Preseason college basketball coaches' poll

[MrX]

Just released tonight

1. Kansas
2. Wake
3. UNC
4. Georgia Tech
5. Illinois
6. Syracuse
7. UConn
8. Oklahoma St
9. Kentucky
10. Michigan St
11. Arizona
12. Duke
13. Louisville
14. Miss. St
15. Texas
16. Maryland
17. Pitt
18. Alabama
19. N.C. State
20. Wisconsin
21. Notre Dame
22. Florida
23. Memphis
24. Washington
25. Stanford

[Red Dog]

Good. I'm glad the Terps are ranked lower than they should be.

UNC is way too high.

[MrBob]

Nice to see my very soon to be school is #1.

[Tommy_Harn]

Originally posted by Red Dog
UNC is way too high.

I don't necessarily think that UNC deserves to be #3 either, but will you be that surprised if they make the Final Four? The talent is certainly there, they have one of the top coaches in the nation. Marvin Williams is said to be one of, if not the top Freshmen in the nation. They've added depth to their front-line and point guard position.

If UNC is too high, then I believe Wake Forest is too. Their defense was almost as bad as UNC's last year. Why is nobody talking about this? Do you just assume that Wake will improve, but UNC will not?

[Red Dog]

Originally posted by Tommy_Harn
I don't necessarily think that UNC deserves to be #3 either, but will you be that surprised if they make the Final Four? The talent is certainly there, they have one of the top coaches in the nation. Marvin Williams is said to be one of, if not the top Freshmen in the nation. They've added depth to their front-line and point guard position.

If UNC is too high, then I believe Wake Forest is too. Their defense was almost as bad as UNC's last year. Why is nobody talking about this? Do you just assume that Wake will improve, but UNC will not?

Talent-wise, they are probably equal. I think Wake has a better team. Of course, Wake historically has major problems in March Madness.

Yes, I would be somewhat surprised if UNC makes the Final Four considering that after Jan 1 last year, they could not string 3 wins together. UNC and Maryland will battle it out for 3rd. Wake and Tech are the top-2 in the ACC. I'd rank UNC around #10, right ahead of Maryland. Of course, preseason rankings, including mine, are a joke to begin with.

[twikoff]

SCREW BAMA!!!!!!!

[huh?]

I don't like it when Syracuse starts off this high in the polls. But, they do have a nice squad returning and a couple good freshmen.

[Red Dog]

Originally posted by huh?
I don't like it when Syracuse starts off this high in the polls. But, they do have a nice squad returning and a couple good freshmen.

I think they may be my pick to win it all. McNamara has to be more consistent from the outside though - he is far too streaky.

[Timber]

Wow. Alot off ACC teams and Big East (future Big East) teams in there.

[Tommy_Harn]

Originally posted by huh?
I don't like it when Syracuse starts off this high in the polls. But, they do have a nice squad returning and a couple good freshmen.

If their sophomores (Nichols and Roberts in particular) can contribute more, this team could be downright scary.

[wildcatlh]

If Edelin can come in and play the point well, a lineup of McNamara/Edelin/Pace/Warrick/Forth could be just great, and then if the younger backups do well the team could be spectacular.

But I don't wanna get too excited over them.

[brizz]

If Drew Neitzel is a half-way decent point guard, Michigan State will be in the final four....they are absolutely loaded. I'm somewhat shocked to see them five spots behind IL...should be the other way around.

[MrX]

Originally posted by brizz
I'm somewhat shocked to see them five spots behind IL...should be the other way around.

Illinois only lost the player at the end of the bench from a team that won the Big 10 and made it to the sweet 16 last year.

Michigan St was up high in the polls last preseason based on the hype of freshman guards and look what happened.

[Duran]

Originally posted by Red Dog
Good. I'm glad the Terps are ranked lower than they should be.

UNC is way too high.

The Terps are ranked 5th of 6 ACC ranked teams? That's absurd.

UNC has been ranked too high for the last three years. People keep ranking based on their talent on paper, and not the fact that they can't play together as a team or defend my grandmother.

[Lateralus]

Pitt is ranked to low, they need to be in the top 10.

[Dabaomb]

Go Duke!!!!!

#12, our lowest ranking in years.

[WallyOPD]

I'm a bit surprised that Arizona is up so high. I think they'll easily finish in the top 10 at the end of the season, but I wouldn't have expected most of the coaches to give them much credit in the preseason given their performance last year.

[brizz]

Originally posted by MrX


Illinois only lost the player at the end of the bench from a team that won the Big 10 and made it to the sweet 16 last year.

Michigan St was up high in the polls last preseason based on the hype of freshman guards and look what happened.

State lost no one from last year. and added three very good players, including one of the best point guards in the country. Of course IL is also going to be strong, i was just surprised that they'd be so much higher than MSU....I think it's reflective of last year's first poll more than anything.

MSU will win the big ten this year.

[Tommy_Harn]

Originally posted by Dabaomb
Go Duke!!!!!

#12, our lowest ranking in years.

Ewww! A Yankees and a dook fan?

