After the college basketball season wraps up each year, I enjoy looking back at the preseason rankings and comparing them to how teams finished. It can be humorous to see how hilariously wrong we were about some teams being ranked too high and others far too low.
Preseason rankings seem to be a necessary tool to use in order to set a baseline (pun intended) for the beginning of the season and for reflection at the end of the season. USA Today released their preseason Top-25 within the last few weeks. I like to see how my own Top 25 compares to those that are published to a much broader audience. Below, you will see two lists: the left being the AP Coaches Poll and then mine on the right. I always like to include two more teams in mine, which, through simple math, adds up to 27 teams. Remember, it’s all in good fun (at least for me).
AP Coaches Poll Top 25 My Top 25(+2)
- (tie) North Carolina 1. Duke
1. (tie) Kentucky 2. Kentucky
3. Maryland 3. North Carolina
4. Duke 4. Maryland
5. Kansas 5. Kansas
6. Virginia 6. Villanova
7. Iowa State 7. Virginia
8. Oklahoma 8. Arizona
9. Villanova 9. Oklahoma
10. Arizona 10. Iowa State
11. Gonzaga 11. Wichita State
12. Wichita State 12. Utah
13. Michigan State 13. Gonzaga
14. California 14. Michigan State
15. Indiana 15. Wisconsin
16. Utah 16. Notre Dame
17. Wisconsin 17. Baylor
18. Notre Dame 18. Indiana
19. LSU 19. LSU
20. Vanderbilt 20. Cincinnati
21. Baylor 21. California
22. Butler 22. Butler
23. West Virginia 23. Purdue
24. (tie) Connecticut 24. Vanderbilt
24. (tie) Purdue 25. Connecticut
. 26. Georgetown
. 27. Miami (FL)
A note on why ties occur in the Coaches Poll: The USA Today Coaches Poll is made up of 32 Division-I men’s college basketball coaches. Points are assigned based on the order the teams are ranked. When teams receive the same number of points, they are assigned a tie.
Games don’t actually end in a tie. Connecticut and Syracuse tried their best though by going to 6 Overtimes during the 2009 Big East Tournament.
What are your thoughts on the polls above? Are there any glaring issues? Should there be other teams included? Leave a comment below!
