burner’s preseason cbb rankings
welcome back to the burner blog. i am just a normal guy who watches a ton of sports, and i have a lot of takes and just looking for a place to let those takes get out there. i am not going to use capital letters so if you don’t like that i do not care.
we did it.
we made it through an entire offseason. college basketball is upon us.
everyone just take a moment, smile, and remember we are back baby.
the moment we’ve all been waiting for.
the preseason #burnerrankings of the college basketball season.
i wrote a way too early top 10 a very long time ago. you can refer to that if you really want to, but rosters weren’t complete at that time and things have changed. as you all know, i know ball and i do not agree with the traditional media most of the time. people forget that i ranked duke #1 all season last year even after losses, the traditional media would never. i also only rank the top 10 because who the hell cares about the other 15?
- purdue
they are the most well prepared team in the country to succeed early this season. they have returning stars, continuity, a hall of fame coach and filled a need in the portal. braden smith is truly special. he was one of the best players in the country last year and he returned to west lafayette this year to try and win a championship. personally, i hope they don’t win it — but that’s the stuff movies are made of right? trey kaufman-renn also returns and was one of the more productive players in the country last year. the boilermakers should and will run through the down big ten this year. personally, i think that is an issue for them. they might win too easily for a majority of the season. they may not be battle-tested enough. i also question if they have any nba talent. most teams that win national championships have nba talent (it matters).
is this the year matt painter finally breaks through? they should have an awesome record and a high seed heading into the tournament. that usually helps.
2. houston
‘burner, i thought you didn’t typically agree with the traditional media’ — i don’t. but yes, i think houston heads into the season as the 2nd best team. milos uzan coming back is what does it for me. kelvin sampson just wins and he got his point guard back. uzan was awesome down the stretch for the cougars last year and was a massive piece in them getting to the national title game (they had a huge lead!). i expect uzan to be one of the best guards in the country this year (most people do) and mix in a little 5 star talent that kelvin sampson hasn’t really had at houston? could be scary.
3. byu
‘burner they just lost to nebraska in an exhibition…’
read that again.
exhibition.
don’t get me wrong, i think it slightly matters. i’m going to be #monitoring them because of that but i think there’s no doubt they should be one of the best teams in the country. kevin young is one of the best young coaches in the game and we all know how talented they are. everyone will focus on the big 3 (dybantsa, wright, saunders) but with kennard davis and keba keita they might have the best starting 5 in the country and it might not be close. aj dybantsa is very very very good and he will be able to carry them, often. but having those other guys? scary.
man, how loaded is the big 12?
4. duke
i’m buying the blue devils. jon scheyer might just be really good at his job. has anyone thought of that yet? like maybe that is a possibility and they’re just going to torment us all for another 30 years. they have to replace a TON from last year and there is a lot of unknown with them in that regard, but i’m buying them. i think they return ENOUGH to make them a contender. they return some role players that have played in big games, that type of experience is never bad. those guys came back knowing their roles would be similar and are there to win. them being a true contender obviously hinges on cam boozer and how good he will be. ranking them 4th tells you just how good i think he will be.
5. kentucky
this is bold. i’m buying mark pope. never thought i’d be here (insert paul rudd meme). i think this roster might work. we already know their best player is really good. why can’t the other guys work out perfectly? do i want them to suck? definitely. but i don’t think they will. honestly the one concern i have is there may be too many mouths to feed. there might be too many guys on this team that think they’re ‘the guy’ and it could turn sloppy. people are going to have a lot of gripes with this team so let me get ahead of a few of them.
‘jaland lowe is really inefficient’ — yeah, he played at pitt, you’d be inefficient too.
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‘jayden quaintance was hurt’ — yeah and adrian peterson changed acl rehab for the rest of the world.
‘what if malachi moreno stinks?’ — they don’t need him to be that good.
‘denzel aberdeen ran from the grind’ — yeah he ran right to a program with some of the highest expectations in the sport. such crazy expectations that they ran out a hall of fame coach. i wouldn’t necessarily call that running from the grind.
‘jasper johnson sucks.’ — you got me there, he might suck.
i am going to be very tapped into the wildcats — they will either be elite, or an absolute disaster and i cannot wait to see how it unfolds. highest boom or bust team in the country.
