Preseason Top 25

[cyclones500]

It’s only August, so what the heck.

More like a combo preseason rank/projected S-curve here:
1. Duke
2. Kentucky
3. Arizona
4. Wisconsin
5. North Carolina
6. Kansas
7. UConn
8. Florida
9. Texas
10. Louisville
11. Villanova
12. Iowa State
13. Virginia
14. Ohio State
15. San Diego State
16. Wichita State
17. Oklahoma
18. Michigan State
19. VCU
20. UCLA
21. Syracuse
22. Michigan
23. Stanford
24. SMU
25. Georgetown
“Others receiving votesâ€￾: Gonzaga, Kansas State, Dayton, Memphis, Illinois, Xavier, Harvard (and about 11 others)

I’m putting Duke above UK because ACC should have killer SOS at the top.

Ohio State-MSU-Michigan higher than seems reasonable ... even if Wisconsin is top-5, I don’t see UW dominating Big Ten dramatically.

 

[SimpsonClone]

Sorry, I actually do have a LITTLE work I need to get done today... Why? because EVERYONE in consideration that low in the rankings is probably losing a very good player and finished right around mediocre last year. Aaron White is a pretty solid player and performed well in the camps he did this year and the rest of the "typical" teams to rank are down a bit. The bottom of the rankings isn't exactly a who's who of Final Four bound teams, folks. You could probably take the bottom five of any list and replace them with five different teams and be pretty close.

The end of this post is pretty accurate. Is it really that far out that Iowa could sneak in? Not any more so than most of the other candidates for 21-25. I don't think they get in, but I can fathom how they could.

 

[Antihawk240]

It's kind of comical how an opinion question can get people dropping the "asterisk treatment" on a guy who gives his opinion.

I dislike the hawks a lot. Because of my distaste for them I lots of times let it cloud my judgement of them. TUCO doesnt hate them as much as we do. So for him to predict a low end preseason rank after considering how many media think the Big 10 is the best and couple it with their adoration of MadFran I could see them putting Iowa in. We are talking about the same Media that predicted ISU at the bottom of the preseason Big 12 rankings how many years in the Fred Hoiberg era?

 

[JohnnyFive]

You have UConn in there twice. Connecticut and UConn aren't different schools.

Yeah my bad. Meant to put Dayton in there somewhere

 

[IAStubborn]

Will we be ranked to start the year? We are high on Ejim and Kane's replacements but outsiders may see them as a mediocre MAC transfer and a malcontent.

http://mweb.cbssports.com/ncaab/eye...15-preseason-top-25-and-one-national-rankings
http://www.usatoday.com/story/sport...all-teams-belong-in-the-early-top-25/8015537/
CBS 15, USA Today 17, ESPN 16.... find me a preseason publication that doesn't include ISU. We will be ranked. I would imagine 16 +- 2 . Fred has earned the respect that we will be good until proven otherwise.

 

[IAStubborn]

As much as I dislike Iowa, having them ranked in the preseason top 25 doesn't surprise me. In fact I kind of hope they are. Helps our SOS and is always fun watching their ship sink.

They have already been listed in at least two rankings already...

http://espn.go.com/mens-college-bas...-top-25-2014-15-men-college-basketball-season

http://collegebasketballtalk.nbcspo...ketball-talks-way-too-early-preseason-top-25/

Found one...NBC is horrible here.

 

[CarlHungus]

ISU will be anywhere from 13-18 to start the year

 

[CyTwins]

Found one...NBC is horrible here.

Iowa's a top 20 team but ISU and Louisville aren't top 25

 

[roundball]

Found one...NBC is horrible here.

NBC is horrible everywhere...​their college basketball coverage is complete garbage. Best I can tell it's just a couple of dweebs who watch a few games on television and tweet all the time. Seriously.

 

[twocoach]

I would think Kentucky will be #1, that roster is stacked. Not in love with Duke like everyone else is. I would have put them closer to 5/6 range. I think Texas and Kansas are better, and if ISU can live up to their potential - this might be the year with 3 teams from the Big12 in the final 4.

Didn't Florida lose 80% of their starting lineup???

If i had to pick 4 teams for the final 4 today it would be:

Kentucky
Texas
Wisky
Iowa State

Every year that Duke has an NBA center with good players around him they make the Final Four. They have an NBA center this year with good players around him so I will be picking them to the Final Four. I hate Duke but Coach K's system works very well with an elite center in the post.

 

[cyclones500]

Iowa's a top 20 team but ISU and Louisville aren't top 25

That's one thing to consider.

But if Big 12 ranks include:
4 Kansas
8 Texas
11 Oklahoma
with no Iowa State

And ACC high ranks are:
2 Duke
6 North Carolina
7 Virginia
with no Louisville ...

Not sure I believe both of those...

