Update: Mike DeCourcy says UK is too low at No. 4, and Louisville shouldn’t have made the poll at all.
Ok, so the mainstream media types have placed their paper ballots in the box and Kentucky has placed fourth in the pre-season AP college basketball rankings.
The Cats are fifth as voted by USA Today’s coaches’ version, but we all know that the coaches never actually vote. They have their SIDs, or their wives, or their girlfriends, or sometimes both, do it. The thing about college basketball coaches. They don’t actually watch college basketball. Or at least the college football coaches don’t watch college football, judging by their ballots.
Turns out, UK’s No. 4 pre-season ranking is the best since way back in the 2001-2002 season. Tubby Smith’s Cats started that season at No. 4, but alas ended up at No. 16 in the final AP poll.
So here’s a chart showing where UK ranked in the pre-season, and where UK ranked in the final poll, the one taken just before the NCAA Tournament. (AP does not do a poll at the end of the tournament.)
Nice article. Do you know how many times the preseason #1 has gone on to win the NCAA tourney?