marquardt_'s Week Pre-Season Ballot
| Rank | Team | Reason |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Kentucky | Tons of returning talent, including the reigning national player of the year. |
| 2 | Gonzaga | Also plenty of talent coming back. Drew Timme is hard to bet against. |
| 3 | Houston | Marcus Sasser might be the best guard in college basketball and Kelvin Sampson has plenty of great players around him. |
| 4 | North Carolina | National runners up who brought almost everyone back and added Pete Nance. |
| 5 | Baylor | Adam Flagler. Keyonte George. Scott Drew. |
| 6 | Arkansas | Lost a lot but incredible recruiting class and transfer class. |
| 7 | Texas | They brought almost everyone back and added Dillon Mitchell. |
| 8 | Creighton | Gave Kansas all they could handle in the Round of 32 last year without Ryan Kalkbrenner, and the whole team is returning. |
| 9 | Tennessee | Rick Barnes has built a great program with some great players ready to take the lead. |
| 10 | UCLA | Jaime Jacquez Jr. |
| 11 | Duke | It’s Duke. Five stars to the brim in Jon Scheyer’s first year in charge. |
| 12 | Kansas | Reigning champs lost a lot but keep Jalen Wilson and bring in Gradey Dick. |
| 13 | TCU | They can go as far as Mike Miles takes them. Returning a lot from a tough out in last years tournament. |
| 14 | Virginia | Analytic favorite who is bringing back a lot. Got better as last year went on and Tony Bennett is still one of the best coaches in the nation. |
| 15 | Arizona | Tubelis is a baller and Tommy Lloyd should still have a good team, thought not as great as last years. |
| 16 | Villanova | First year for Kyle Neptune with a really talented team highlighted by Cam Whitmore. |
| 17 | Miami (FL) | Nijel Pack is him. Isaiah Wong is also him. |
| 18 | Dayton | Pesky team that upset Kansas last year when everyone on the team were freshmen. Now they’re all sophomores. |
| 19 | Indiana | A lot of talent returning, and Jalen Hood-Schifino is amazing. I just want to see them win in the regular season. |
| 20 | San Diego State | Good team last year. Matt Bradley is back. |
| 21 | Illinois | Some nice transfers and a good recruiting class coming in. |
| 22 | Michigan | Hunter Dickinson. |
| 23 | USC | Just a solid team that will play everyone tough. |
| 24 | Michigan State | Izzo teams find a way, especially with a good amount of returning talent. |
| 25 | Oregon | Dana Altman is a program builder and Oregon has enough here to compete in the Pac-12. |
Overall Rationale
I mainly based this in perceived roster strength, how teams ended last year, and analytic sites like KenPom and BartTorvik. Offseason buzz helps as well, of course.