Preseason Top 5 for 2020/21

[bignish]

That’s a fair point. But they were 23rd on Torvik from Feb 5th through the end of the season. And Hauser plus their recruits are gonna make the offense significantly better. Defense always strong.

It depends how good Hauser is. UVA's usually impenetrable post defense might spring a leak this year with only Jay Huff there and the lineage of defensive stalwarts like Diakite/Salt/Wilkins/Gill finally gone.

They"ll undoubtedly be a better shooting team though.

 

[bignish]

They did, but I never believed in that roster, and still don’t.

Why? They play incredible defense, Jared Butler is a stud and they didn't even have Tristan Clark back.

They"ll be even better next year with Butler/Teague/Mitchell/Clark/Vital all returning. I expect college basketball to better as a whole but Baylor seems like a surefire top 5 squad to start out the year.

 

[oldsports_]

Vill vs UVA in the title game, UVA winning back to back titles
2021 will be on fire

 

[dukedevilz]

Quite a few people have Gonzaga, Baylor, UVA, and Villanova in the top 4. I wouldn't disagree. So, let me mention 5 teams that could slide into that top 5.

Houston
Michigan State
Kansas
Duke
Wisconsin

 

[jhmossy]

It depends how good Hauser is. UVA's usually impenetrable post defense might spring a leak this year with only Jay Huff there and the lineage of defensive stalwarts like Diakite/Salt/Wilkins/Gill finally gone.

They"ll undoubtedly be a better shooting team though.

We literally can't be a worse shooting team than we were last year. And we still finished 2nd in the ACC and #16 in the country. For what it's worth, there was general consensus by the players and coaches that Hauser would have been the best player on the team this year by far.

We have plenty of defensive stalwarts on this roster. They're just unknown due to redshirting or minimal playing time due to more experienced players ahead of them. Kadin Shedrick might be one of the best defensive bigs we've ever had.

 

[Novachp]

Vill vs UVA in the title game, UVA winning back to back titles
2021 will be on fire

Agreed with you until the clause AFTER the comma!

 

[Novachp]

Quite a few people have Gonzaga, Baylor, UVA, and Villanova in the top 4. I wouldn't disagree. So, let me mention 5 teams that could slide into that top 5.

Houston
Michigan State
Kansas
Duke
Wisconsin

Don't sleep on Creighton.... they may show up in there too.

 

[dukedevilz]

Don't sleep on Creighton.... they may show up in there too.

For sure. I assume Alexander is gone. Mostly depends on if Zegarowski and Mahoney come back. If they do, Creighton could easily sneak into the top 5.

 

[KUhawks34]

Bookmark this post. Kansas will be a one seed. This team is not necessarily being sleep on because most people have them in the top 10 or 15 but they will absolutely be a top-five team. Guarantee it

 

[ExitFlagger]

Kansas = The Buffalo Bills

I’m having a very difficult time finding an NFL comparison for Iowa.

Browns or Lions would seem like the obvious choices, but even they won something in the pre-Super Bowl era.

 

[hawkit3113]

I’m having a very difficult time finding an NFL comparison for Iowa.

Browns or Lions would seem like the obvious choices, but even they won something in the pre-Super Bowl era.

5-2, Butt Boy. RollLaugh

 

[bignish]

We literally can't be a worse shooting team than we were last year. And we still finished 2nd in the ACC and #16 in the country. For what it's worth, there was general consensus by the players and coaches that Hauser would have been the best player on the team this year by far.

We have plenty of defensive stalwarts on this roster. They're just unknown due to redshirting or minimal playing time due to more experienced players ahead of them. Kadin Shedrick might be one of the best defensive bigs we've ever had.

The ACC was really bad and college basketball as a whole was awful last year though. I believe that Hauser would've been the best player on your team last year as it was more of a "sum of the parts" team than individual pieces team. Tre Jones and Vernon Carey were a lot better individually than any single player on UVA last year yet we still lost.

Still, you guys had some incredible luck with winning a lot of the single possession games so your record could've easily been a lot worse.

Until we see them actually play, how do we know how good those redshirts are? If UVA doesn't actually take a step back defensively like I think they will, then you guys will be scary good.

