A year ago at this time, Gonzaga's biggest question mark was point guard play. Mark Few was loaded all over the roster, but freshman Jalen Suggs was going to have a lot on his shoulders from day one, and neither Dominick Harris nor Aaron Cook was a sure thing at PG if Suggs moved off the ball. Of course, the Bulldogs ended up getting a waiver for Florida transfer point guard Andrew Nembhard right before the start of the campaign and they went out and produced arguably the most efficient offense we've ever seen over the course of a season.
It's not always that easy to solve potential problems.
When making preseason top 25s or Final Four predictions six months in advance, we tend to think of best-case scenarios for teams. Everything is on paper, where chemistry doesn't exist and role allocation remains a mystery. For the most part, these exercises are about thinking big picture instead of digging into the nitty-gritty of possible fatal flaws.
But fatal flaws are what we're here for! Here are the eight questions we think will determine the national championship discussion for the 2021-22 college basketball season. Some might not be answered until early April, but will provide something to monitor in the first couple months of the season: