Preseason Top 25 (And One): From the Original Guy (And One) at BetLM

Preseason Top 25 (And One): From the Original Guy (And One)

By Gary Par­rish and Jeff GoodmanCBSSports.com Col­lege Bas­ket­ball Insid­er­sOct. 12, 2011

Our first tag-team effort at the Pre­sea­son Top 25 (and one) wasn’t nearly as com­pli­cated as we expected.

Par­rish used senior­ity to place Ken­tucky one spot in front of UConn (the Huskies were Goodman’s choice for No. 2), but there weren’t many major issues for the remain­der of the Top 10.

The dif­fi­cult part came on the back end of the poll — where Good­man still has a dif­fi­cult time putting his alma mater, Ari­zona, all the way up at No. 14 now that Der­rick Williams has left Tucson.

Par­rish did what he always does — put Bo Ryan’s Wis­con­sin Bad­gers in the Top 25.

The Big East had the most teams rep­re­sented with a half-dozen while the SEC and Pac-12 were next with four apiece. The ACC, Big Ten and Big 12 each had three in the poll.

1. North Car­oli­naTop returnees: Har­ri­son Barnes, John Hen­son, Tyler Zeller, Kendall Mar­shall, Dex­ter Strick­land, Reg­gie Bullock.

Top new­com­ers: James McAdoo, P.J. Hairston.

Out­look: This ros­ter is, on paper, just as tal­ented (and per­haps more tal­ented) than UNC’s national cham­pi­onship teams from 2005 and 2009. Barnes is a legit­i­mate National Player of the Year can­di­date, and Hen­son, Zeller and Mar­shall are All-American tal­ents. Bar­ring an injury at the point guard posi­tion, the Tar Heels should be the ACC’s cham­pi­ons… and the favorite to win much more.

2. Ken­tuck­y­Top returnees: Ter­rence Jones, Doron Lamb, Dar­ius Miller.

Top new­com­ers: Anthony Davis, Mike Gilchrist, Mar­quis Teague, Kyle Wiltjer.

Out­look: John Cali­pari again has a freshman-heavy ros­ter tal­ented enough to win a national cham­pi­onship. Can he do it? Who knows? But the pieces are in place con­sid­er­ing five guys are pro­jected to be selected in the 2012 NBA Draft — among them Davis, the likely No. 1 over­all pick.

3. UCon­nTop returnees: Jeremy Lamb, Alex Ori­akhi, Shabazz Napier, Roscoe Smith, Niels Gif­fey, Tyler Olander.

Top new­com­ers: Andre Drum­mond, DeAn­dre Daniels, Ryan Boatright.

Out­look: The loss of Kemba Walker hurts, obvi­ously. But Jim Cal­houn still has a ros­ter more tal­ented from top to bot­tom than the ros­ter that won last season’s national cham­pi­onship. Lamb could be the Big East Player of the Year, and Drum­mond, a late and sur­pris­ing addi­tion, has all the phys­i­cal tools to dom­i­nate at the col­lege level and chal­lenge UK’s Davis for the top spot in next June’s NBA Draft.

4. Syra­cuse­Top returnees: Kris Joseph, Scoop Jar­dine, Bran­don Triche, Dion Wait­ers, C.J. Fair, James Souther­land, Mookie Jones, Fab Melo, Baye Moussa Keita.

Top new­com­ers: Rakeem Christ­mas, Trevor Cooney, Michael Carter-Williams.

Out­look: The Orange aren’t as indi­vid­u­ally tal­ented as North Car­olina, Ken­tucky or Con­necti­cut, but Jim Boe­heim has an expe­ri­enced ros­ter with lots of nice parts. The lone rel­e­vant miss­ing piece from last season’s 27-win team that won 12 Big East games is Rick Jack­son. So if Jar­dine is more under con­trol and Wait­ers and Melo develop as they should, this could be Boeheim’s fourth Final Four.

5. Ohio State­Top returnees: Jared Sullinger, William Buford, Deshaun Thomas, Aaron Craft.

Top new­com­ers: Amir Williams, Sam Thomp­son, Shan­non Scott, Trey McDon­ald, Evan Ravenel.

Out­look: Sullinger is the CBSSports.com Pre­sea­son National Player of the Year and a dom­i­nant big man capa­ble of car­ry­ing the Buck­eyes to the first Mon­day night in April. He’s sur­round­ing by a ter­rific cast led by Craft and Buford. These Buck­eyes are your Big Ten champs, bar­ring a pretty big surprise.

