Take it to Vegas: Preseason Rankings and Tourney Predictions

by Zach Bell on Nov 11, 2009 7:00 AM PST

Before or around the time every season begins, we like to attempt to take our turns being the national pundits and make a few predictions of our own. In this post you will find our Preseason Top 25's, below, and our NCAA Tournament predictions from the Sweet Sixteen onwards after the jump. There will probably be plenty of points of contention. I can already see some now with both of our rankings and tournament projections. We'd love to see some of our readers chip in and offer up their Top 10 or 25 teams or even their Final Four when it is all said and done. The great thing about this post is that it can be erased once March rolls around...or even next week just in case our Top 25's get blown up! We hope you enjoy...

Rank	Zach B	Everydayezag
1	Kansas	Kansas
2	Texas	Texas
3	Villanova	Villanova
4	Purdue	West Virginia
5	Michigan State	North Carolina
6	Kentucky	Michigan State
7	West Virginia	Butler
8	North Carolina	Tennessee
9	Butler	Mississippi State
10	Tennessee	Kentucky
11	Michigan	Purdue
12	Connecticut	Georgia Tech
13	Oklahoma	Cincinnati
14	Duke	Duke
15	California	Connecticut
16	Mississippi State	Washington
17	Georgia Tech	Georgetown
18	Ohio State	Cal
19	Washington	Ohio State
20	Illinois	Clemson
21	Georgetown	Michigan
22	Maryland	Gonzaga
23	Gonzaga	Oklahoma
24	Dayton	Siena
25	Vanderbilt	Dayton

continue reading after the jump for our tournament predictions...

EDZ's Tourney Predictions from Sweet Sixteen onward (there is no order to the teams or pairings, just our guesses about what teams will be there)

Sweet Sixteen	Elite Eight	Final Four	National Title	Champion
Kansas
Texas
Georgetown
Cincinnati
Kentucky	Kansas
Georgia Tech	Texas
Butler	Cincinnati	Kansas
Villanova	Butler	Texas	Kansas
Clemson	Villanova	Georgetown	Villanova	Villanova
Kansas St.	Kansas State	Villanova
Mississippi St.	Mississippi St.
Michigan St.	Georgetown
Gonzaga
North Carolina
Connecticut
Siena

Zach B's Tourney Predictions from the Sweet Sixteen onward...

Sweet Sixteen	Elite Eight	Final Four	National Title	Champion
Kansas
Texas
Villanova
Purdue
Michigan St.	Kansas
Kentucky	Texas
West Virginia	Villanova	Texas
Butler	Purdue	Purdue	Texas	Texas
Oklahoma	Kentucky	Villanova	Villanova
Mississippi St.	West Virginia	West Virginia
Washington	Oklahoma
Maryland	Siena
Siena
Notre Dame
North Carolina
Syracuse

There's bound to be plenty of disagreement! Share your thoughts with us below in the comments.

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Comments

Guy's, no love for the Dukies?

by mikesequim on Nov 11, 2009 8:25 AM PST reply actions

A few points of contention..

Zach B: What’s with your love of Purdue. Regardless of how much experience and talent they accrue, they will always find a way to screw themselves. A final four for them is simply not a possibility. Also, I think you both might be underestimating the abilities of a Kentucky team that’s in a fairly weak SEC. Not only will they have a great regular season, but I see them meeting tournament expectations.

Zagnificent - GU Class of 2011

by Zagnificent on Nov 11, 2009 8:38 AM PST reply actions

Purdue

Love their starting lineup. Think it might be one of the best in the country. Hummel and JaJuan Johnson make up one of the most formidable frontcourts in the country. I really think Johnson is poised for a big time breakout year as long as he gets a bit tougher in the post. E’Twaun Moore is a very good point guard and Chris Kramer is a great defender and a scrappy guard. I’m a bit worried about their overall depth but they have some talented freshmen coming in and they’ll have to step. I think they have the talent overall. I absolutely don’t think a final four for them is impossible. I think we’ve all learned over the years in March Madness that every team can make a run. Especially when you have a coach like Matt Painter, who is one of the best young coaches in the nation, anything can happen.

Mike, as for Duke, I’m still a bit concerned by their talent level overall. Nolan Smith has great potential playing the off guard, Scheyer is not a pure point guard but he makes good enough decisions to do so. The big tester will be their bigs. The Plumlee brothers will have to play great basketball for them to be a top ten team because I don’t think Lance Thomas or Brian Zoubek have the offensive ability to score enough in the low blocks. Obviously Kyle Singler is the reason they are as high as they are but we’ll just have to see. It’s a very new look Duke team for having all the same cast of characters. Lots of guys in new spots on the floor so they’ll be an interesting team to watch.

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Formerly BuffZag
Bol Kong for President!

by Zach Bell on Nov 11, 2009 10:00 AM PST up reply actions