Tuesday, October 9, 2007

NCAA Basketball Top 25

While I'm in ranking mode, I'll present my preseason NCAA basketball top 25. MVN is doing a top 25 poll this year, and since I'll be participating, I decided to do some research on the teams. As a rule, I follow D-II more closely, but I also can't avoid hearing plenty about D-I. There are also plenty of great resources, like Rivals.com, Kenpom.com, and (presumably) the forthcoming Basketball Prospectus site.

So, here's my list:
  1. North Carolina
  2. Memphis
  3. UCLA
  4. Kansas
  5. Georgetown
  6. Tennessee
  7. Louisville
  8. Michigan State
  9. Duke
  10. Indiana
  11. Arizona
  12. Texas
  13. Oregon
  14. Mississippi State
  15. Washington State
  16. UConn
  17. Marquette
  18. USC
  19. NC State
  20. Southern Illinois
  21. Butler
  22. Arkansas
  23. Clemson
  24. Kentucky
  25. Kansas State

2 comments:

Unknown said...

Okay, how come when Duke or UNC wins a title and then loses their whole team to the NBA, they're still guaranteed a courtesy spot in the preseason top 10, but when it happens to the Gators, they're nowhere to be found?

(By the way, the correct answer is, "Any two-time defending national champion that cancels midnight madness automatically forfeits its courtesy spot.")

John Wright said...

First, to answer your question, they usually are still top-25 caliber teams, even after they lose entire starting lineups to the NBA draft (though I'll admit they're still often ranked more highly than they deserve).

There are teams like Indiana, Kansas State, and USC (and possibly even UCLA) on that list that are basically where they are because of their recruiting classes. (Kansas State's is actually based on last year's recruiting class, but still.) Florida's just isn't good enough to put them in that league yet.

Second, you shouldn't be allowed to play in Division I without some kind of Midnight Madness celebration. We had one every year at Harding, and we're D-II.