 

[RustShack]

I think Iowa State SHOULD easily be in the top 10, but I hope we can at least crack the top 15. The respect is obviously getting there though and being top five the next season wouldn't shock me at all... But that's too far away to talk about lol.

 

[BallSoHard4Cy]

Hate to be debby downer, but I think you all need to temper your expectations a bit as far as where were gonna be ranked. Were missing 3 rotational players for at least a game or two. Our non conference is easy, but I'd actually say it's harder than last years. Our ranking will reflect the Thomas and Nader suspensions as well as McKay being out until December. That said ISU will still have a team capable of winning (and winning big) without them, but just tamper the expectations a bit. ISU will not be ranked 6th.

 

[RustShack]

Lololol having a few guys out for a game or two isn't going to ruin the rankings...

 

[BallSoHard4Cy]

Lololol having a few guys out for a game or two isn't going to ruin the rankings...

Ruin? No. I said it's going to play into the ranking. Having 3 rotational players sitting out for who knows how long doesn't look good on paper, especially when these guys consider that ISU lost two players who some would consider to be really good. We know more about our team then they do, sure, but it's not about what you think.

 

[Thomasrickj]

It does annoy me that no matter the sport, Iowa is consistently overrated. For some reason, voters and "experts" are in love with them. It happens just about every year in football and is now happening in basketball. Every write up I've seen where they rank Iowa, not one of them brings up how they plan on replacing Marble's scoring and who's going to step up. It's ridiculous. That NBC article ranking Iowa and not Iowa State is pretty ridiculous and definitely the worst one I've seen yet. What's funny is these guys on NBC won't rank Iowa State and then by the end of the season, their writers will say things like "we knew all along that Iowa State was a top talent team and we were the only ones that gave them respect before the season started." Then when Iowa collapses, the experts will say "this team is just not good enough to compete with the big boys and we knew it from the start of the season."

 

[Rural]

Based on last years complete and utter tank-job and in-squad hatred we see the Hawkeyes as this years up and comer.

Was it written something like that?

 

[Cydkar]

Hate to be debby downer, but I think you all need to temper your expectations a bit as far as where were gonna be ranked. Were missing 3 rotational players for at least a game or two. Our non conference is easy, but I'd actually say it's harder than last years. Our ranking will reflect the Thomas and Nader suspensions as well as McKay being out until December. That said ISU will still have a team capable of winning (and winning big) without them, but just tamper the expectations a bit. ISU will not be ranked 6th.

Incorrect and correct.

 

[Cydkar]

It does annoy me that no matter the sport, Iowa is consistently overrated. For some reason, voters and "experts" are in love with them. It happens just about every year in football and is now happening in basketball. Every write up I've seen where they rank Iowa, not one of them brings up how they plan on replacing Marble's scoring and who's going to step up. It's ridiculous. That NBC article ranking Iowa and not Iowa State is pretty ridiculous and definitely the worst one I've seen yet. What's funny is these guys on NBC won't rank Iowa State and then by the end of the season, their writers will say things like "we knew all along that Iowa State was a top talent team and we were the only ones that gave them respect before the season started." Then when Iowa collapses, the experts will say "this team is just not good enough to compete with the big boys and we knew it from the start of the season."

While I don't think Iowa is a top 25 team I don't see the conspiracy that you do.

 

[roundball]

It does annoy me that no matter the sport, Iowa is consistently overrated. For some reason, voters and "experts" are in love with them. It happens just about every year in football and is now happening in basketball. Every write up I've seen where they rank Iowa, not one of them brings up how they plan on replacing Marble's scoring and who's going to step up. It's ridiculous. That NBC article ranking Iowa and not Iowa State is pretty ridiculous and definitely the worst one I've seen yet. What's funny is these guys on NBC won't rank Iowa State and then by the end of the season, their writers will say things like "we knew all along that Iowa State was a top talent team and we were the only ones that gave them respect before the season started." Then when Iowa collapses, the experts will say "this team is just not good enough to compete with the big boys and we knew it from the start of the season."

To be fair, just about every team loses a good amount of scoring each year. And to be honest, Iowa's not losing as much as you think (Marble/McCabe accounted for just over 28% of their points...we're losing 45% of our offense for comparison).

Iowa's biggest liability last year was their coach...he couldn't establish a "core" and stretched the team thin. Iowa had nine players averaging over 15 minutes/game, yet only three of them had over 20 minutes/game (in contrast, we had seven players averaging over 15 minutes a game, and all of them had over 20 minutes/game...four of them had over 30 minutes/game, something that can only be claimed by Marble for Iowa).

Iowa's fix could very well be not utilizing their "depth" and settling on a seven man rotation rather than their "exhibition" style of play they used last year. If they can do that, their scoring could become a lot more consistent and they'd be a better team. However, that's not something that should be assumed in the preseason...Fran's got to prove that he can do it, first.