6. Duke­Top returnees: Mason Plum­lee, Miles Plum­lee, Ryan Kelly, Seth Curry, Andre Dawkins.

Top new­com­ers: Austin Rivers, Quinn Cook, Mar­shall Plum­lee, Michael Gbinije, Alex Murphy.

Out­look: This ros­ter isn’t as tal­ented as UNC’s — or even as tal­ented as Duke’s ros­ter from last sea­son. But Rivers is a star, the Plum­lees are solid, and Curry and Kelly could have break­out sea­sons, at which point the Blue Dev­ils could chal­lenge the Tar Heels in the ACC and push for a No. 1 seed in the NCAA tournament.

7. Van­der­bilt­Top returnees: John Jenk­ins, Jeff Tay­lor, Fes­tus Ezeli, Brad Tins­ley, Lance Goul­bourne, Steve Tchien­gang, Rod Odom, Kyle Fuller.

Top new­com­ers: Dai-Jon Parker, Shelby Moats, Kedren Johnson.

Out­look: This is not your grandfather’s Van­der­bilt ros­ter, i.e., one filled with “a bunch of smart kids who play the right way.” Are they smart? Sure. But Jenk­ins, Tay­lor and Ezeli are also future pros, per­haps first-round picks, who could lead the Com­modores to an SEC title and much, much more.

8. Louisvil­leTop returnees: Kyle Kuric, Pey­ton Siva, Jared Swop­shire, Chris Smith, Rakeem Buck­les, Mike Marra, Gorgui Dieng.

Top new­com­ers: Wayne Black­s­hear, Zach Price, Chane Behanan, Angel Nunez.

Out­look: Rick Pitino’s team won a sur­pris­ing 25 games last sea­son, but the expec­ta­tions are higher this year. The Car­di­nals aren’t as tal­ented as their rivals in Lex­ing­ton, but they are expe­ri­enced and capa­ble of com­pet­ing with Con­necti­cut, Syra­cuse and Pitts­burgh at the top of the Big East.

9. Mem­phisTop returnees: Will Bar­ton, Joe Jack­son, Tarik Black, Anto­nio Bar­ton, Charles Car­mouche, Chris Craw­ford, Wes­ley With­er­spoon, D.J. Stephens.

Top new­com­ers: Ado­nis Thomas, Stan Simp­son, Fer­rakohn Hall.

Out­look: The Tigers under­achieved last sea­son thanks to injuries, dis­missals and incon­sis­tent play from a ros­ter full of new­com­ers, but they still came together late, won the Con­fer­ence USA tour­na­ment and pushed Ari­zona to the buzzer in the NCAA tour­na­ment. The suc­cess at the end of the sea­son com­bined with a ros­ter that is now mostly expe­ri­enced is enough to war­rant this rank­ing. Expect Josh Pastner’s team to roll through C-USA the way John Calipari’s teams used to do.

10. Pitts­burghTop returnees: Ash­ton Gibbs, Nasir Robin­son, Travon Woodall, Dante Tay­lor, Talib Zanna, J.J. Moore, Lamar Patterson.

Top new­com­ers: Khem Birch, Mal­colm Gilbert, Durand John­son, John Johnson.

Out­look: Jamie Dixon has taken the Pan­thers to eight con­sec­u­tive NCAA tour­na­ments, and the ninth will come this sea­son thanks to an expe­ri­enced core of Gibbs, Robin­son and Woodall. Pitt will miss Brad Wana­maker, obvi­ously. But Dixon always seems to fig­ure it out, one way or another.

11. FloridaTop returnees: Erv­ing Walker, Kenny Boyn­ton, Erik Mur­phy, Patric Young, Scot­tie Wilbekin.

Top new­com­ers: Brad Beal, Mike Rosario, Wal­ter Pitchford.

Out­look: The back­court (Walker and Boyn­ton) that led Florida to the Elite Eight remains intact … and two nice pieces (Beal and Rosario) have been added. If Young can develop into the pro prospect so many believe he can be, Billy Dono­van could get his fourth Final Four.

12. Bay­lor­Top returnees: Perry Jones, Quincy Acy, Anthony Jones, A.J. Wal­ton, Fred Ellis, J’Mison Morgan.

Top new­com­ers: Quincy Miller, Deuce Bello, Pierre Jackson.

Out­look: Scott Drew once again has the Bears loaded. Perry Jones should be one of the nation’s best bigs, Miller one of the best fresh­man. Ade­quate play around them could result in a Big 12 title.

13. Xavier­Top returnees: Tu Hol­loway, Mark Lyons, Kenny Frease, Jeff Robin­son, Brad Redford.

Top new­com­ers: Dezmine Wells, Dee Davis, Travis Tay­lor, Justin Martin.