6. uconn
if i ranked them any lower, dan hurley might hunt me down and say really mean things to me. i don’t want that. nobody does (especially that poor creighton fan. male pattern baldness isn’t something to joke about, dan). isn’t it crazy that alex karaban is still in school? not really, it’s only his 5th year. that wasn’t even something to mention 10–15 years ago. i think the mix of elite high school recruiting class/portal adds/key returning pieces is the perfect mix for the huskies this year. i wouldn’t expect them to repeat what they did last year. dan hurley is still the best coach in the country until i say otherwise. he has still won 2 of the last 3 national championships. we can’t ignore that.
the only problem for them is that the big east is absolute trash and they might not play enough good teams throughout the conference season to truly know where they’re at heading into march.
7. michigan
dusty may has a great opportunity ahead of him. if they can grow on the success of year 1 under him, they will be at the top of the sport to stay. i really do believe that. michigan has proven they’re willing to spend LOTS of money in both football and basketball. if paying yaxel lendeborg millions and millions pays off? michigan won’t go away until dusty goes to coach somewhere else. yes, believing in michigan means i am banking on elliot cadeau working out. is that silly? maybe. but i think it will say a lot more about how much better dusty is than hubert (sorry to riley davis). i’m betting on dusty here. they added a lot through the portal to replace danny wolf and co. and i think they will have the right mix. they are a pretty experienced team as a whole and that will carry them quite a ways.
8. florida
it seems a bit low to have the defending national champs come in at this spot. i don’t necessarily fully believe in the xavian lee/boogie fland combo as much as others. it was concerning that arkansas was actually better without fland last year. i’m not sitting here saying florida will suck, i’m ranking them in the top 8. credit to todd golden for having them back in contention after losing his backcourt. most people know that last year i was very high on florida (for longer than most people, s/o brian rauf) and think it is HUGE for them that their frontcourt returns. guards will win you national championships but from day 1 they know exactly what they’re getting out of most of their rotational players. if thomas haugh takes a step up maybe he can carry the questionable (my words) guards and get them back to the final four.
9. texas tech
not too many teams can say they return the conference player of the year. not many teams can say they return an all-american. texas tech can say that (so can purdue but this isn’t about them). texas tech can also say that their coach is one of the best in the country. they also return christian anderson who you’d hope can take a step up. they did lose darrion williams but that could end up being addition by subtraction after everything we’ve seen and heard of him (massive ‘i’ guy). adding lejuan watts also makes up for that. texas tech was really really good last year and they will be really really good again this year.
10. louisville
aside from getting into a fight with mark pope and getting stuffed in a locker by bill self, pat kelsey had an awesome offseason. louisville was hot and heavy in the portal and it seems like they got the guys they wanted. i think the adds fit the style they want to play and they should be a fun team to watch. isaac mckneely and ryan conwell should help take a ton of pressure off of mikel brown jr. everything we’ve seen and everything we’ve heard tells us that he will be the real deal, but it never hurts to surround a talent like him with two veteran guards that can make shots. if there’s one thing we know, it’s that guards can win you a championship. these guys have that. excited to see how it plays out for a once proud program back on the come up.
honorable mentions:
arizona — i believe in tommy lloyd. i always have and i always will. they lost a ton of key players but they have a lot of talent. looking forward to seeing how tommy once again silences the haters this season.
illinois — does anyone know who is even going to play for them this year? no. that’s why i have to mention them though. brad underwood is an awesome coach. if they put it together they will be one of the best teams in the country.
ucla — donovan dent is really good. i have no idea why he would want to play for mick cronin ($), but he chose to and they will be pretty good because of it. i hate mick cronin but unfortunately he will probably have a shot to make some noise in the big ten this year.
st. john’s — i think they’re GROSSLY overrated heading into the season. but they also have rick pitino (a literal wizard) coaching them. nobody expected them to be that great last year and they won the (shitty) big east. i don’t know if they’ll be able to repeat the same season, but i just want to give pitino a shout out because we need to remember he won’t coach forever and he’s truly a legend of the game. they probably won’t be able to shoot again and they don’t have a point guard, kind of important. but still, rick pitino is a wizard so they will probably be solid at the worst.
man, i am so excited about this season. we’ve put in so many hours thinking about college basketball over the past few months and it is so close we can taste it.
reminder that the big 12 is going to be NASTY this year and everyone should tune in.
thanks for reading this edition of the #burnerrankings.