 

[ExitFlagger]

5-2, Butt Boy. RollLaugh

7-4 in football. RollLaughRollLaugh

 

[hawkit3113]

7-4 in football. RollLaughRollLaugh

We all take turns on Kansas basketball. KU BB has been passed around like a porn star. RollLaughRollLaughRollLaughRollLaughRollLaugh

 

[bignish]

Bookmark this post. Kansas will be a one seed. This team is not necessarily being sleep on because most people have them in the top 10 or 15 but they will absolutely be a top-five team. Guarantee it

Bookmarked. Agbaji didn't show the growth we needed to see to assume he"ll keep improving. He's like Aaron Henry at MSU, was overhyped to start the year and didn't deliver.

Garrett's better suited as an off guard and McCormack can't replicate what Dok did last year.

I"ll be shocked if KU is better than Baylor next year.

 

[bignish]

Quite a few people have Gonzaga, Baylor, UVA, and Villanova in the top 4. I wouldn't disagree. So, let me mention 5 teams that could slide into that top 5.

Houston
Michigan State
Kansas
Duke
Wisconsin

That's a good list + Creighton.

 

[ExitFlagger]

We all take turns on Kansas basketball. KU BB has been passed around like a porn star. RollLaughRollLaughRollLaughRollLaughRollLaugh

Self would probably be undefeated vs Iowa if a series would be even remotely appealing to the program. RollLaugh

 

[hawkit3113]

Self would probably be undefeated vs Iowa if a series would be even remotely appealing to the program. RollLaugh

Passed, around. RollLaughRollLaugh

 

[MGC_07]

Bookmarked. Agbaji didn't show the growth we needed to see to assume he"ll keep improving. He's like Aaron Henry at MSU, was overhyped to start the year and didn't deliver.

Garrett's better suited as an off guard and McCormack can't replicate what Dok did last year.

I"ll be shocked if KU is better than Baylor next year.

That’s actually a good comp with Aaron Henry. I’d say Aaron Henry is better at this point if you look at the stats, but they’re pretty similar. I’m not sure about Agbaji defensively, but Aaron Henry was always guarding the opposing teams best wing too, he’s a very solid defender.

 

[KUhawks34]

Bookmarked. Agbaji didn't show the growth we needed to see to assume he"ll keep improving. He's like Aaron Henry at MSU, was overhyped to start the year and didn't deliver.

Garrett's better suited as an off guard and McCormack can't replicate what Dok did last year.

I"ll be shocked if KU is better than Baylor next year.

Lol you lost me at Garrett being better suited as an off guard. Just wait

 

[dukedevilz]

Garrett was more of a facilitator than Dotson. He's perfectly suited for the position. I think there's a great chance we see Garrett being a 1st Team All-Conference selection.

 

[schoonerwest]

If Garrett could shoot he'd be a top 5 player in college basketball. That even goes for this past season. There's a reason why Self has been saying since he was a freshman that he just doesn't feel comfortable when he's not in the game.

 

[Big_C_KU]

Bookmarked. Agbaji didn't show the growth we needed to see to assume he"ll keep improving. He's like Aaron Henry at MSU, was overhyped to start the year and didn't deliver.

Garrett's better suited as an off guard and McCormack can't replicate what Dok did last year.

I"ll be shocked if KU is better than Baylor next year.

Players make their biggest improvements under Self between their sophomore and juniors years. Still plenty of hope for Agbaji. Not going to be any type of all-American or anything but he’ll be solid.

Garrett is just fine as the lead guard. Ran the point just as much if not more than Dotson the 2nd half of the season. Led the team in assist.

McCormack will be fine but no where close to Dok.

KU will be fine. Probably 10-15 rank right now. We’ll see on Baylor. Drew is an underrated coach but he’s had several teams that returned almost the entire squad that ended up worse than the year before. I have far more confidence in a team coached by Self year to year than a team coached by Drew.

 

[jhmossy]

The ACC was really bad and college basketball as a whole was awful last year though. I believe that Hauser would've been the best player on your team last year as it was more of a "sum of the parts" team than individual pieces team. Tre Jones and Vernon Carey were a lot better individually than any single player on UVA last year yet we still lost.

Still, you guys had some incredible luck with winning a lot of the single possession games so your record could've easily been a lot worse.

Until we see them actually play, how do we know how good those redshirts are? If UVA doesn't actually take a step back defensively like I think they will, then you guys will be scary good.

