KSR - 2011 college basketball season

Gary Parish on 2011 season

Faux-hawk joins the ridiculously early preseason ranking party


by Hunter Campbell @ 5:48 pm. Filed under Blue Blooded Opinions





And not a moment too soon. As with most of these rankings, the Cats fall in the “I should probably rank them so KSR will link me but in reality I have no idea how good they’ll be” range between 12 and 20, with Parrish slotting them at #17. I’d like to find something to ridicule the hawked-one about, but considering I also have no idea how good we’ll be I’ll just say I agree with him, in the interest of world blogging peace and all. Here’s his take on the 2010-11 Cats:



It’s impossible not to slip when you lose five first-round picks in the same year, but John Calipari can endure the losses as well as anybody. He’ll enroll Brandon Knight and Enes Kanter and immediately have one of the nation’s strongest inside-outside duos (provided Kanter is cleared to participate as a freshman) and, by extension, one of the nation’s most intriguing teams.



He ranks Michigan State at the top based on the return of most of the core of last year’s Final Four team, most notably Kalin Lucas, and the addition of a stellar recruiting class featuring big man Adreian Payne. Duke falls in behind the Spartans at #2, with Purdue, Villanova and Kansas State rounding out his top five. As far as the SEC is concerned, Florida’s #10 ranking makes them the only conference team ahead of the Cats, with Tennessee the lone other representative at #25.



Other teams of note include Kansas at #12, Memphis, their #1 recruiting class and 11-year-old coach at #13, and North Carolina at #14. Washington is ranked 20th, based on Terrence Jones eventually playing for the Huskies, and Butler drops all the way from a lock for the preseason top 5 to #21 with the departure of Gordon Hayward to the NBA. They’ll crush Louisville in the opener at the bucket regardless.



So now you’ve learned everything you need to know about questionable hair stylings and next year’s best college basketball teams. And that’s all I have to say about that.



[Parrish's Top 25 (and one)]





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