Post-draft declaration rankings

NCAA Basketball Power Rankings

It helps to be ranking teams from a position of clarity, very much unlike the one I was working from on the morning of the national title game, when Version 1 of these was due to be filed for the magazine. Educated guesses were made on which players were returning, and while I was at least right on North Carolina's Tyler Hansbrough and UConn's Hasheem Thabeet, ranking anything for next season before the previous one is over -- much less before the deadline for underclassmen to declare for the NBA Draft passes -- can be a futile task. Here, we get the chance to try again, with a full Power Rankings-style top 16.

(Note that we're still making educated guesses on who'll stay in the draft. Considering all the early entrants to be goners would be silly, given that the NBA is now footing their workout bills. Plenty of juniors will be taking the free trips and the free advice, then heading back to campus.)

ON THE CUSP, TIER 1:
Kansas: The Jayhawks are here, in a state of limbo, because it's unclear whether junior guard Mario Chalmers will return. He went on record in saying that he's only looking for a first-round guarantee -- and it's possible some team with a pick in the late 20s could make that happen.

ON THE CUSP, TIER 2:
Florida, Gonzaga, Miami, Syracuse, Kentucky, Texas A&M, Davidson, Marquette, Villanova, Wisconsin, BYU, Baylor, Xavier, Clemson, Arizona State, San Diego, St. Mary's. (West Virginia gets back into the mix if Joe Alexander returns, but right now, with him slotted as a first-rounder, we have to consider him gone.)

Send Power Rankings mail to Luke Winn here.