Rankings post-NCAAs, pre-draft, mid-signing
Posted: Thursday, May 01, 2008 2:19 PM
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Rankings
The post-Final Four, pre-NBA draft, mid-late-signing period 2008-09 preseason college basketball rankings can be tricky.
Thankfully, the Web is here to help.
SI.com’s Luke Winn updated his power rankings Monday. Boosted by Hasheem Thabeet’s return, he puts UConn No. 1. Smart move. The Huskies are coming off a 24-9 season, return all five starters and should have point guard A.J. Price healthy for the start of the season. (Even if he’s not ready for the opener, Price’s return would be the equivalent of Brandon Rush’s torn ACL for Kansas last year – it assured the team’s most indispensible player would be back in uniform, even if he was sluggish to start.)
The rest of his top 10 – UCLA, UNC, Duke, Purdue, Pitt, Louisville, Tennessee, Texas, Notre Dame – sounds about right, though I’d drop UCLA a couple spots. Darren Collison’s return gives the Bruins arguably the nation’s best backcourt, but where their frontcourt scoring will come from, I don’t know. Certainly not from Luc Richard Mbah a Moute or James Keefe.
It seems likely that both Ty Lawson and Wayne Ellington will return to Chapel Hill. With Tyler Hansbrough already in pocket and more frontcourt recruits coming in, the Heels remain one of the teams to beat. (That doesn’t include Obama suiting up).
Oddly enough, Vegas has it even right now between UConn, Louisville, Pitt and Georgetown. I know Greg Monroe’s good, but he better be Beasleyesque to make up for the loss of Roy Hibbert and Vernon Macklin.
The one surprise omission from Winn’s group has to be Wake Forest.
The Deacons finished 17-13 last season, and if not for a 1-5 finish, a squad primarily of freshmen and sophomores would’ve been in the NCAA Tournament. Adding a top-flight recruiting class for 2008 should make Wake a top 15 team next season (think Purdue).
The remaining wild-cards for next year? Signing any remaining high schoolers, and seeing who stays in the draft and how those moves affect any transfers or incoming freshmen.
An example: this excellent piece from ESPN’s Dana O’Neil traces Scottie Reynolds’ arc from Oklahoma to Villanova in 2006. Reynolds committed to the Sooners, changed his mind once Kelvin Sampson took the Indiana job, and waited to see if ‘Nova’s Kyle Lowry would stay in the draft (he did) before settling on Jay Wright’s Wildcats.
The remaining prep stars have until May 21 to sign, while the last day for underclassmen to withdraw from the NBA draft is June 16. (List of early entrants can be found here.)
That leaves us with a post-Final Four, pre-NBA draft, post-late-signing period rankings, the post-draft, late summer rankings (this is getting complicated) and (finally) the preseason rankings to come.
Better do all those in pencil…
