emunchkinman's Week Pre-Season Ballot
| Rank | Team | Reason |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | UConn | Talent and Dan Hurley. They should have the benefit of the doubt until proven wrong. |
| 2 | Alabama | A lot of returning players, plus Mark Sears |
| 3 | Houston | Talent and Kelvin Sampson always gets it done. |
| 4 | Kansas | Bill Self, a lot of my preseason picks are based on who has been good since we don't have data points to go off of yet. |
| 5 | Auburn | Good incoming talent and coach. |
| 6 | Gonzaga | Good incoming talent and coach. |
| 7 | Duke | Cooper Flagg. |
| 8 | Iowa State | Good incoming talent and coach. |
| 9 | Purdue | Matt Painter continues to win at a high level and Braden Smith is fantastic. |
| 10 | Creighton | Good incoming talent and coach. |
| 11 | Arkansas | Calipari wins quickly at places and Johnell Davis is a beast. |
| 12 | Rutgers | Dylan Harper and a strong home court advantage |
| 13 | Arizona | Good incoming talent and coach. |
| 14 | Baylor | Good incoming talent and coach. |
| 15 | Tennessee | Good incoming talent and coach. |
| 16 | St. John's | Give Rick Pitino a second year and he will figure it out. |
| 17 | Wake Forest | Wake has a lot of really good pieces that people aren't talking about as much. |
| 18 | Texas A&M | Good incoming talent and coach. |
| 19 | Texas | Good incoming talent and coach. |
| 20 | North Carolina | Good incoming talent and coach. |
| 21 | Michigan | Dusty May will turn things around quickly. |
| 22 | Kentucky | Mark Pope will turn things around quickly. |
| 23 | BYU | A lot of talented pieces at a strong program. |
| 24 | Marquette | Shaka has this thing rocking and rolling. |
| 25 | Notre Dame | The most returning minutes of any power conference team in the country. |
Overall Rationale
Generally speaking, there aren't a lot of data points in preseason polls, so I primarily am giving the benefit of the doubt to traditionally strong programs and coaches. I don't like completely mirroring the AP because groupthink can be a problem, so I have a few different schools thrown in and some more unusual spots, but overall, when you're just guessing, pick the coaches who you can trust to be good.