RealGM

No surprise here that the Heels take the #1 spot heading into the year.

1. North Carolina (31) 0-0 775
2. Connecticut 0-0 707
3. Louisville 0-0 694
4. UCLA 0-0 650
5. Duke 0-0 578
6. Pittsburgh 0-0 576
7. Michigan State 0-0 572
8. Texas 0-0 538
9. Notre Dame 0-0 525
10. Purdue 0-0 465
11. Gonzaga 0-0 437
12. Memphis 0-0 425
13. Tennessee 0-0 408
14. Oklahoma 0-0 387
15. Arizona State 0-0 304
16. Miami (FL) 0-0 233
17. Marquette 0-0 219
18. Georgetown 0-0 175
19. Florida 0-0 161
20. Davidson 0-0 158
21. USC 0-0 153
21. Wisconsin 0-0 153
23. Kansas 0-0 130
24. Wake Forest 0-0 129
25. Villanova 0-0 122

Others Receiving Votes
UNLV 60, Saint Mary's 59, Ohio State 54, Baylor 47, Xavier 27, Syracuse 23, Texas A&M 19, LSU 19, Arizona 18, Virginia Tech 15, Brigham Young 13, West Virginia 10, Washington 8, Siena 8, Kentucky 7, Vanderbilt 7, Oklahoma State 4, Clemson 2, Washington State 1.

http://sports-ak.espn.go.com/ncb/rankings

Only changes I would make, would be taking out USC and throwing in UNLV, and even moving my Dukies out of the Top 5 and switching them with Pitt.

Conference Breakdown:

Big East: 7
ACC: 4
Big 10: 3
SEC: 2
Big 12: 3
Pac 10: 3
C-USA: 1
Southland: 1
WCC: 1

The Big East is so brutal this year.

Damn. The Aggies fall just short of the top 25.

The Big East by far will be the best conference this season.

The Zags have all the makings of a deep run this year. I know everyone expects them to get the the sweet 16 year after year but this season they should be flirting with the final four.

They are stacked and have a lot of upper classmen leadership.

Jeremy Pargo senior PG tested the NBA waters last summer and decided to come back for his senior year. Any team with a Senior PG who will be going pro should win a lot of games.

Josh Heytvelt Senior PF/C He had some nagging injuries and some off the court issues last year that look to be behind him because he looks to have found his groove from two years ago.

But it's just not those two guys they are stacked up front and in the back court.

But the bottom line to me is that this team has upperclassmen in all the right places and pure NBA talent in the other places like Austin Daye at PF and Steven Gray as 6th man SG.

There is so much wrong with this poll......I don't even know where to begin!

Perhaps Purdue and Notre Dame at 9 and 10 would be a good start.

Is Tyreke Evans really that good?

Chalmers, Robinson, Rush, Arthur less Kansas ahead of Villanova who returns everyone? Georgetown ahead of Nova?

Arizona St. at 15? Really?

Is Davidson another Wisconsin? Meaning: do they simply retool or were their role players last year a special bunch?

How is Duke so high? Not saying I don't respect them, but after last year's display against Belmont, come on! I would keep them top 10 though, no doubt.

I don't want to speak way too soon, but how the heck are we counting out the Missouri Valley here? Southern Illinois and Illinois St. are sleepers in my book. (possibly Creighton as well)

No votes for UAB?

What is up with this year's poll?

Arizona State makes the Final Four this year, or at least the Elite Eight.
15 is way too low for them.
I definitely agree that Memphis is too high as well.
And not for nothing, but should Georgetown even start the year ranked?

Chris Wright is gonna be huge this year for Georgetown.

Summers may have a breakout year, but he is no Jeff Green imo. That team only gets as far as Dajuan can take them...and I think this year it is a tournament birth.

I do not exactly understand why Arizona St. is ranked so high considering the fact that they didn't make the dance last year. (despite returning Harden and Pendergraft) I just see a few teams below them that could probably defeat them imo.

Oh, and St. Marys looked pretty good the other night. Patrick Mills is for real.

jman3134 wrote:
Oh, and St. Marys looked pretty good the other night. Patrick Mills is for real.

So is Stephen Curry. That kid just won´t back down and it seems he´d make any team competitive, the way he brought Davidson back yesterday was just so last march all over again, wow.
In the first 2 games showed some good playmaking as well along with getting 13 steals the first 2 games, even yesterday he wasn´t half bad from what i heard (and with the amount of touches he´s had 3 TOs are far from a lot, also Davidson had just 5 as a team).
Imo Davidson won´t win every game and possibly not go that far again, but i doubt they will get blown out by anyone.

jman3134 wrote:Summers may have a breakout year, but he is no Jeff Green imo. That team only gets as far as Dajuan can take them...and I think this year it is a tournament birth.

I do not exactly understand why Arizona St. is ranked so high considering the fact that they didn't make the dance last year. (despite returning Harden and Pendergraft) I just see a few teams below them that could probably defeat them imo.

Oh, and St. Marys looked pretty good the other night. Patrick Mills is for real.

I like Arizona State. They were pretty much a top 25 team for most of last season while playing in a beast of a conference. And they fell victim to a bad call in the first round of the Pac 10 tourny which probably cost them a trip to the Big Dance. Also, I think Harden is the best player out West. So I don't have a problem with their preseason ranking. But Baylor and St. Mary's definitely should be ranked. Duke at #5 however is just absurd, as evidenced by the Rhode Island game. On what planet is Duke considered better than Pittsburgh coming into this season?

Duke has not looked good at all this year. They will pick up a loss soon and drop pretty far eventually.