Poll of anonymous coaches puts Gonzaga men’s basketball on top. Where does KU rank?
Gonzaga “will be the best team in (men’s) college basketball this season,” according to a poll of more than 100 college coaches conducted by CBSsports.com.
In all, 28% of the anonymous coaches surveyed believe the Bulldogs will win the NCAA men’s national title. UCLA received 23% of the vote followed by Texas (13%), Kansas (11%), Purdue (10%), Villanova (7%), Michigan (6%) and Duke (2%).
Of KU, one anonymous coach said: “Ochai Agbaji, Jalen Wilson and Remy Martin will be special this year and Bill Self hasn’t forgotten how to coach.”
Another said: “They (Jayhawks) are always bigger than everyone across the board, and are well-coached, disciplined, deeper and always old. Bill Self gets those guys back and they don’t beat themselves. They’ve also got a great home court.”
KU ranked No. 2 by ESPN.com
ESPN.com on Monday updated its preseason Top 25 rankings for the first time since late August.
KU remained No. 2 in the country behind Gonzaga. UCLA checked in at No. 3 followed by Villanova, Texas, Purdue, Memphis, Michigan, Kentucky, Baylor, Duke, Oregon, Illinois, Arkansas, Houston, Alabama, North Carolina, Tennessee, Ohio State, Maryland, Florida State, Auburn, UConn, St. Bonaventure and Virginia.
Fraschilla likes new Big 12
ESPN analyst Fran Fraschilla believes the Big 12 Conference actually comes out a winner in acquiring new additions BYU, Cincinnati, Houston and Central Florida while losing SEC-bound Texas and Oklahoma.
That’s in terms of men’s basketball.
“If college athletics were driven by basketball, this would be an upgrade on the court,” Fraschilla told The Sporting News. “With no disrespect to both Texas and Oklahoma, who’ve enjoyed a lot of success in recent years, neither school can sell out a meaningful Big 12 game in the middle of a conference race. How can you have a top 5 team with Kevin Durant or Buddy Hield and not be sold out? Adding the 22,000-plus fans at BYU, plus two schools at Cincinnati and Houston that have rich basketball traditions and more recently sell out their buildings … the league is not any worse for the tradeoff. But football drives college athletics, so it’s certainly not ideal for the Big 12,” Fraschilla added.
The Sporting News points out that the new Big 12 will boast the reigning national champion in Baylor as well as four programs that have reached the Final Four since 2018: KU, Baylor, Texas Tech and Houston.
Reporter Mike DeCourcy notes: “In exchanging Texas and Oklahoma for Houston, Cincinnati, BYU and UCF, the league picks up programs with a combined dozen Final Four appearances and two NCAA championships in their histories in exchange for two programs with a combined eight Final Four appearances and no titles.”
Fraschilla, who has worked Big 12 hoops games for many years, is convinced the league will survive the loss of OU and UT.
“UCF has a football program that puts them in the top two-thirds of the Big 12, maybe better,” Fraschilla told Sporting News. “It’s going to be a question of whether Johnny Dawkins (UCF hoops coach) can use the Big 12 to elevate the program. That’s the one basketball wildcard; they don’t have a longstanding basketball tradition, but they have an incredible university that’s growing and a market that continues to grow.
“What I think is going to stabilize Big 12 basketball is there’ve been very few years where the bottom is just horrible. The monetary hit is obviously enormous, but if the league can stabilize on the gridiron, the basketball can continue to be an outstanding league,” Fraschilla added.
This story was originally published October 13, 2021 at 8:35 AM with the headline "Poll of anonymous coaches puts Gonzaga men’s basketball on top. Where does KU rank?."
