It’s November, and the chase for a spot in the BCS national title game is heating up. Unsurprisingly, the BCS is once again generating a huge amount of controversy and discussion. One argument often raised by BCS defenders is that by choosing two teams based on their bodies of work over the season, the national champion must truly be one of the very best teams in the country.

This is a not-so-subtle shot at college basketball’s playoff system, as many people believe that come tourney time, any good team can get hot, win six in a row and take home the title. This belief, however, is mistaken. In the seasons during this decade (from 2000-2001 to 2008-2009), the national champions in men’s basketball tend to have had three specific characteristics in common. Let’s look at them and see which teams in 2009-10 are likely to meet these criteria.

1. A dominant post player.

any people believe that having good guards is the key to winning championships, since guards handle the ball the most, especially in the key moments of a game. But guards can only take you so far. To win six games in the NCAA tournament, you likely have to defeat at least five very good opponents. The odds are that in at least one of those games, your outside shooting will go cold.

Post players are typically more consistent than guards, since they are not dependent on finding a shooting rhythm. A dominant post player can carry a team in a game in which its outside shooters aren’t knocking them down.

All nine national champions this decade have had extremely effective post players. Duke and Maryland had scrappy power forwards in Carlos Boozer and Lonny Baxter. UConn, Syracuse and North Carolina featured consensus All-Americans in Emeka Okafor, Carmelo Anthony – who spent much of his career at Syracuse on the block – Sean May and Tyler Hansbrough. Florida had future top-10 picks in Al Horford and Joakim Noah down low, and Kansas featured the underrated Darrell Arthur at power forward.

This point may seem fairly obvious at first glance, but there have been several top seeds over the past few years that were viewed as national title contenders despite the lack of a dominant post player. St. Joseph’s in 2004, Illinois in 2005 and Villanova in 2006 are good examples, and it is not shocking that none of these teams could cut down the nets.

Fits the Criteria in 09-10: Kansas, Kentucky, North Carolina

Doesn’t Fit the Criteria in 09-10: Michigan State, Villanova, Duke

2. Multiple future NBA first-round picks.

Players selected in the first round of the NBA draft automatically receive guaranteed contracts. Therefore, when an NBA team selects a player in the first round, it is giving a clear signal that the player selected has the potential to make an impact in the pros and not just be one of the guys tossed aside after training camp.

Looking back over the last decade, each of the last nine national champions has had at least two key players that were ultimately selected in the first round of the NBA draft. This trend illustrates a couple of key points. First, having one superstar, no matter how good he is, is not enough to win an NCAA title. Adam Morrison’s Gonzaga Bulldogs in 2006 and Stephen Curry’s Davidson squad in 2008 learned this the hard way.

Second, teams that lack premier NBA talent and rely on hustle, coaching and teamwork (for example, both Pitt and Memphis last year) have limitations that will inevitably be exposed over the course of the NCAA tournament.

Fits the Criteria in 09-10: Kansas, Kentucky, Texas

Doesn’t Fit the Criteria in 09-10: Purdue, Tennessee, Butler

3. Having been there before.

arch Madness is completely unlike anything teams see in the regular season. The whole season is on the line for both teams in every single game of the tournament. The levels of intensity and pressure go up exponentially.

Teams that have been to the NCAA tournament before know the territory and are much more likely to keep their composure in tough situations. Moreover, teams that have won games in the tourney before know how to win in March, and it is hard to overestimate the value of that experience.

Eight of the nine national champions this decade reached at least the second round of the NCAA tournament the year before. The only program that did not was Syracuse, which happened to have a fairly decent freshman named Carmelo Anthony in 2002.

So the message is clear – if you are not adding a consensus All-American to your squad (Kentucky’s John Wall may be such a player), getting to the NCAA tournament and winning at least one game is a prerequisite for winning it all the next year.

Fits the Criteria in 09-10: Kansas, Michigan State, Villanova

Doesn’t Fit the Criteria in 09-10: West Virginia, California, Ohio State

So it shouldn’t come as any shock if preseason No. 1 Kansas, which happens to meet all three criteria, ends up winning it all. But if John Wall lives up to the hype, Kentucky would have all three of the traits necessary to win the title and could give the Jayhawks a run for their money. Those are your championship favorites as we kick off the season.

In two weeks, Three-Point Play will adopt a new format for the season: one thought on something around the nation, one thought regarding the Big East conference and one thought specifically focusing on the Georgetown Hoyas.

Parimal Garg is a junior in the College. Three-Point Play appears in every other Tuesday issue of Hoya Sports.”