Time of the Season


Baseball is almost over (perhaps sooner than I'd hoped), which, of course, means basketball season is set to kick off. On the college front, the results of the pre-season ESPN/USA Today Poll have just been released. The rankings look, for the most part, how I expected them to, with UNC, UCLA, and Memphis separated by just eight points in the top three spots. I don't think I've read or spoken to anyone bold enough to predict a team other than those three or Kansas or Georgetown (#'s 4 and 5, respectively) as their national championship pick for this season.

I won't either, but I also won't count out better-than-solid-looking squads coached by Mike Krzyzewski (#11 Duke) or Tom Izzo (#8 Michigan State) or, for that matter, a #22-ranked Kentucky team with an excellent new coach in Billy Gillespie and a serious desire to return to elite status. Slotted one spot below UK is my hometown (well, close enough) Salukis, who look tough enough to nearly run the table again in conference play, if not make quite as much as national noise in March. Either way, it's satisfying to see SIU receiving credit for the consistency they've sustained over the past half-dozen seasons.

Perhaps the biggest surprise in the preseason poll is which conference landed the most teams in the top 25. Hint: It's not the ACC. Or the expansive Big East. It's the PAC 10, which is too often slept-on for, seemingly, no better reason than that many of its games air after East Coast sportswriters have already turned in for the night.

Here's the teams-by-conference breakdown:

PAC 10: 6 (#2 UCLA, #10 Washington State, #13 Oregon, #17 Arizona, #18 USC, #21 Stanford)
Big East: 5 (#5 Georgetown, #6 Louisville, #12 Marquette, #20 Pittsburgh, #25 Villanova)
ACC: 3 (#1 UNC, #11 Duke, #24 NC State)
Big 12: 3 (#4 Kansas, #14 Texas A&M, #16 Texas)
SEC: 3 (#7 Tennessee, #19 Arkansas, #22 Kentucky)
Big 10: 2 (#8 Michigan State, #9 Indiana)
C-USA: 1 (#3 Memphis)
WCC: 1 (#14 Gonzaga)
MVC: 1 (#23 Southern Illinois)