It used to be that you took last year's Final Four teams, dropped one, added another, and voila -- you had the top of your preseason poll.
In this age of mass NBA defections, however -- six of the top seven scorers from last April's Final Four teams have moved on -- voters find themselves clinging to any sign of familiarity.
And so it is that over the course of an offseason, the Connecticut Huskies have gone from young and inconsistent to looking experienced and loaded, enough to merit a likely No. 1 preseason ranking. Meanwhile, Gonzaga, once considered a Cinderella, could be staring at its first preseason top 10 ranking.
Both teams are rarities in this day and age in that they return most of their rosters while adding valuable newcomers.
"On paper, we seem to be a deep, big and experienced basketball team that should be ranked in the top 10 teams in America," UConn coach Jim Calhoun told the crowd at last weekend's Midnight Madness festivities.
"We're certainly a team that can play with anyone in the country," said Gonzaga's Mark Few. "I don't doubt that a bit."
For all the accolades they're getting, neither team was invincible last season.
Connecticut went 23-10 and reached the Sweet 16 but suffered through a couple nasty stretches, including back-to-back 20-point losses in February to Boston College and Virginia Tech. The few noticeable holes that team had, however, seem to have been plugged.
In addition to returning eight of his top nine players -- including Wooden Award candidates Emeka Okafor at center and Ben Gordon at guard -- Calhoun welcomes two of the nation's top incoming freshmen, 6-foot-10 forward Charlie Villanueva, a top-five recruit who briefly entered the NBA draft, and flashy L.A. point guard Marcus Williams. They just happen to address the Huskies' two biggest weaknesses -- size (outside of Okafor) and passing.
"We're coming in with a team that can arguably match up with any team in the country," said Calhoun. "Hopefully, we solved some of the size and physical problems we had last year. We, at times, can be very, very big."
Few welcomes back his top six scorers -- three of them, point guard Blake Stepp and forwards Ronny Turiaf and Cory Violette, all-conference players -- from a team that went 24-9 last year and came within an eight-foot bank shot in double overtime of knocking off top seed Arizona in the NCAA second round.
The 'Zags did have some deficiencies last year, though, as exposed in a couple of embarrassing losses to Loyola Marymount and Portland. Few hopes he's solved them with the additions of Washington transfer Erroll Knight (a highly athletic guard who started for the Huskies as a freshman), redshirt freshman forward Sean Mallon and true freshmen Adam Morrison and Derek Raivio.
"We'll have to see where we end up, but right now we definitely have a chance to be the best team since I've been here," said the senior Stepp. "We have some weapons we haven't had in the past."
Of course, talent and experience alone do not guarantee greatness. Just ask last year's Arizona team, which fell short of the Final Four after starting out as the consensus preseason favorite, or Duke's Jason Williams/Mike Dunleavy/Carlos Boozer team the year before, which bowed out in the Sweet 16 to Indiana.
Calhoun, for one, is no stranger to the favorite's role. His 1998-99 team was ranked No. 1 by several publications and wound up beating Duke -- AP's official preseason No. 1 -- in the national title game.
"I think he understands what great talent we have, but he's doing a good job keeping us grounded," said Okafor. "The ranking is not going to carry us to the championship game on April 5. We have to live up to it."
It may take a while to find out for sure whether Okafor's team is worthy of its billing. The Huskies open their season Nov. 17 against Yale in the preseason NIT, which has a relatively weak field this season. Utah, Minnesota and Georgia Tech represent the most likely threats.
The Huskies' first real tests might not come until a six-day stretch in January, when they host Oklahoma and Georgetown before traveling to restocked North Carolina.
Such is not the case for Gonzaga, which boasts the toughest non-conference schedule of its five-year rise to prominence. The 'Zags open Nov. 14 against St. Joe's at the Coaches vs. Cancer Classic in New York, followed shortly by neutral-floor games against Georgia, Maryland, Missouri and Stanford.
Winning some of those might help the Bulldogs, which play in the lightly regarded West Coast Conference, avoid a repeat of two years ago, when they rose to No. 6 in the polls but garnered just a sixth seed from the selection committee, subsequently falling in the first round to Wyoming.
"It's far and away the toughest schedule we've undertaken," said Few, "and it's by design. We have a veteran team, and with the addition of those guys, it's really the year to go out and play that kind of schedule."
