2015-16 "Too Early" Preseason Basketball Top 25

[#BearcatNation]

Lost Letterman has UC coming in at #16. Throw in SMU at #12 and Tulsa at #24 to give the AAC three. No Xavier.

16. Cincinnati

Mick Cronin will be back on the sidelines, cleared to resume coaching after recovering from an arterial dissection. That’s good news for the Bearcats, who lose just two nonessential players and remain largely intact. Leading forward Octavius Ellis and guard Troy Caupain will be back as a senior and junior, respectively, and forward Gary Clark should take even more strides after a stellar frosh campaign (7.8 PPG, 7.2 RPG).

http://www.lostlettermen.com/slideshow/2015-16-college-basketball-top-25

 

[JasonS]

I'd say that is fair. Without looking at the rest of college basketball, I would have guessed #15. It may change with players declaring for the draft and possible late spring additions.

 

[KJ's#1Supporter]

I'm just glad someone recognized that we're in good shape with our roster. I assumed most writers would be too lazy to look into us and just put the same old teams in there.

 

[Bearcat Rob]

Lost Letterman has UC coming in at #16. Throw in SMU at #12 and Tulsa at #24 to give the AAC three. No Xavier.



http://www.lostlettermen.com/slideshow/2015-16-college-basketball-top-25

Good find. No doubt the aac will be better this year. Memphis could sneak into the rankings as well, and UConn will be better. I would like 16 to start the season and think we would slide into the top 10 throughout the year. These rankings had butler at ten that will be a huge ooc game at 5/3 should be fun. Also wish we had nc state still on the schedule as they were 9th and we seem to play them well

 

[bearcat jeff]

That's about exactly where I thought UC would start the season. The Bearcats started coming together a bit offensively at the end of the year. TC, Cobb, Clark, Ellis, Deberry, and Shaq all were scoring. If this team can find some tempo this could be a really good team. Defensively they will be outstanding next season with everyone back.

 

[ccmbearcat]

DeCourcy UC #18
Rothstein UC #21

 

[Cin City]

DeCourcy UC #18
Rothstein UC #21

Brennan over at ESPN....NR but X at #20...of course its early

 

[#BearcatNation]

SB NATION has us at 18.

http://www.sbnation.com/college-bas...nking-top-25-north-carolina-kentucky-virginia

 

[TheLongHaul]

That's about exactly where I thought UC would start the season. The Bearcats started coming together a bit offensively at the end of the year. TC, Cobb, Clark, Ellis, Deberry, and Shaq all were scoring. If this team can find some tempo this could be a really good team. Defensively they will be outstanding next season with everyone back.

They still need someone that make some outside shots. Fingers crossed that person is Cobb.

 

[Bearcat22]

Lost Letterman has UC coming in at #16. Throw in SMU at #12 and Tulsa at #24 to give the AAC three. No Xavier.



http://www.lostlettermen.com/slideshow/2015-16-college-basketball-top-25

I would agree that the 15-20 range is fair the Cats. At first, I thought SMU was too high. With Kennedy, Moore, and Fraizer coming back, they should be tough again next year. Temple has a strong class coming in next year. They could be pretty good too. We need UCF, USF, ECU, and Houston to take positive steps next season for the overall health of the league.

 

[Bearcat22]

First Bracketology for next year is out. The Cats are an 8 seed. 4 teams from the AAC included: UC, SMU, Temple, and UConn

xavier is a 7 seed. Being objective, they are losing a some key contributors. It seems like a lot of stock is being put into their young players.

http://espn.go.com/mens-college-basketball/bracketology

 

[KJ's#1Supporter]

First Bracketology for next year is out. The Cats are an 8 seed. 4 teams from the AAC included: UC, SMU, Temple, and UConn

xavier is a 7 seed. Being objective, they are losing a some key contributors. It seems like a lot of stock is being put into their young players.

http://espn.go.com/mens-college-basketball/bracketology

Ugh. Joe Lunardi needs to take a couple months off.

 

[KJ's#1Supporter]

I would agree that the 15-20 range is fair the Cats. At first, I thought SMU was too high. With Kennedy, Moore, and Fraizer coming back, they should be tough again next year. Temple has a strong class coming in next year. They could be pretty good too. We need UCF, USF, ECU, and Houston to take positive steps next season for the overall health of the league.

They will STILL have Kennedy and Moore?

 

[Bearcat22]

They will STILL have Kennedy and Moore?

ESPN has them listed as Juniors. It does seem like they've been there forever.

http://espn.go.com/mens-college-basketball/team/roster/_/id/2567/sort/experience

 

[Bearcat22]

Here's an interesting read from the Nate Silver / ESPN 538 blog about preseason polls (AP in particular) and how they use them in predicting their tourney bracket.

"Why use preseason ratings in March? Because this serves as a proxy for the level of a team’s true talent — after 30 or 35 games, we have a pretty good idea of how strong a team really is, but not a perfect one. Teams that have overachieved preseason expectations in the regular season have tended to underachieve in the tournament, and vice versa".

http://fivethirtyeight.com/features/fivethirtyeight-picks-the-n-c-a-a-bracket/


The AP preseason AP top four were UK, Arizona, Wisconsin, and Duke

 

[Bearcat Rob]

I would agree that the 15-20 range is fair the Cats. At first, I thought SMU was too high. With Kennedy, Moore, and Fraizer coming back, they should be tough again next year. Temple has a strong class coming in next year. They could be pretty good too. We need UCF, USF, ECU, and Houston to take positive steps next season for the overall health of the league.

Don't forget Tulsa brings back every player this year and should be a pretty good team. I definitely see them making the tourney. And UConn will be a lot better next year too. AAC should be pretty strong next year

 

[Robert]

Ugh. Joe Lunardi needs to take a couple months off.

Agreed. Lunardi is not even one of the best what he does, yet he has the cushiest job. How does returning your top 6 scorers from a young team = same seed as last year? Does he even look at rosters?

 

[bearcat jeff]

They still need someone that make some outside shots. Fingers crossed that person is Cobb.

I would say with Caupain at 44% from the field and 41% from the 3, that he needs to shoot more. He is capable of being a good scorer. I actually found myself watching Koenig, Jones and Grayson Allen and thinking, "I hope Troy is watching these guys and how aggressive they are." I think TC can be a consistent 12-14 ppg guy who averages over 3 rpg and 4-5 apg.

 

[Bearcat_NTS]

They will STILL have Kennedy and Moore?

Yeah both will be 5th year seniors.

 

[Bearcat_NTS]

Here's an interesting read from the Nate Silver / ESPN 538 blog about preseason polls (AP in particular) and how they use them in predicting their tourney bracket.

"Why use preseason ratings in March? Because this serves as a proxy for the level of a team’s true talent — after 30 or 35 games, we have a pretty good idea of how strong a team really is, but not a perfect one. Teams that have overachieved preseason expectations in the regular season have tended to underachieve in the tournament, and vice versa".

http://fivethirtyeight.com/features/fivethirtyeight-picks-the-n-c-a-a-bracket/


The AP preseason AP top four were UK, Arizona, Wisconsin, and Duke

Talent almost always wins out in the NCAA tournament. Unless we get elite level talent just getting the second weekend is about as well as we'll do (and where I project us to max out at next year). With all the great Nova and Pitt teams in the last decade plus, only one Final Four between them...