Ken Pomeroy Unveils Preseason Rankings: North Carolina and Duke in Top Five
Posted by mpatton on November 3rd, 2011The Tsar of the Tempo-Free, Ken Pomeroy, released his second annual preseason rankings with some surprises atop the list. The top ten teams are fairly consistent in content with most preseason rankings, but the order is definitely different.Pomeroy’s projections don’t love the Tar Heels, who slide from consensus number one in human polls to third. On the other hand, the rankings are relatively bullish on Duke, putting the Blue Devils at fourth. Kentucky checks in at the top spot, followed closely by Ohio State. As for the ACC, I thought North Carolina‘s ranking made some sense if you consider their whole season last year instead of just the last quarter. The high rankers of the Tar Heels make the assumption that they will pick up where they left off last season, rather than regressing to their early season struggles.
Ken Pomeroy's Preseason Top Ten
Duke will see its rating fall over the first few weeks, if observations about the team’s middling defense prove true. Right now Pomeroy has the Blue Devils ranked fourth in defense, which seems very high. But the rest of the ACC is very interesting. Miami checks in ranked above Florida State and the Seminoles’ top-ranked defense. This definitely could be true once Reggie Johnson returns to the lineup, but I suspect the teams will flip-flop fairly quickly. Pomeroy also doesn’t share the media love for Tony Bennett’s Virginia squad, which he predicts to finish tenth behind Georgia Tech.
The good news for ACC fans is there aren’t any teams projected outside of the top 200, but the conference as a whole should take a slight hit with two teams projected outside of the top 150 (Boston College and Wake Forest). The great news for college basketball fans is that these rankings mean the season is literally just around the corner.
Most interesting incidental tidbit to me? Wake Forest’s opener against Loyola MD is predicted to be closer than UNC and MSU.