohio State, Michigan State, Memphis

Final 4

Kentucky, Kansas, Florida, Indiana

Champion
Kentucky

All-American 1st team
F: Cody Zeller, Indiana
F: Nerlens Noel, Kentucky
C: Jeff Withey, Kansas
G: Aaron Craft, Ohio State
F: Shabazz Muhammad, UCLA

All-American 2nd team:
F: Doug McDermott, Creighton
F: James Michael McAdoo, UNC
C: Gorgui Dieng, Louisville
G: C.J. McCollum, Lehigh
G: Phil Pressey, Missouri

[photo via US Presswire]