It's also the year to accomplish something special.
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com
In this age of mass NBA defections, however -- six of the top seven scorers from last April's Final Four teams have moved on -- voters find themselves clinging to any sign of familiarity.
And so it is that over the course of an offseason, the Connecticut Huskies have gone from young and inconsistent to looking experienced and loaded, enough to merit a likely No. 1 preseason ranking. Meanwhile, Gonzaga, once considered a Cinderella, could be staring at its first preseason top 10 ranking.
Both teams are rarities in this day and age in that they return most of their rosters while adding valuable newcomers.
"On paper, we seem to be a deep, big and experienced basketball team that should be ranked in the top 10 teams in America," UConn coach Jim Calhoun told the crowd at last weekend's Midnight Madness festivities.
"We're certainly a team that can play with anyone in the country," said Gonzaga's Mark Few. "I don't doubt that a bit."
For all the accolades they're getting, neither team was invincible last season.
Connecticut went 23-10 and reached the Sweet 16 but suffered through a couple nasty stretches, including back-to-back 20-point losses in February to Boston College and Virginia Tech. The few noticeable holes that team had, however, seem to have been plugged.
In addition to returning eight of his top nine players -- including Wooden Award candidates Emeka Okafor at center and Ben Gordon at guard -- Calhoun welcomes two of the nation's top incoming freshmen, 6-foot-10 forward Charlie Villanueva, a top-five recruit who briefly entered the NBA draft, and flashy L.A. point guard Marcus Williams. They just happen to address the Huskies' two biggest weaknesses -- size (outside of Okafor) and passing.
"We're coming in with a team that can arguably match up with any team in the country," said Calhoun. "Hopefully, we solved some of the size and physical problems we had last year. We, at times, can be very, very big."
Few welcomes back his top six scorers -- three of them, point guard Blake Stepp and forwards Ronny Turiaf and Cory Violette, all-conference players -- from a team that went 24-9 last year and came within an eight-foot bank shot in double overtime of knocking off top seed Arizona in the NCAA second round.
The 'Zags did have some deficiencies last year, though, as exposed in a couple of embarrassing losses to Loyola Marymount and Portland. Few hopes he's solved them with the additions of Washington transfer Erroll Knight (a highly athletic guard who started for the Huskies as a freshman), redshirt freshman forward Sean Mallon and true freshmen Adam Morrison and Derek Raivio.
"We'll have to see where we end up, but right now we definitely have a chance to be the best team since I've been here," said the senior Stepp. "We have some weapons we haven't had in the past."
Of course, talent and experience alone do not guarantee greatness. Just ask last year's Arizona team, which fell short of the Final Four after starting out as the consensus preseason favorite, or Duke's Jason Williams/Mike Dunleavy/Carlos Boozer team the year before, which bowed out in the Sweet 16 to Indiana.
Calhoun, for one, is no stranger to the favorite's role. His 1998-99 team was ranked No. 1 by several publications and wound up beating Duke -- AP's official preseason No. 1 -- in the national title game.
"I think he understands what great talent we have, but he's doing a good job keeping us grounded," said Okafor. "The ranking is not going to carry us to the championship game on April 5. We have to live up to it."
It may take a while to find out for sure whether Okafor's team is worthy of its billing. The Huskies open their season Nov. 17 against Yale in the preseason NIT, which has a relatively weak field this season. Utah, Minnesota and Georgia Tech represent the most likely threats.
The Huskies' first real tests might not come until a six-day stretch in January, when they host Oklahoma and Georgetown before traveling to restocked North Carolina.
Such is not the case for Gonzaga, which boasts the toughest non-conference schedule of its five-year rise to prominence. The 'Zags open Nov. 14 against St. Joe's at the Coaches vs. Cancer Classic in New York, followed shortly by neutral-floor games against Georgia, Maryland, Missouri and Stanford.
Winning some of those might help the Bulldogs, which play in the lightly regarded West Coast Conference, avoid a repeat of two years ago, when they rose to No. 6 in the polls but garnered just a sixth seed from the selection committee, subsequently falling in the first round to Wyoming.
"It's far and away the toughest schedule we've undertaken," said Few, "and it's by design. We have a veteran team, and with the addition of those guys, it's really the year to go out and play that kind of schedule."
It's also the year to accomplish something special.
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com
