MBB ranked #6 in AP preseason poll
Full results at the link.
Other Big ten teams:
Purdue 7, Illinois 11, OSU 17, Maryland 21, MSU and Indiana are the top two in the others receiving votes category, and Rutgers also got some votes.
October 18th, 2021 at 12:13 PM ^
Figured we would be higher. Loving MSU unranked... everyone point and laugh!
October 18th, 2021 at 12:13 PM ^
Nice to see.
October 18th, 2021 at 12:18 PM ^
MSU unranked? Usually the pollsters give them a #4 ranking preseason based on Izzo's name alone without even looking at the roster.
October 18th, 2021 at 12:56 PM ^
I agree. It's surprising not to see them in the top 25.
Though preseason rankings guarantee nothing, I wonder if Izzo's team will turn out to be Izzombies.
October 18th, 2021 at 12:19 PM ^
The Illinois AD is drafting a strongly worded letter to the AP right now.
October 18th, 2021 at 12:43 PM ^
Not old yet. Still funny.
October 18th, 2021 at 12:54 PM ^
Will continue to be funny even after it's old, tbh
October 18th, 2021 at 1:33 PM ^
Insert Team America gif:
"oh no, Hans Brix! Oh hey Hans, hows it going"
October 18th, 2021 at 12:20 PM ^
I don't follow offseason basketball for other programs, so maybe these teams made major upgrades that I'm unaware of, but I 100% don't get UCLA at 2, Texas at 5, and Purdue at 7. Yes, UCLA made the Final Four last year, but they were also one of the last four teams to make the tournament after going 22-10 in the regular season. And both Texas and Purdue got eliminated in the first round by 13 seeds after unremarkable regular seasons. Do AP voters think Beard is that good of a coach?
October 18th, 2021 at 12:22 PM ^
Have you looked at the list of players who transferred to Texas this offseason?
You might change your tune, if you did.
They landed six of the top 25 or so transfers...including Marcus Carr from Minnesota.
October 18th, 2021 at 12:24 PM ^
UCLA is great.. Juzang is the man, great clutch player.
October 18th, 2021 at 12:56 PM ^
And I think UCLA was missing some players due to injury. I don’t know how many are coming back, but something clicked for them.
Myles Johnson, HM all-Big-10 C from Rutgers, transferred in. He’ll give them a defensive presence to go with their shooters.
October 18th, 2021 at 1:01 PM ^
UCLA was also a missed MSU FT away from not even making the tourney. I think they're talented but they still look like a top-25 team and not a top-2 team.
October 18th, 2021 at 1:19 PM ^
Ha that's right, Staee didn't make the field.
October 18th, 2021 at 1:28 PM ^
4 PAC-12 teams made the Sweet 16. The PAC-12 was underrated during a covid year. But UCLA returns all 5 starters and addressed their biggest need by adding Johnson. Now, Riley doesn’t have to play tentative to avoid foul trouble.
We sent Franz and Livers to the NBA. Houstan may be a suitable replacement, but until our freshmen prove it on the court, it’s reasonable to slot UCLA ahead of us, and we are a top 5 team.
October 18th, 2021 at 4:10 PM ^
Juzang was absolutely amazing down the stretch last year, but UCLA needed him to be, and a lot of the shots he was hitting felt pretty non-repeatable. I would expect UCLA to over-perform last year's regular season but under-perform last year's tournament, and having them in the top 5 feels like a stretch.
October 18th, 2021 at 12:24 PM ^
Boilers had a super young roster that mostly came back.
October 18th, 2021 at 1:10 PM ^
They were Baby Boilers last year and were surprisingly consistent for a young team. They will be a strong team in the B1G this year.
October 18th, 2021 at 12:40 PM ^
I want some Payback from the Bruins. We picked a bad time to go cold.
October 18th, 2021 at 12:25 PM ^
6 seems to be the magic number this week.
October 18th, 2021 at 12:28 PM ^
UCLA will be good, but I think they're getting way too much credit for getting hot in the tourney. Like yeah, they made a nice run but they were also a 22-10 team that very nearly lost in the first four
October 18th, 2021 at 12:33 PM ^
True, but there are probably worse reasons to rank a team high in preseason than they went on a deep tourney run
October 18th, 2021 at 12:33 PM ^
Yeah - UCLA being that high is a little nuts. They nearly almost didn't make the tournament last year and lost the guy who was their star for most of the season (until Juzang came on in the tourney). I think they're a great pick for being the most overrated team in the poll.
October 18th, 2021 at 12:30 PM ^
For comparison, the KenPom top ten:
- Gonzaga
- Michigan
- Kansas
- Baylor
- Illinois
- Purdue
- UCLA
- Ohio State
- Villanova
- Duke
October 18th, 2021 at 4:20 PM ^
This seems more reasonable. But, Sparty, No!
October 20th, 2021 at 5:51 AM ^
Yep. Happy to be 6, but not sure why we aren't 2.
October 18th, 2021 at 1:09 PM ^
You win. Close the internet
October 18th, 2021 at 1:17 PM ^
Ahahahaha
October 18th, 2021 at 1:57 PM ^
Oh man, this picture will live on forever.
October 18th, 2021 at 2:22 PM ^
And just like that a new meme was born
October 18th, 2021 at 3:23 PM ^
Meme was otherwise believable until I saw that "receiving" was spelled correctly. LOL - well done!
October 18th, 2021 at 12:39 PM ^
I think we are better than 2 through 5, and can play with Gonzaga with our depth and size, along with a veteran guard Brooks helping to run the show.
Shocked that we are finally above Duke and Kentucky in the preseason rankings. The voters for the AP poll must not have received their shipments of kneepads and lipstick yet.
Go Blue!!!
October 18th, 2021 at 12:49 PM ^
God if only we got Xavier Worthy we would have beaten out Texas for that #5 spot
October 18th, 2021 at 1:17 PM ^
Trivia question: What’s the only school that’s currently ranked in the top 10 in both football and basketball?
Answer: I think you know.
October 18th, 2021 at 2:22 PM ^
BLUE KNOW IT!
October 18th, 2021 at 4:04 PM ^
Physical challenge
October 18th, 2021 at 1:28 PM ^
Preseason rankings don’t mean anything but still surprising to see MSU unranked.
October 18th, 2021 at 2:11 PM ^
Very young team, I’ll take it. Rankings worth less in basketball, especially first half of the season.
October 18th, 2021 at 4:07 PM ^
Very young team? We will have 3 of 5 starters who are seniors (a couple are 5th year) and a 4th starter who is a 20 year old sophomore (returning starter). I would definitely not call that a "very young team."
October 18th, 2021 at 4:19 PM ^
October 18th, 2021 at 4:27 PM ^
And Hunter turns 21 next month...as a college sophomore.
My son is also at Michigan...and turns 20 next month...as a college junior. So, one year ahead in school...but also one year younger...than Hunter.
I get that many elite athletes are held back, but it's sort of crazy that Hunter turned 20 at the beginning of his freshman year in college.
October 20th, 2021 at 11:02 AM ^
Do AP voters always like underrating Michigan basketball or something? Obviously some of it is projection but I don't get 5 teams being ahead of UM. To me I would say they have pretty similar chances as Gonzaga to win it all or worse case slightly below. Veterans to anchor things with all that talent coming in is a great combo. I think Howard has proven that he will absolutely maximize and develop the talent he has as well. Oh well, good motivation for the team, give them a little bit of a chip.