ASpeciesBeing's Week Pre-Season Ballot
| Rank | Team | Reason |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Duke | best player, best roster |
| 2 | Houston | top defensive projected team, consistent defensive dominance |
| 3 | Florida | return a lot of their best players from last season, were a great team, will be great |
| 4 | Illinois | return a very good roster and a number of high level euro products |
| 5 | Michigan State | clear 1 and 2 in the B1G with Illinois, always a top team under Izzo and well projected again |
| 6 | Arizona | projected top 10 offense, and top 5 defense |
| 7 | UConn | pretty clearly the best team in the big east which I think will help them hold a high ranking throughout conference play |
| 8 | Iowa State | consistently competitive team |
| 9 | Kansas | Tyran Stokes is a dawg if he can stay on the court, not a lot of eligibility questions, top 10 projected D |
| 10 | Texas Tech | once JT Toppin is back... watch out! already a solid roster that is just missing their final piece to the puzzle for the first few months |
| 11 | Virginia | defense projects really well and is consistently great. prior consistency is what earns them the spot given no ball has been played |
| 12 | Texas | Mikey lewis is gonna run the offense really well |
| 13 | Gonzaga | a new conference for the same old zags to dominate, I think USU and SDSU will push them more than WCC did |
| 14 | Alabama | Oates ball is high highs but every year the new team concerns me with how they'll all work together in a bold system |
| 15 | Nebraska | kept a lot of the most exciting pieces from the march madness team from last year |
| 16 | Louisville | Loads of impressive players on the roster, at their best they looked really good last year |
| 17 | Vanderbilt | O and D project in the top 15. program has been building in a positive direction |
| 18 | Kentucky | A number of impressive transfers could Carry this team, big fan of Mamchilovic and Zoom Diallo |
| 19 | Texas A&M | a couple of top players and a top projected offense |
| 20 | BYU | kept a lot of their top players and still have a Offense that projects well. love their coach |
| 21 | Tennessee | big fan of dai dai ames, barnes has made a lot of good, reliable teams |
| 22 | Purdue | roster looks like a down year but they still have a great guard in Cox and the makings of a B1G contender |
| 23 | Saint Louis | If SLU can run the A10 (which I think they can) they'll have a great case as the best mid major, and a top team in the nation |
| 24 | Grand Canyon | such a solid program that is consistently dominant, and also have chances to prove themselves on their schedule |
| 25 | New Mexico | the team Eric Olen has built is absolutely deadly, between Jake Hall, Tennette, and the addition of Hudson Mayes, they might have the most exciting Mid Major roster |
Overall Rationale
Looked at a mix of roster makeup and projected efficiency numbers.I love respecting Mid Majors in my preseason rankings, so the bottom 3 are my top 3 mid majors.