Dissecting the preseason AP, coaches Top 25

Posted: Thursday, October 29, 2009 2:19 PM
Filed Under: Polls

The first game isn’t for 11 yet, but it’s always a good day when the preseason AP and coaches’ polls are released. It gives college basketball that extra little nudge into that crowded late October/early November sports scene of World Series, NFL, college football, NBA and NHL.

Of course, casual fans won’t care until they catch highlights of the Thanksgiving week tournaments, but that’s another post. An angry one.

Back to the Top 25. Kansas was a nearly unanimous No. 1 – stunner – and the rest was what you’d expect. (If you’ve seen our Top 25, that is. It’s almost spot on.)

It should be noted that the top 9 in both are the same, just in a slightly different order. Kansas, Michigan State, Texas, UNC, Kentucky, Villanova, Purdue, Duke and West Virginia are your front-runners.

And the two polls only differed by one team. The coaches placed Syracuse 25th, while the media put Illinois at 23rd. After that, both parties agree that the same 24 teams deserve to be ranked in the Top 25.

So what else should you know?

Rush the Court does a great job breaking down the disparities between the two polls. Louisville and Minnesota are the two with the biggest difference between the two polls. They also note the strange case of USC garnering 22 votes from the coaches poll. The Trojans were just picked to finish 9^th in the Pac-10. Perhaps the coaches meant South Carolina, which only got 1 vote?

Sporting News writer Mike DeCourcy also takes apart the two polls. The flaws (Georgia Tech, Louisville ranked and Michigan overrated), while he says voters are underrating Georgetown and Wake Forest (which was essentially 35^th.)

So there you go. Two polls to argue over. Too bad March is still so far away. Then we could argue about NCAA tournament seeding, too.

Follow me on Twitter (@BeyndArcMMiller) and get more college basketball news at NBCSports.com.

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