Maybe some of our close wins was luck but it would be pretty foolish to attribute it solely to luck. Some teams have a winning mentality and UVA is one of those teams. Even Coach K said you don't want to get into a single possession game with UVA because we make winning plays.

If Tony Bennett says our redshirts are good, I will trust his word. I'm sure we'll take a step back defensively but we'll take a bigger step up offensively. The end result should be even more wins.

 

[GE Nole]

We literally can't be a worse shooting team than we were last year. And we still finished 2nd in the ACC and #16 in the country. For what it's worth, there was general consensus by the players and coaches that Hauser would have been the best player on the team this year by far.

We have plenty of defensive stalwarts on this roster. They're just unknown due to redshirting or minimal playing time due to more experienced players ahead of them. Kadin Shedrick might be one of the best defensive bigs we've ever had.

People are crazy if they don’t have UVA in a preseason top 3 next year. I don’t get it.

 

[Noahtogo24]

People are crazy if they don’t have UVA in a preseason top 3 next year. I don’t get it.

heck, the way they were playing down the stretch, UVA was a final four contender in my opinion before tourney was canceled.

 

[GE Nole]

Quite a few people have Gonzaga, Baylor, UVA, and Villanova in the top 4. I wouldn't disagree. So, let me mention 5 teams that could slide into that top 5.

Houston
Michigan State
Kansas
Duke
Wisconsin

Sleep on FSU at your own peril.

 

[dukedevilz]

Sleep on FSU at your own peril.

It's April lol. A lot can change in six months.

And even as great of a season as FSU had last year, the only ranked teams that you beat were Louisville and Virginia (final poll rankings).

 

[ExitFlagger]

Bookmarked. Agbaji didn't show the growth we needed to see to assume he"ll keep improving. He's like Aaron Henry at MSU, was overhyped to start the year and didn't deliver.

Garrett's better suited as an off guard and McCormack can't replicate what Dok did last year.

I"ll be shocked if KU is better than Baylor next year.

There may not be anyone better than Baylor next year. Not sure why that would remove them from the top 5 conversation.

It's always hard to project the next season when you lose players as impactful as Dotson and Azubuike. But they do bring back a lot from the #1 team, plus a few really talented newcomers. Not a crazy idea to think that they could be top 5.

 

[ExitFlagger]

Passed, around. RollLaughRollLaugh

Why are we talking about things that happened before your pubes were gray, anyway?

Oh, right....because you haven't even reached the Sweet 16 in decades. RollLaughRollLaugh

 

[lurkeraspect84]

Kansas = The Buffalo Bills

You're cold hearted.

 

[hawkit3113]

You're cold hearted.

I have this KU poster reeling, lol

 

[GE Nole]

It's April lol. A lot can change in six months.

And even as great of a season as FSU had last year, the only ranked teams that you beat were Louisville and Virginia (final poll rankings).

Some of those other teams would have been ranked if we had not beat them. Every year people say, "wow, how does FSU keep exceeding expectations?!" (we were picked 5th in the ACC preseason poll...) and then every year FSU is largely overlooked again.

My stance would be the same in April, August, or October: sleep on FSU at your own peril.

ACC records over the last 4 seasons:
UVA: 59-15
Duke: 53-21
FSU: 50-24
UNC: 47-27
UL: 46-28

 

[SheriffBufordTJustice]

Bookmarked. Agbaji didn't show the growth we needed to see to assume he"ll keep improving. He's like Aaron Henry at MSU, was overhyped to start the year and didn't deliver.

Garrett's better suited as an off guard and McCormack can't replicate what Dok did last year.

I"ll be shocked if KU is better than Baylor next year.

I have already said the issue with Baylor and Kansas for next year.
It is that second group of teams in the Big 12.
We didn't get a chance to separate that second group at the end of the season.

But it is 4 teams maybe 5 if you include Oklahoma State as of now.

Baylor and Kansas had one thing going for them in 2019-2020 and that was the wide gap between them and the conference.
That won't be the case in 2020-2021 if we play basketball.

I could easily see 2 more of those teams move up to being Top 15 maybe Top 10 teams.

 

[bignish]

People are crazy if they don’t have UVA in a preseason top 3 next year. I don’t get it.

It's just that the Zags, Nova and Baylor look so stacked coming back and there's still some questions about how UVA's talent level and whether Hauser can be the alpha scorer they've lacked. All those other schools have future pros.

