Lessons We Learned From Last Year's Coaches Poll - College Basketball 2024-25

we're GNA get creative with a few more topics today topic number two I want to learn some lessons I want to look at last year's coaches poll from the preseason let's just go back in time in a time machine to August 9th 2023 and see what everybody thought the preseason coaches poll was and see if we can learn some lessons that maybe we could apply to our preseason poll this year and identify what is already wrong before it even happens oo identify what's wrong before it h I love it it's got a little bit of negativity twist to it yeah just a little like let's see based on what everybody got wrong last year let's see if we can predict what we will have wrong this year so I would like to start I'm just going to read you the coaches poll from last season preseason college basketball actually I don't want to do this exercise anymore why oh well yeah you know why let's get through this here we go uh last season preseason coaches poll in August we had this a consensus number one team consensus number one team was the Kansas Jayhawks they received 46 out of I think 60 preseason number one votes number two was Duke who received 11 number one votes number three was Purdue who received three number one votes Purdue coming off Los losing to a 16th seed but returning basically everybody number four was Michigan State who returned everybody off a sweet 16 run they had one number one vote number five was Marquette number six was Yukon the defending national champs were sixth with two preseason number one votes seven was Houston eight was kraton nine was Tennessee 10 was Florida Atlantic fresh off a final four run with Dusty May 11 was Gonzaga 12 was Arizona 13 was Miami Florida fresh off of final four run 14 was Arkansas with mus 15 was Texas A&M way Taylor 16 was Kentucky 17 was San Diego State fresh off a national championship run 18 was Texas 19 was North Carolina 20 was Baylor 21 was South Carolina 22 or sorry 21 was Southern California 22 was Villanova Kyle Neptune of the boys 23 was St Mary's 24 was Alabama and 25 was Brad Underwoods Illinois fighting a l interesting Look Backwards there uh there are some very loud things that got wrong and some Trends you can identify that might indicate why what did you what did you learn from that uh I think the main takeway that everyone should take from that is that uh March runs don't really mean much coming into the next season they mean nothing they mean nothing unless unless unless there's one caveat there if you're the defending national champion it means something yeah like if you have Elite Talent and the best coach in the sport might mean something right they really they really okay I'm a Michigan State fan and Yukon really won it all and brought back herly clinging Stefan Castle coming in caraban back and everything like that and they're like ah n let's take let's take AJ hogart and the boys yeah not great not great at all um yeah so I mean Florida Atlantic Miami and San Diego State everyone would have told you at the end of the final four like none of those teams were legitimately great teams and I mean [ __ ] Miami didn't even like bring everybody back they just brought a couple key pieces back San Diego State lost some Stars uh Florida Atlantic brought most guys back but like I don't know just that all three of those teams being in the top 17 felt like massive overreactions if we were to apply that to this upcoming year let's do that real quick so Alabama is the preseason number two team in the country last year Alabama like with all due respect C good team what were they a four seed like they with Mark Sears being awesome and with Grant Nelson being awesome they were not the best team in the SEC they were worse than the Brandon Miller team they just made a good March run right so are are we sure they add Cliff up Amore he's good but this is now the number two team in the sport because they made a final four run I mean the one thing you can say though is that they didn't they didn't like they didn't just run they're not running it back fully you know what I'm saying like they added talent to the team yeah but they're they lost Talent too like Ryland Griffin is playing for the number one team now i' I've said this you've heard this take from me I I actually love this exercise looking back CU I didn't know this would be the conclusion like I do think there's a big element of putting Alabama at two because they made a March run like La last year they were a good not great team with this exact same framework of Mark Sears and Grant Nelson and I I get Cliff is a great ad I get Darion Reed sounds awesome rght sell's a breakout guy but to me like if last season they were like top 10ish I don't know that they should be second ahead of some Pro like Yukon still looms there's more talented teams in me than Alabama I I think this could be one we Circle that like we fell for the final four hype would would that be the team that you would pick from I mean obviously NC State you we're not really paying attention to that but you think Bama would be the team is like that be a little bit weary like because we we talked about it coming into the tournament for Bama the step that was taken I think is that Grant Nelson breached another level in the NCA tournament which made them extremely dangerous for latter or for early Parts in the season we were like ah Grant Nelson's a little bit soft in the ass down low in the front court and I think it hurt Bama and they weren't able to get any stops they finally were able to get stops defensively and they took a step in the tournament so like there's a world like I mean that would be the team that I would pick just to be a little bit weary on like they they were a four seed like you said yeah I think we can go through the others too and just have the question but let's just remind people even after the final four run last year car Alabama's finished 14th on kenpong lost 12 games at the end of the regular season they lost four of their final six like and then you show up to the NCA tournament let's let's remind people you got Charleston in round one congrats you beat Pat Kelce in round two you got Grand Canyon