Hope spring eternal at the start of every college basketball season. Fans begin to get excited about their teams as soon as the pre-season polls come out. But reality kicks in during March madness.
Some, like Kentucky, remain dominant all season. Some over achieve others under achieve.
With that in mind, we took a close look at the AP pre-season poll and then compared it with the final poll prior to the NCAA tournament. Then, we compared that to the way the NCAA selection committee seeded the field.
Three of the top 4 teams in the pre-season poll– Kentucky (1pre-1final), Wisconsin (3 pre-3 final) and Duke (4 pre-4 final) — received 1 seeds from the NCAA selection committee, along with Villanova, which started the season at 12, but jumped to second in the final AP poll after a 32-2 season that included its second Big East regular season title and its first Big East tournament championship in 20 years.
Arizona (2 pre-5 final), Kansas (5 pre-10 final ), Virginia (9 pre-6 final) and Gonzaga (13 pre-7 final) all received two seeds.
Gonzaga, Northern Iowa (nr-11 final) Maryland (nr-12 final) were the biggest over achievers. Baylor (nr-16 final), West Virginia (nr- 20 final), Arkansas (nr-21 final), Georgetown (nr-22 final) and Butler (nr-24 final) played their way into the final AP poll and upgraded their seeding.
Along those lines, there were some surprising disappointments by underachieving teams. Florida (7 pre-nr), defending national champion UConn (17-nr), Nebraska (21 pre-nr) and Syracuse (23-nr) and Michigan (24-nr) were not represented in the field of 68. Ohio State (20 pre-nr) was a 10th seed and Texas (10 per-nr) was an 11.
Strangely, Wichita State, which started the season at 11 and was ranked 14th in the final AP poll, but only received a seventh seed after losing to Illinois State in the semi-finals of the Missouri Valley Conference tournament. SMU, which won the American was ranked 8th but only given a sixth seed. This is becoming a disturbing trend as the selection committee appears to be favoring average teams from the five power conferences and Big East while limiting entree to teams from so called lesser conferences like Temple (American), Colorado State (Mountain West) and Murray State (Ohio Valley), who all had deserving resumes. . .
Pre-season AP Poll
1, Kentucky (52) 29-11 1604.
2. Arizona (5) 33-5 1518 .
3. Wisconsin (8) 30-8 1483.
4. Duke 26-9 1415.
5. Kansas 25-10 1346
6. North Carolina 24-10 1274
7. Florida 36-3 1153.
8. Louisville 31-6 1114..
9. Virginia 30-7 1090.
10. Texas 24-11 1061.
11. Wichita State 35-1 1027.
12. Villanova 29-5 885.
13. Gonzaga 29-7 840.
14. Iowa State 28-8 781.
15. VCU 26-9 574.
16. San Diego State 31-5 560.
17. Connecticut 32-8 552.
18. Michigan State 29-9 521.
19. Oklahoma 23-10 426.
20. Ohio State 25-10 340.
21. Nebraska 19-13 309.
22. SMU 27-10 285.
23 Syracuse 28-6 178.
24 Michigan 28-9 167.
25. Harvard 27-5 98.
25. Utah 21-12 98.
Others receiving votes: Stanford 71, Iowa 58, Colorado 57, UCLA 35. Minnesota 34, Kansas State 27. Arkansas 21, Pitt 20, Memphis 15, Louisiana Tech 9, Cincinnati 8, LSU 8, George Washington, Notre Dame 6, Oklahoma State 6, Dayton 6, Georgetown 5, Florida State 5, Maryland 3, Illinois 3, BYU 2, West Virginia 1, Baylor 1, SF Austin 1. UTEP 1.
Final AP poll.
1. Kentucky (65) 34-0 1,625
2. Villanova 32-2 1,522
3. Wisconsin 31-3 1,460
4. Duke . 29-4 1,406
5 Arizona 31-3 1,405
6. Virginia 29-3 1,333
7. Gonzaga 32-2 1,229
8. Notre Dame 29-5 1,178
9. Iowa State 25-8 1,043
10. Kansas 26-8 995
11. Northern Iowa 30-3 979
12. Maryland 27-6 935
13. Oklahoma 22-10 740
14. Wichita State 28-4 737
15. North Carolina 24-11 703
16 Baylor 24-9 680
17. Louisville. 24-8 614
18 SMU 27-6 485
19. Utah. 24-8 455
20 West Virginia 23-9 398
21. Arkansas . 26-8 373
22. Georgetown 21-10 177
23 Michigan State 23-11 159
24. Butler 22-10142
25 Virginia Commonwealth 26-9 109
Others receiving votes: Oregon 91, Providence 62, Xavier 18, Davidson 16, Ohio State 12, Stephen F. Austin 12, Wyoming 6, Boise State 5, LSU 5, BYU 3, Valparaiso 3, Wofford 2, Harvard 2, Murray St 2, Dayton 1, Iowa 1, Purdue 1, Colorado St 1
Here is are the Top 24 seeded teams in the NCAA tournament.
1. Kentucky, Villanova, Wisconsin, Duke.
2. Virginia, Gonzaga, Arizona, Kansas.
3. Notre Dame, Oklahoma, Iowa State, Maryland
4. Baylor, Louisville, North Carolina, Georgetown
5. Northern Iowa, Arkansas, Utah, West Virginia
6. Butler, Xavier, Providence, SMU.
