With the recent release of Athlon's college basketball rankings and predictions, TKR would like to bring you up to speed on the preseason rankings by your favorite personalities. Yes, yes we know that these rankings mean virtually nothing but they are still enjoyable...especially when praise for the Zags is involved.
Athlon: Ranked eighth in the preseason poll. They also believe that the Zags will be an elite-eight team this season. They have Gonzaga as a number two seed in the tournament and defeating American in the first round and subsequently knocking off Syracuse and Tennessee. In the elite-eight however, Athlon has the Zags losing to the University of Connecticut.
Jeremy Pargo is the only selection to the All-WCC team but we think that Austin Daye, Steven Gray, Matt Bouldin, and Josh Heytvelt may have something to say about that. Wow, we could actually field an All-WCC team with only our players! Jeremy Pargo is also listed as an Honorable Mention All-American.
For what it's worth, they also have Saint Mary's qualifying for the NCAA tournament. They do not have the University of San Diego qualifying for the NCAA tournament or the NIT, something I find very hard to believe considering they did not lose any major contributor from last season.
These early preseason polls are nothing new and they are not few and far between. Here are how the Zags stack up against the NCAA in the eyes of the "experts".
Dick Vitale: Has the Zags ranked #8 saying that Jeremy Pargo's return was crucial to our success.
Andy Katz: Has the Zags ranked #11 claiming that the Zags will be good because they return their core but they need to get over the hump in the NCAA tournament if they want to be great.
Rivals: The recruiting website ranks Gonzaga #10 claiming that Austin Daye will blossom into a star this season.
Jeff Goodman: The excellent blogger from Fox Sports tabs the Zags at #6.
NBADraft.net: The NBA Draft prognosticators also rank the Zags as the sixth best team in the nation.
I'm sure that this is only the beginning of the preseason rankings and they will all be updating soon. TKR would like to know what you, the readers, think about these rankings. Too high? Too low? Just right? Feel free to comment at at the bottom of every blog!
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3 comments:
I would just comment that most of those rankings were done in April and May, even before the NBA draft, so they deserve to be taken with an even bigger grain of salt than usual.
Athlon is recent and so is Vitale's, and Goodman's is August 1.
Most of the top teams in the NCAA in front of Gonzaga were not really affected by the draft enough to change their ranking in most of these polls.
Even though some are a little bit dated, they still show where we can expect the Zags to be when the season starts.
I think that the Zags should definitely be in the top-10. There are few teams that have to amount of players coming back this year.
Gray is about to rain down on the opposition!
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