NCAA Basketball AP Preseason Poll Breakdown
Tuesday, November 11, 2008 14:34
Yesterday, I looked at the North Carolina Tar Heels and their chances of attaining perfection during the 2008-2009 college basketball season. Today let’s take a look at some of the other interesting tidbits we can glean from the AP preseason basketball poll as well as compare it to the USA Today Coaches poll.
Big East Dominance
The ACC may hold the top spot in North Carolina, but the Big East owns the poll overall, with seven teams ranked. That translates to better than one out of every four ranked teams coming just from that conference alone. #2 Connecticut leads the pack, which also includes two other teams in the Top 5, #3 Louisville and #5 Pittsburgh.
Of course, what tends to happen when a league has numerous teams that good is that the beat up on each other when the season turns to conference play. While such a situation doesn’t bode well for more than one, maybe two, squads staying at the top of the rankings, it still isn’t the instant championship death it would be in football. The Big East should be well situated come March to send several teams deep into the tournament.
Coming in a distant second is the ACC, with four ranked teams.
Davidson Rewarded
Last year’s Cinderella of the tournament, Davidson, is back in the Top 25, starting the year at #20. Davidson’s run was one of the most exciting in recent years. They may not have made the Final Four like the George Mason Patriots did in 2006, but the difference between those two teams was quickly apparent. The Patriots were a good team on a miraculous Cinderella run; the Wildcats, a great team fully capable of playing at such a high level day in, day out, for an entire season. With George Mason, one constantly wondered when the run would end; with Davidson, one came truly to believe they could continue to win.
Mid-majors continue to make their mark each year, and Davidson last year was no fluke. The preseason ranking is well-deserved. Don’t be surprised if the Wildcats follow in Gonzaga’s footsteps as a perennial Top 25 team (the Zags start the season at #10).
Comparison to the USA Today Coaches Poll
The Top 25 teams are identical between the two polls, even if the specific rankings differ. North Carolina is the unanimous #1 in both; #2 – 4 also stay the same. Only five teams show significant (more than one or two spots) variance: Duke (#8 AP, #5 USA Today), USC (#18 AP, #21 USA Today), Wake Forest (#21 AP, #24 USA Today), Georgetown (#22 AP, #18 USA Today) and, the big mover, Wisconsin (#25 AP, #21 USA Today–at four spots, the Badgers have the largest variance of any school ranked).
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