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:
- North Carolina
- Memphis
- UCLA
- Kansas
- Georgetown
- Tennessee
- Louisville
- Michigan State
- Duke
- Indiana
- Arizona
- Texas
- Oregon
- Mississippi State
- Washington State
- UConn
- Marquette
- USC
- NC State
- Southern Illinois
- Butler
- Arkansas
- Clemson
- Kentucky
- Kansas State
2 comments:
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.")
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.
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