Kansas, Michigan State are 1-2 in first Power Rankings of 2009-10
October is traditionally this sport's month of a millionlists and zero games, but for the good of everyone, it might be better to go ahead and start the season already. Players have been fighting in Lawrence and (near) Louisville -- it's clear they need something constructive to do! The entire Kentucky fan base is frothing over the thought of Friday night's sold-out practice, so starved are they for quality basketball. And Kalin Lucas, one of my favorite point guards, just unveiled a right-arm tattoo that reads, "Attack or be Killed"; once you put something like that on your arm, it has to be difficult to wait three weeks to do any "live" attacking.
I hope, in the meantime, Lucas can appreciate the all-out informational assault that is my first 2009-10 Power Rankings:
NCAA Basketball Power Rankings |
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Last Week: --
Michigan Wolverines (--)
Cerebral hoops blog
has a Michigan preview that looks at the statistical trajectory of
John Beilein
teams in years 1-3, and makes a strong case that these Wolverines could blow up like West Virginia did in 2005, when it Pittsnogled its way to the Elite Eight. The Geeks have a few nice graphs that show the similarity of Michigan's first two Beilein years to West Virginia's first two, if you're into graphs. (If you'd rather just look at pictures of
Manny Harris
and
DeShawn Sims
in bright yellow polo shirts,
.)
I like this Michigan team almost as much as the Geeks do; my only hesitation is that they don't have the same caliber of shooters that the
, when Pittsnogle hit 42.6 percent of his treys, and five others hit 34.5 percent or higher (
Mike Gansey
,
Joe Herber
,
J.D. Collins
,
Tyrone Sally
and
Patrick Beilein
). The Wolverines don't have a single returning player who shot higher than 34.4 percent.
The next 16 (*edited to include Gonzaga): 17. Clemson, 18. Georgetown, 19. Dayton, 20. Siena, 21. Mississippi State, 22. South Carolina, 23. Georgia Tech, 24. Oklahoma, 25. Gonzaga, 26. Minnesota, 27. Illinois, 28. Louisville, 29. Florida, 30. UCLA, 31. Xavier, 32. Tulsa
Also considered: BYU, Syracuse, Maryland, Nevada, Northern Iowa, Vanderbilt, Notre Dame, Texas A&M, Florida State, Ole Miss, Kansas State, Oklahoma State, Wake Forest, Western Kentucky, Wisconsin, Oregon State
