Destiny: Love Everything About Kentucky Being Ranked Number 9 In The First College Hoops AP Top-25 Poll (Plus Other Ramblings On It)

It's a slow Monday, so let's argue. My first love and biggest love will always be college basketball. Don't care how good seasons are going for the rest of my teams, I just get this tingle when I know college basketball season is around the corner. It's why I'm so passionate about them not ruining the NCAA Tournament. You can keep conference realignment, transfer portal and NIL, just let us have the NCAA Tournament. I don't ask for much. 

Anyways, we got the first AP top-25 of the year. I say it all the time, the AP poll is pointless. It lets teams celebrate a number next to their name. However, the first one of the year sort of sets the tone all year. You get this look at who a group of people think is going to be good. It's something that should be looked at and something we can argue off.

I do laugh that it comes out like 24 hours after KenPom's rankings, which are way more respected: 

But for the sake of this argument we'll just use AP rankings here. Let me start with the headline of this blog. Destiny. I love everything about Kentucky being voted as the 9th best team in the country when we're going for our 9th national title. Yeah, my brain can be dumb as rocks and I can trick it into believing anything. But my heart, balls and brain all believe in Mark Pope. You don't keep screaming about The Assignment, get the number 9 ranking (too low, KenPom is smarter) and not have my thinking of being in Indy that first weekend in April. 

There's no reason for this team not to be a national title contender. Otega Oweh is the preseason SEC POY, you brought in a loaded transfer class, you bring back Oweh, Noah, Chandler and Garrison. This team can shoot, this can defend, this team is coached by a literal genius. Destiny.

Now, for my other ramblings. I like St. John's this year. I don't think St. John's is the 5th best team in the country. They are the team who sticks out at being a bit too high on this roster. They are going to be in this weird spot where the starting 5 makes sense but the 6th man has to play a ton: 

Purdue is number 1 for the first time ever in the preseason. Fine. The consensus is basically everyone thinks Florida, Houston and Purdue are the top-3 teams coming into the country. I think Houston is the best team in the country. I blindly trust Kelvin Sampson, don't care who they lose, think Milos Uzan is a sneaky NPOY candidate and they still can score if they have to. Speaking of a team a little too high? Arkansas. They are going to be better than last season, at least they should be. But people also fell into the run to the Sweet 16 they made last year. The jump should be there, think they are more 20th than 14th. 

I have no idea what to think of Auburn. The projected starting 5 makes sense and there's a lot to like from a talent standpoint, but going from Bruce Pearl to Steven Pearl has me hesitant on them. Illinois is too low. 

I'm way more on the side of them being a top-10 team in the country than outside the top-15. They got all the Europeans on their team, two Ivisic's (Ivicii?), Peja's kid and Kylan Boswell (not European). This is perhaps the team most underrated on the AP poll. I'm buying every bit of stock in Illinois this season and think you see them figure it out a lot faster than other teams bringing in new faces. 

We're less than a month away from the start of the season. Get ready, watch the exhibitions because they are actually playing preseason basketball this year. It's coming.