Although I hate the Blue Devils, I have to imagine they'll be in the thick of things come Feb. and March. If they play strong defense, they'll be a factor.

[Dr_Evil]

Originally posted by Lateralus
Pitt is ranked to low, they need to be in the top 10.

They are always ranked low to start the season. By late January they will be in the top ten, probably top 5.

As I said in the other thread, talent wise this is the best team they've had during their recent rise. But they lost a lot of the key leaders on the team in Jaron Brown and Julius Page (and to a much lesser extent Toree Moriss) From what I've read though, they're greatly improved from three point land. With the way they play, relying on finding the entry pass that lets the big men do the work down low, this should help them a ton. Last year if they couldn't get the ball down low, it was pretty much a wasted possession for them, throwing up bricks left and right as the clock expired.

[wildcatlh]

Pittsburgh's problem is that they have to contend with Syracuse and UConn. Pitt's a good team, but they're third best in the Big East, and lost their best two players.

[Dabaomb]

Originally posted by Dabaomb
Go Duke!!!!!

#12, our lowest ranking in years.

Yankees are purely geographical.

I like Duke cuz when I was like 9 years old, my sister was applying for colleges. She's pretty smart so she was applying to all Ivys, etc. The only school that she applied to that was in the NCAA tournament that year was Duke so I rooted for them. She got into Duke but didn't go cuz they didn't give her any financial aid.

Neways, that was the year that Duke got DESTROYED by UNLV in the title game.

I've been a Dookie fan ever since. I applied there but got waitlisted but never officially got in.

I went to NYU but NYU is division 3 and our mascot is the Violet so it's pretty hard being an NYU athletics fan.

[Red Dog]

Wake Tabbed as Best of Best
Deacons Picked to Win ACC, Which Some Feel Is at Apex

By Eric Prisbell
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, November 1, 2004; Page D04

GREENSBORO, N.C., Oct. 31 -- Maryland won the ACC men's basketball tournament last season and, two weeks later, Duke and Georgia Tech reached the Final Four. All three teams return at least three starters and, perhaps most important, their coaches. Yet none is considered the favorite in the ACC.

Why? Wake Forest, voted the media's choice to win the league, returns five double-digit scorers, including point guard Chris Paul, expected to be the conference player of the year. North Carolina, voted to finish second, brings back the core of its team and adds Marvin Williams, one of the two best high school players who opted not to jump to the NBA.

The league clearly is the nation's best and, according to some ACC coaches, the best it has ever been. In the coaches' poll released last week, three teams ranked in the top four. Maryland Coach Gary Williams, whose team was voted to finish sixth in the ACC, likened it to 1985, when three Big East teams made the Final Four.

Said Duke Coach Mike Krzyzewski, "We have more outstanding teams relative to the rest of the country than in other years."

The ACC features a slew of experienced players, including four of the best point guards in the country. However, only one true standout, North Carolina State's Julius Hodge, is a senior. In fact, only three seniors -- Hodge, Georgia Tech's B.J. Elder and Virginia's Elton Brown -- averaged more than 13 points per game last season. In the new age of college basketball, sophomores and juniors are veterans.

"Yeah, that's considered an experienced team, but that's just the way the game goes," Williams said. "If you look at the NBA draft this year, how many college players were drafted? You look at Europe, they had nine or 10 guys, and then the high school guys. You're down to less than 30 college players. You still have to earn your way into the draft. You don't just automatically leave to go."

The other oddity about this year's league is that teams will not play a double round-robin schedule because of the addition of Virginia Tech and Miami. It's too early to determine who benefits by playing some teams only once, but Krzyzewski agreed with many coaches in that "there has to be a few teams in our league that have it more advantageous than others."

Duke, which had been picked to finish first each of the past four years, was voted to finish fourth this season after losing freshman Luol Deng and high school recruit Shaun Livingston to the NBA draft. At issue is how the Blue Devils will compete in a point guard-heavy ACC without a natural or experienced floor leader.

"Duke is going to figure everything out," Maryland point guard John Gilchrist said. "They always do."

Despite reaching the national title game last season, Georgia Tech was voted behind Wake Forest and North Carolina. Yellow Jackets players said they don't mind hovering under the radar before the season starts. But they acknowledged that the tournament run changed the perception of the program.

"It's been really different," Georgia Tech guard Jarrett Jack said. "This is a big city with pro sports, but you go around the city and everyone knows you. Coach [Paul] Hewitt is Atlanta's newest celebrity."

[weargle]

Wake should be interesting this year. Carolina is way too high (heh heh) since it's still not William's team yet. Duke remains to be seen, and has GOT to stop relying on white guys that just shoot threes and kill the team when they go cold. Tech is a surprise, I didn't realize that the Barry's had more kids???

[taa455]

I'm a Carolina fan and I agree UNC is too high. Can you believe Vitale has them #1 in his preseason rankings? The ACC is going to be brutal this year just as it was last year. 6 teams in the top 20, including 3 of the top 4! FSU another borderline top 25 team too.