congrats in round three you you eak by North Carolina in a game where RJ Davis went 0 for 12 and then in round four you got Clemson in the elite eight so so final four team special all of a sudden number two in the country with that same frame it just ah let's Circle that one the other ones that we should do NC State's not even on the list but like let's do Yukon and Purdue quickly because you could make the argument they're both getting a final four bump as well with where they're at um Purdue me make sure I find where they're at on this list because they nobody's super high on Purdue right I was going to say like the thing about this exercise is it has to be like are you high on on this on this team coming into this season like like where we f with Illinois like Illinois loses they make the elite eight run yeah right um finally get a favorable draw in the first two games they have to go through Morehead State and duaine they get past Iowa State what' you say no I'm just saying yeah I'm agree oh yeah then they get past Iowa State and then they get dog walk by 30 and that's with Terence Shannon and Coleman Hawkins and Marcus damask and everybody else on that team so it's like you know and they got a whole new team coming into this season it's going to take a while for them they were extremely successful that that'd be something I'd be wary of as well yeah I agree with you there um Purdue is 16th in the preseason poll right now so that that's probably right yeah I I don't think you can grib too much just because they've already been dinged Yukon at three given all they lost I mean I guess the question is does yukon's Aura impose its will on this back to back so there's there's no concerns about we're we're giving them the bump because we we are everyone's acknowledging it we're giving them the Yukon bump but the Yukon bump is deserved yeah it's deserved think okay it is um one one that I would want to know if you think they're eligible for this and it's not even based off of a run but how is isn't Auburn like preseason 10 uh let me look through this so here's the current preseason poll I'm looking at per ESPN we got Kansas one Alabama 2 Yukon 3 Houston 4 Gonzaga 5 Baylor 6 Iowa State 7 Duke 8 Arizona 9 North Carolina 10 Auburn 11 Texas A&M 12 Tennessee 13 Arkansas 14 kraton 15 Purdue 16 Marquette 17 Indiana 18 Cincy 19 Miss 20 Florida Texas Kentucky uccla Ruckers from there well one this same exercise might work for n things I don't know why Cincinnati just finds their way into the top 25 because they made the NIT title game or semifinals um I would trying to think like Auburn's the one that came to mind just because like I mean they lost to Yale you know what I'm saying like they and they're running it back basically with new guards new transfer guards hoping they work I know they got Janai broom back but I mean they they they did struggle to they lost some games out when they were playing away from whatever War Eagle Arena wherever they play at um trying to think what another team in here will kind of fall into that category of making a run but it's like they're running it back yeah I don't know either I don't know there um I mean that the one other loud non-final four like be careful take away from me would be your Michigan State Spartans right it was like find a team who was not great just decent who won two games not not even a final four run but just like finished on a high note from a mass season and now it's like everybody's back like I think we could probably find a couple of those um hases Iowa State qualify for that I think they were too good during the regular season though think so like sweet 16 run bounced everybody back they were so good during the regular season though yeah if it was just the tournament part run of that I would I would I think agree with that but I can't get there okay um what about like Texas A&M was pretty me that would be one that I'm just like every that that'd be another one because everyone's like oh they picked it up towards the end of the season they're running it back way Taylor they also were bad during most of the Season yeah Texas A&M I think that's Texas A&M definitely definitely falls into that into that category yeah um see Baylor didn't win enough G would Arizona qualify for this I was gonna go to Arizona for a different point and this is my final Point um last year's preseason number one consensus was Kansas Kansas brought back like one to two guys they added some new flashy pieces but they also lost a lot from the year before and it was a lot of new faces right and they were kind of kind of centered around a guy that's a little problematic but talented nobody questioned talent that does sort of remind me of Arizona where it's just like it's Caleb love and a bunch of new guys but they're talented but it should be fine right I think we looked at Kansas last year of like it's Dewan Harris and Kevin mcculler and a bunch of new guys Hunter Dickinson is super talented so is Trey Townsen uh we got breakout like Nick Timberlake is here Anthony dorso is here they're going to be great uh we we got the sophomores that are ready to break out some of these younger dudes like maybe not yeah I I think we're forgetting one obvious one here though who the Taral what about them they are running it back with the same team but they are worse at Center they're worse at Power Forward um hopefully Ian Jackson works out where it's not like a Caleb love 2.0 situation that doesn't work next to RJ Davis because like cormack Ryan was quietly like a very good complimentary piece to that back court um and they downg they don't have bon anymore they downgraded the Center position K Tyson hopefully he's as good as you know Ingram like I don't know like they're I'm a little skeptical about them being top 10 yeah just teams that take a step back but yeah I can see that too okay all in all do you think we learned some lessons here I expected more lessons to be learned to be honest what's your new top five for next season H you know what there needs to be respect Factor doesn't [Music] there Kansas Yukon Bama Baylor Gonzaga I'm going Kansas Duke Yukon Baylor Bama Bama five I'm dropping B you don't have Duke in your top five or six