Soterios's Week Pre-Season Ballot

Rank	Team	Reason
1	Houston	Best defense in the country and returning a ton of minutes. I think they're the most 'proven' team in the top ten.
2	Kansas	Returning the best pass-first point guard who should be a lot better with wings that can shoot. Dickenson will return a double double machine. If the wing transfers pan out, they're a title contender.
3	Alabama	Five star freshmen? Final Four trip? Number three rank.
4	UConn	If for nothing else but Hurley finding ways to win. If McNeeley shows up to be a star they could threepeat.
5	Iowa State	Another Big12 top five defense. Lipsey is the real deal. Big 12 blood bath, engage!
6	Duke	Duke Bad. But also Duke has another high caliber class led by Cooper Flagg. Hard to imagine a season without Duke in the top ten.
7	Baylor	Roach is a top ten PG. Baylor returns enough to make me confident they'll be a final four threat.
8	Gonzaga	Every year I rank Gonzaga high and every year they disappoint me or play a bad game at the wrong time. Few just won a gold medal and now has a reloaded squad
9	Arizona	Caleb Love is still here. They return huge talent. 9th might be too low if they gel.
10	North Carolina	Caleb Love is still at Arizona. Seth Trimble probably made UNC fans forget.
11	Purdue	Just tall. Like the ones in their rank. Smith is a top five PG.
12	Tennessee	My least sure top fifteen pick. Zeigler is a great PG and wall on defense. The rest of the lineup LOOKS like they shoudl provide enough for a top three performance in the SEC
13	Auburn	Kenpom loved them more than I did last season, but they return a lot of scoring from a good team.
14	Arkansas	Are Kentucky fans right? Is Cal washed? Brining his recruiting down to Fayetteville, we'll see if he's still got it. The team is in good heands with Johnell Davis
15	Creighton	Kalkbrenner is back. Miller is back. Greg can coach. Pop Isaacs transfering in is huge for the Bluejays.
16	Texas A&M	Decent returning offense. Good replacements from the offseason recruiting and portal.
17	Marquette	Jones, Mitchell, and Ross return. Those three are good enough for a top 20 ranking
18	Indiana	Woodson appears to have assembled quite the roster from the transfer portal.
19	Kentucky	The new Mormon temple in Lexington reloaded in a way I can't imagine that most expected. Talent alone makes them top twenty caliber. We'll see if Pope can reign that in.
20	Cincinnati	Wes Miller should pilot a top 25 team with a NCAA leading named Jizzle James to a solid tournament run.
21	UCLA	Lots of returning offense. Mara is giant. Decent offseason in the portal for UCLA.
22	Florida	They return a lot of minutes from a good team last season and add some solid transfers.
23	Rutgers	NBA Talent surrounded by....other people who play basketball.
24	Texas	Orange TCU had some serious turnover, but their replacements look good enough if Terry can get them together.
25	Michigan State	Tom Izzo is due?

Overall Rationale

Preseason voting is hard. I'm ready to be very wrong.