 

[SheriffBufordTJustice]

It's just that the Zags, Nova and Baylor look so stacked coming back and there's still some questions about how UVA's talent level and whether Hauser can be the alpha scorer they've lacked. All those other schools have future pros.

Gonzaga yes
Villanova most likely
Schedule determines Top 5 more than talent.

Don't see a Big 12 school up there all year. Definitely not 2 again.

 

[GE Nole]

Maybe some of our close wins was luck but it would be pretty foolish to attribute it solely to luck. Some teams have a winning mentality and UVA is one of those teams.

For some reason this is hard for a lot of folks to accept. That winning--like shooting or dribbling--is a learned skill. Tony Bennett's teams know how to win. That's part of why FSU/UVA games are typically so hard fought.

FSU is 39-10 in one possession games since 2012. And the 'Noles haven't lost an OT game since December 2015, going 9-0 in OT games since then.

 

[dukedevilz]

Some of those other teams would have been ranked if we had not beat them. Every year people say, "wow, how does FSU keep exceeding expectations?!" (we were picked 5th in the ACC preseason poll...) and then every year FSU is largely overlooked again.

My stance would be the same in April, August, or October: sleep on FSU at your own peril.

ACC records over the last 4 seasons:
UVA: 59-15
Duke: 53-21
FSU: 50-24
UNC: 47-27
UL: 46-28

Who would have been ranked? Tennessee? Purdue? Florida? Between the three of them, they had one combined vote in the Final AP Poll.

I'm not dismissing FSU. You guys are good. Well deserving of the ACC crown. I had you guys at #15 in my 2019 preseason, which came out about right, seeing how you were in the Sweet 16 as a 4 seed. I had you undervalued this year, mostly because I saw you lost 6 of your top 8 guys. It's always an impossible task to figure out how much the turnover will hurt each individual team. I expect FSU to be ranked again, possibly in the top 10 team. If Pat Williams comes back, obviously the ceiling is even higher. Top 5 seems a little ambitious at this point. But certainly things can change quickly.

 

[GE Nole]

Who would have been ranked? Tennessee? Purdue? Florida? Between the three of them, they had one combined vote in the Final AP Poll.

I'm not dismissing FSU. You guys are good. Well deserving of the ACC crown. I had you guys at #15 in my 2019 preseason, which came out about right, seeing how you were in the Sweet 16 as a 4 seed. I had you undervalued this year, mostly because I saw you lost 6 of your top 8 guys. It's always an impossible task to figure out how much the turnover will hurt each individual team. I expect FSU to be ranked again, possibly in the top 10 team. If Pat Williams comes back, obviously the ceiling is even higher. Top 5 seems a little ambitious at this point. But certainly things can change quickly.

UF could have been ranked if we didn't stomp them. The size of the loss caused them to drop a lot further than they might otherwise have, which reduced their margin for error later on.

Kudos to you having FSU at 15 in 2019. Nice job indeed. Somewhere between 6 and 14 feels good if we don't get Pat Williams back and don't land Moussa Cisse. Get either of those guys and it's a top 5-7 team. Get both and it's a top 3 team.

 

[ExitFlagger]

I have this KU poster reeling, lol

 

[dragonhawk1855]

just for shits and giggles the lineup W/O Garza
1 SO Toussaint backup FR Ulis
2 RSSO Fredrick backup RSSR JBo
3 JR Weezy backup RSFR Patrick
4 RSJR Connor backup RSJR backup FR Keegan
5 RSJR Nunge backup FR Ogundele

off the bench
2 FR Perkins
3 FR Kris
open schollie
rank top 20.

they will be a top 10 adj o
expecting the defense to improve again this year, ended @ #97 but reached as high as #76.

look for these to improve
Toussaint led the team in steals, finished 5th in scoring and 2nd in assists.
Fredrick hopefully he is healthy all season. led the team in 3 point %
JBo returns teams all time 3 point shooter and led the team as the starter his 1st 3 season in assists.
Connor led the team in Assist to TO's and improved from 20.1% from 3 as a FR to 34% as a SO.
Weezy struggled down the stretch but expec him to get back to normal
Nunge was being talked about has being the 2nd best player in practice if he stays healthy it is time to show it in games, that is the top 6 returning players that all have started.

scoring will not be a problem.