Kansas is pretty much the consensus choice for #1 in pretty much all rankings. They are the toughest, deepest and most highly touted team in the NCAA…on paper. Regardless of how good we expect Kansas to be, there is a good chance that at least one (if not many) other team(s) will have the #1 ranking at some point during the season. As they say, “That’s why you play the games.” Otherwise, we would just crown Kansas the national champion and the next four months would be might boring (who wants to watch the NBA? I’m a Knicks fan, not me).
The rest of the top five is a toss up. Most people think that Michigan State, Kentucky, Nova and Texas are at least top ten caliber teams. I predict that just like my NCAA football rankings, these will look quite different in March.
This is not an exact science, and I’ll probably be wrong about a lot of these teams. What I want to know is, what do you think? Throw me an email cosburn@thefatherlife.com or post a message below and tell me how wrong or how right I am. Most likely I’ll be well off, but I’ll be happy if at least ten of my preseason twenty-five end up ranked at the end of the year.
CHRIS OSBURN’S NCAA BASKETBALL PRESEASON RANKINGS:
1. Kansas
2. Michigan State
3. Kentucky
4. Villanova
5. Texas
6. North Carolina
7. Purdue
8. Duke
9. West Virginia
10. Connecticut
11. Ohio State
12. Butler
13. California
14. Michigan
15. Washington
16. Oklahoma
17. Georgetown
18. Tennessee
19. Oklahoma State
20. Louisville
21. Dayton
22. Clemson
23. Kansas State
24. Syracuse
25. Pittsburgh
*Almost made it: Minnesota, Mississippi State, Siena, Georgia Tech, Maryland, Illinois, UCLA, Vanderbilt, Mizzou, Xavier, Gonzaga, Notre Dame.
There’s been a huge shakeup since last season as is sometimes the case in college basketball. If your team loses three or four starters from a talented team, it’s not very easy to find replacements right away. High ranked Memphis, Gonzaga, Xavier, LSU, UCLA, Arizona State and several others didn’t make the top twenty-five after ending last season ranked.
The big question is: Who’s going to be the unranked team to surprise everyone and propel themselves into the national championship talks? I’m excited to see how it all pans out.
30 year old freelance writer and The Father Life‘s resident beer columnist and sports editor. He also writes about fine beverages for drinkingmadeeasy.com and Chilled Magazine. On top of that, he writes about college and professional lacrosse for insidelacrosse.com. He’s also written for Genesee Valley Parenting Magazine, the Democrat and Chronicle Newspaper and ESPN.com. “Osburn on Tap” appears monthly in THE FATHER LIFE. For questions, comments, or if you have a story idea for Chris, throw him an email cosburn@thefatherlife.com. Also, follow him on twitter http://www.twitter.com/chrisosburn