fancycheesus's Week Pre-Season Ballot
| Rank | Team | Reason |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Purdue | Matt Painter has had two seasons to build up his guards to compliment Edey. He is too good of a coach to not fix the achilles heel from last year where teams could ignore his guards and mob Edey. |
| 2 | Duke | Filipowski and Roach returning is an elite combo. Among others on the team. |
| 3 | Kansas | Kansas and Duke are really similar in my opinion, but I give the slight edge to Duke because I am worried about Kansas's depth. |
| 4 | UConn | defending champs and Clingan is a monster |
| 5 | Michigan State | |
| 6 | Florida Atlantic | they are returning a final four team. |
| 7 | Gonzaga | Nembhard will be a great pickup for Few's fast paced playstyle |
| 8 | Marquette | |
| 9 | Houston | I don't know that Houston has replaced Sasser and Walker, but Kelvin Sampson has earned a preseason top 10 level of trust |
| 10 | Arizona | |
| 11 | Arkansas | This team is older and more well rounded than last year's single note team. Trevon Brazille could be a top 5 draft pick. |
| 12 | Miami (FL) | |
| 13 | Kentucky | I think Cal has put together a roster of players bred for his free playstyle. He has suffered from adapting his scheme to his players, but I don't think that's a problem this year. |
| 14 | San Diego State | |
| 15 | Creighton | I think creighton lost more than they gained this offseason. Kalkenbrenner can't do it alone |
| 16 | Tennessee | I think Ziegler being out is going to hurt the vols way more than anyone is expecting. |
| 17 | Texas | This is a gamble. Was Rodney Terry a good coach last year or did Beard leave him with a team of world-beaters? |
| 18 | North Carolina | UNC will either be a top 10 team or miss the tournament again. There is no in between. |
| 19 | Texas A&M | Aggies return a full roster that did really well last year. They relied too much on FTA (like 21-22 arkansas). I don't think the same plan will work again this year. SEC teams will have them scouted. |
| 20 | USC | Insane amounts of fresh talent |
| 21 | Villanova | |
| 22 | Saint Mary's | I don't know anything about Saint Mary's but I will defer to the AP poll |
| 23 | Baylor | Cryer transferring within conference away from a coach that just won it all 3 years ago makes me not trust Drew |
| 24 | Illinois | |
| 25 | Auburn | Bruce Pearl is a better coach than Nate Oats. I think Wendell Green was holding Auburn back by playing hero ball (thats how Miami beat Auburn in 22 when Green wouldn't pass to Jabari Smith) |
Overall Rationale
For teams I am not super familiar with their offseason stories like Nova or Miami, I deferred to the AP poll's "collective wisdom"