corndogshuffle's Week Pre-Season Ballot

Rank	Team	Reason
1	UConn	#1 until someone else proves they shouldn’t be.
2	Kansas	Bill Self is still the coach, and I trust him as much as any coach in the country to make a top level squad.
3	Alabama	I love the combo of returning, transfer , and freshman talent on this roster.
4	Houston	Houston has been consistently excellent, and I think LJ Cryer can lead the Cougars to another excellent season.
5	Duke	Cooper Flagg highlights a loaded roster.
6	Gonzaga	Gonzaga returns over 80% of its minutes back from a solid squad last year (including Ike and Nembhard), and I think they’ll be better than solid this year.
7	Baylor	Scott Drew is elite, and VJ Edgcombe plus Roach/Omier should be enough to lead Baylor to another great season.
8	Iowa State	Iowa State returns a lot from a team that could have been a 1 seed last season.
9	Arizona	The Big 12 will be a challenge, but I love Tommy Lloyd and expect he will meet that challenge.
10	North Carolina	RJ Davis is back for one more run, and he’ll have a lot of help from returners, transfers, and top freshmen.
11	Purdue	Zach Edey is gone, but Purdue returns 60% of starting minutes from last season. Matt Painter will have another squad that can challenge for the Final Four.
12	Tennessee	I’ve started with Tennessee too low before and I don’t want to do that again. NCAAT woes aside, Rick Barnes knows how to lead just about anyone to a strong regular season.
13	Texas A&M	Texas A&M has been good at finishing the regular season strong. Can they start it strong too?
14	Marquette	Tyler Kolek is gone but most everyone else is back from a team that went to the Sweet Sixteen.
15	Indiana	I like Indiana to return to the NCAAT and then some, with a strong combo of returning and portal talent.
16	Creighton	Ryan Kallbrenner is back. Creighton should have no problem making the top twenty.
17	Auburn	Auburn kicks off a trio of SEC teams, and Auburn is the only one of these to bring back a coach or SEC POTY candidate.
18	Arkansas	Is Calipari rejuvenated or will his downward turn continue? Arkansas has the roster to go way higher if Swaggy Cal is back. Or they could crater. Clearly I think Cal is more likely rejuvenated.
19	Kentucky	I love the roster Pope was able to assemble so late in the game, and I think it’s clearly more talented than his last team. If I’m right this could be too low for the Wildcats.
20	UCLA	UCLA fell apart last year, but Cronin has a solid track record and I expect him to right the ship.
21	Illinois	Illinois lost a ton, but they still have Brad Underwood. And they brought in a lot of guys, including
22	Wake Forest	I like Hunter Sallis to lead this squad in a top 25 campaign.
23	Ole Miss	Ole Miss will need to improve defensively to live up to this ranking, but if Chris Beard is good at one thing, it’s coaching defense.
24	Michigan State	This is purely based on me giving respect to Tom Izzo.
25	Oregon	I like Jackson Shelstad to take a step forward.

Overall Rationale

Next five: Cincinnati, Florida, Rutgers, Texas, Ohio State