Out­look: Hol­loway is good enough to give the Mus­ke­teers a chance against any­body and make them the clear A-10 favorites. Chris Mack has aver­aged 25 wins in his first two sea­sons at Xavier. He could exceed that this sea­son and emerge as the next non-BCS coach to take a team on a deep run in the NCAA tournament.

14. KansasTop returnees: Thomas Robin­son, Tyshawn Tay­lor, Eli­jah John­son, Jeff Withey, Travis Releford.

Top new­com­ers: Kevin Young, Justin Wes­ley, Naadir Tharpe, Ben McLemore

Out­look: The Big 12 title has gone through Lawrence, but this is Bill Self’s least intim­i­dat­ing group. Robin­son will be a beast up front, but Tay­lor needs to finally ful­fill his poten­tial — and guys like John­son and Withey need to do the same for the Jay­hawks to remain on top in the league.

15. Ari­zonaTop returnees: Kyle Fogg, Solomon Hill, Kevin Par­rom, Jesse Perry, Jordin Mayes, Bren­don Laven­der, Kyryl Natyazhko.

Top new­com­ers: Josiah Turner, Nick John­son, Angelo Chol, Sidiki Johnson.

Out­look: Sean Miller lost the No. 2 pick in last year’s draft, Der­rick Williams, but he has plenty of pieces back and wel­comes in a strong fresh­man class, led by the back­court of Turner and John­son. The key could be how Par­rom, arguably the team’s top return­ing player, recov­ers from an off­sea­son gun­shot injury to his leg.

16. Cincin­nati­Top returnees: Yancy Gates, Dion Dixon, Sean Kil­patrick, Cash­mere Wright.

Top new­comer: Jer­maine Sanders.

Out­look: Mick Cronin loses a cou­ple starters from last year’s NCAA tour­na­ment team, but he brings back his top four scor­ers: Gates, Dixon, Kil­patrick and Wright. The Bearcats also add a cou­ple of tal­ented fresh­man in Sanders, so expec­ta­tions are high.

17. Texas A&MTop returnees: Khris Mid­dle­ton, David Loubeau, Kourt­ney Rober­son, Najj Hib­bert, Dash Har­ris, Ray Turner.

Top new­com­ers: Jamal Branch, Elston Turner (Wash­ing­ton), Jor­dan Green.

Out­look: New coach Billy Kennedy inher­its a team that could con­tend for the Big 12 title. There’s no bona fide star, but Mid­dle­ton is on the verge of becom­ing one. Kennedy can rely on Mid­dle­ton and Loubeau up front, he has a big-time shooter in Turner and a more-than-capable back­court with Har­ris and Branch.

18. Gon­za­gaTop returnees: Robert Sacre, Elias Har­ris, Mar­quise Carter, David Stock­ton, Sam Dower, Kelly Olynyk.

Top new­com­ers: Kevin Pan­gos, Gary Bell.

Out­look: Mark Few and the ‘Zags return every­one of note except for guard Steven Gray. That’s a sig­nif­i­cant hit, but one that the pro­gram should be able to over­come. The front­court is loaded with Har­ris and Sacre — and then Dower and Olynyk com­ing off the bench. The key for Gon­zaga is point guard play, where it’s a three-way com­pe­ti­tion between Carter, Stock­ton and Pangos.

19. Florida State­Top returnees: Michael Snaer, Deivi­das Dulkys, Okaro White, Ian Miller, Ter­rance Shan­non, Xavier Gib­son, Jon Kreft, Luke Loucks.

Top new­com­ers: Jeff Peter­son (Arkansas), Antwan Space, Kiel Turpin, Terry Whisnant.

Out­look: The ‘Noles lost their top two scor­ers, includ­ing first-rounder Chris Sin­gle­ton. But Leonard Hamil­ton still has no short­age of length, size and ath­leti­cism up front with James, Gib­son, Kreft and White, and Snaer has the tools to become a pro­lific scorer. As has been the case, the key at FSU remains point guard play. The options are vet­eran Loucks, the steady Peter­son and tal­ented sopho­more scorer Miller.

20. Michi­gan­Top returnees: Tim Hard­away Jr., Zack Novak, Jor­dan Mor­gan, Stu Dou­glass, Evan Smotrycz, Matt Vogrich, Jon Hor­ford, Blake McLimans.

Top new­com­ers: Trey Burke, Carl­ton Brun­didge, Max Bielfeldt.

