Maladroit44's Week Pre-Season Ballot
| Rank | Team | Reason |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Kansas | Fascinated to see how a really talented, experienced KU team responds to the rough finish in March—3-3, two blowout losses to Texas and a R32 exit. |
| 2 | Purdue | The good news is that 100% of 1 seeds that lost in the first round won the national title the following year. The bad news is 0% of titles have gone to Big Ten teams in Zach Edey's lifetime. |
| 3 | Houston | Another preseason, another year in which the Cougars need more respect for their general brilliance over the past few years, both regular season and tournament. |
| 4 | Marquette | Before they ran into MSU in the R32, Marquette was on a 15-1 run with the one loss on the road against the eventual national champions. And basically that whole team is back this year. |
| 5 | Arizona | Tommy Lloyd knows what he's doing. The frustration of a first-round exit to a 15 seed has made a lot of people forget that Arizona is still a comfortable top-ten program right now. |
| 6 | Gonzaga | It'd take more than last season to convince me that Gonzaga is no longer a problem. Like Marquette, they finished last season really strong outside of a big loss to UConn, who nobody was beating. |
| 7 | Tennessee | Consider me cautiously optimistic. The defense might be better than last year and the offense...exists. |
| 8 | North Carolina | It's pretty obvious that last year put people off ranking an unproven UNC highly, but they should. This lineup has two elite returns, two great transfers, and brilliant recruit Elliot Cadeau. |
| 9 | Duke | Coach K isn't walking through that door, and like...it's still Duke, but do we trust *anybody* else to manage a young, talented roster like he could? |
| 10 | Creighton | This offense is gonna be *so* good. You've got three guys who looked at the draft back plus Steven Ashworth, who averaged 16.2 PPG in a great MWC last season. |
| 11 | San Diego State | SDSU does lose some pieces, but you will recognize Darrion Trammell and Lamont Butler. Sidebar: is Brian Dutcher the best coach in college basketball right now? |
| 12 | UConn | I am skeptical of UConn. They added a lot but also lost multiple key pieces from their title run; this is a good team, but it won't look much like the 2022-23 team. |
| 13 | Michigan State | I'm still not sure about post-2020 Izzo, but the pieces are there for MSU to get back to the season they're used to having. Right? |
| 14 | Florida Atlantic | This is basically exactly the same roster as last year. I think that's a good thing, but FAU had some cold stretches in 2022-23 that would (theoretically) be more damaging in the AAC. |
| 15 | Texas A&M | If January/February A&M shows up, look out. If November, December, or March A&M shows up...yeah, you should be fine. |
| 16 | Villanova | This transfer class is really exciting—heaven knows everyone in CBBcord has heard Hakim Hart's name enough to know he's good, and TJ Bamba and Tyler Burton are major threats too. |
| 17 | Baylor | The roster is kind of a mess with way more moving pieces than starting spots, but we do trust Scott Drew to handle that, I think. Probably. |
| 18 | Saint Mary's | The Gaels have finished at the bottom of the top twenty in back-to-back years. A minor roster reset doesn't change much about how I see them, personally. |
| 19 | Kentucky | On paper, this roster is really good. In reality...I'm not sure I trust John Calipari with a lineup featuring four news players, even if they're all great. That feels weird to say, but it's true. |
| 20 | Alabama | Man, I totally forgot Alabama finished last season #1 overall. I'd temper expectations, but Nate Oats has earned some benefit of the doubt even with a potential offensive dropoff. |
| 21 | USC | I'd kill to be Isaiah Collier right now. He's the most talented freshman in the country *and* he doesn't have to deal with any of the pressure, because all the attention will be on Bronny James. |
| 22 | Wisconsin | Start Connor Essegian. I like the returns a lot and I'm keeping an eye on AJ Storr, who transferred in from St. John's. |
| 23 | Miami (FL) | I have no strong feelings about Miami aside from thinking they're stacked on the All-Name Team front. Nijel Pack and Wooga Poplar should both be shoo-ins, right? |
| 24 | Texas | Nothing about this roster inspires me aside from Max Abmas, and I can't get excited about him on principle. Rodney Terry was great last year, but this is at least a reload, if not a rebuild. |
| 25 | Kansas State | Is nobody else intrigued by year two of the Jerome Tang experience? And, even more, intrigued by Ques Glover's return to the P6? |
Overall Rationale
Also considered: UCLA, Colorado, Illinois, St. John's, Auburn