Out­look: If the Wolver­ines had Dar­ius Mor­ris back, we’d be talk­ing about John Beilein’s group as a legit Final Four con­tender. But every­one else is back. The Wolver­ines have vet­er­ans with Novak and Dou­glass and sopho­mores who received plenty of expe­ri­ence a year ago in Hard­away, Mor­gan and Smotrycz. Now they will need some­one to step in and fill the void at the point left by Mor­ris, and it may wind up being Burke.

21. UCLATop returnees: Reeves Nel­son, Josh Smith, Laz­eric Jones, Jer­ime Ander­son, Tyler Lamb, Bren­dan Lane, Anthony Stover.

Top new­com­ers: Travis Wear, David Wear, Nor­man Pow­ell, De’End Parker.

Out­look: The Bru­ins will be a force up front with Nel­son, Smith and the Wear Twins — who are eli­gi­ble after trans­fer­ring back home after a sea­son at North Car­olina. The back­court is the ques­tion mark. Jones had a solid sea­son in his first with the Bru­ins a year ago but will need to make another jump — and Ben How­land will need some­one else to emerge on the wing as a replace­ment for Mal­colm Lee.

22. Alabam­aTop returnees: JaMy­chal Green, Tony Mitchell, Trevor Rele­ford, Charles Han­ker­son Jr., Ben Eblen.

Top new­com­ers: Trevor Lacey, Levi Ran­dolph, Nick Jacobs, Moussa Gueye, Rod­ney Cooper, Retin Ojomoh.

Out­look: The Crim­son Tide lost five of their top eight guys in the rota­tion, but Anthony Grant’s team brings back its top three play­ers: Green, Mitchell and Rele­ford. That trio — along with three Top 100 fresh­men (wings Ran­dolph and Lacey and big man Jacobs) — has fans in Tuscaloosa excited about more than just football.

23. Mis­souri­Top returnees: Mar­cus Den­mon, Kim Eng­lish, Ricardo Ratliffe, Phil Pressey, Matt Pressey, Steve Moore, Kadeem Green.

Top new­comer: Tony Lester.

Out­look: Frank Haith has had a rough go since tak­ing over. First, it was the alle­ga­tions by Miami booster Nevin Shapiro from Haith’s days with the Hur­ri­canes. Then came the season-ending knee injury to Bow­ers in the pre­sea­son. But Haith still has no short­age of qual­ity perime­ter play­ers. The ques­tion is whether the Tigers have enough to go along­side Ratliffe on the front line.

24. Wis­con­sin­Top returnees: Jor­dan Tay­lor, Josh Gasser, Mike Brue­se­witz, Ryan Evans, Jared Berggren, Rob Wilson.

Top new­com­ers: Traevon Jack­son, George Mar­shall, Jar­rod Uthoff, Frank Kamin­sky, Jor­dan Smith.

Out­look: Don’t ques­tion Bo. That’s our motto when it comes to Wis­con­sin bas­ket­ball. Just put Bo Ryan and the Bad­gers in the Top 25 no mat­ter what. Espe­cially when he has arguably the top point guard in the nation with Tay­lor. Gasser and Brue­se­witz will both have expanded roles with Jon Leuer, Keaton Nankivil and Tim Jar­musz gone.

25. Vil­lanovaTop returnees: Maa­lik Wayns, Mouph­taou Yarou, Dominic Cheek, Mau­rice Sut­ton, James Bell.

Top new­com­ers: Jay­Vaughn Pinkston, Markus Kennedy, Achraf Yacoubou, Ty John­son, Dar­run Hilliard.

Out­look: Corey Fisher, Corey Stokes and Anto­nio Pena are gone, but the Wild­cats will be improved. Jay Wright still has Wayns in the back­court and he may have his best col­lec­tion of front­court guys (Yarou, Pinkston, Kennedy) since he arrived on the Main Line. Wings Cheek and Bell will need to pro­duce — and if they do, the Wild­cats could be Big East title contenders.

26. Cal­i­for­ni­aTop returnees: Jorge Gutier­rez, Allen Crabbe, Harper Kamp, Bran­don Smith, Richard Solomon, Bak Bak.

Top new­com­ers: Justin Cobbs (Min­nesota), Chris­t­ian Behrens, David Kravish.

Out­look: It’s all about Kamp’s health for Mike Mont­gomery and the Bears. If the under­sized big man remains on the court, these guys have as for­mi­da­ble of a trio as any­one on the West Coast. Gutier­rez does it all, Crabbe can shoot it from deep and Kamp just gets after it. Smith and Cobbs will likely bat­tle for start­ing point guard duties.

Col­lege Bas­ket­ball Headlines

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