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Friday, October 27, 2006

Coaches rank Kansas No. 3

By Gary Bedore

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Kansas University's men's basketball team is ranked third in the country in the USA Today/ESPN preseason top 25 men's basketball coaches poll.

Defending NCAA champion Florida and 2005 national titlist North Carolina were tapped ahead of the Jayhawks. Florida received 30 of 31 first-place votes, No. 4 Ohio State the other.

Pittsburgh and UCLA are tied for fifth, followed by LSU, Georgetown, Wisconsin, Arizona, Duke, Alabama, Texas A&M, Memphis, Boston College, Washington, Marquette, Connecticut, Texas, Syracuse, Georgia Tech, Kentucky, Creighton, Tennessee and Nevada. Wichita State just missed out at 27th. Oklahoma State was 36th.

"You could say it's a reflection on how the guys played a majority of the time last year," KU coach Bill Self said of the poll results. "It's nice to be ranked there. It's totally different to play to that ranking. We've got a lot of work to do before we can do that."

¢ Duke-bound: Kyle Singler, the country's No. 4-rated high school basketball player who long has been rumored headed to Duke University, is expected to make it official today and announce for the Blue Devils over KU and Arizona.

The 6-foot-9 South Medford (Ore.) High forward, who attended the Oct. 13 Late Night in the Phog in Allen Fieldhouse, will reveal his college choice at a 5 p.m. news conference at his high school.

Several sources have indicated Duke is the choice, though the Singler family will only acknowledge a news conference is on tap today.

More about men's basketball

¢ Anderson update: Self made a recruiting trip to Junction City, Ark., on Thursday to check in on James Anderson, a 6-6 guard/forward who is expected to choose either KU or Oklahoma State in the next several days.

Junction City High coach Joe Hammett says Florida, Arkansas and Kentucky have not been eliminated officially, but KU and OSU are the definite leaders. Anderson is Rivals.com's No. 34-ranked player.

¢ Rose to visit Illinois: Derrick Rose, a 6-4 guard from Chicago's Simeon High, has dropped DePaul from his list of schools. Rose, who for a time had KU on his list, will visit Illinois this weekend. His leaders are Memphis and Indiana.

¢ Self clinic on tap: Bill Self's annual coaches clinic is set for Saturday in Allen Fieldhouse. Cost is $55 pre-registration, $60 at the gate. The clinic, which starts at 8:30 a.m. (registration is 8 a.m.) will include talks from Self, as well as assistants Kurtis Townsend, Joe Dooley and Tim Jankovich and coaches from last year's Kansas state championship high school teams. Those who attend also will receive tickets to the KU-Colorado football game. Several hundred high school, small-college and junior-college coaches normally flock to the clinic.

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Comments

KansasPrep (anonymous) says...

There is no way that North Carolina should be ahead of Kansas. they have Hansborough, but thats basically it for superstar power. They have a lot of good players, but only 1 great. We have

Our ENTIRE roster, but I guess we will just move u[p in the polls after the las Vegas trip

October 27, 2006 at 8:57 a.m. ( | suggest removal )

Studogg (anonymous) says...

Hang on KPrep. UNC did at least make it out of the first round last year. I agree with you that 1-5, we look good. But Roy's got as good a recruiting class this year as we had last year. And never count out a Williams' coached team with a quality big man. Hansborough reminds me a lot of LaFrentz or Collison. He'll have them ready to go and clicking on all cylinders. Now, with that said, preseason rankings mean about as much as a half-court shot at the end of a game by the team trailing by 20. They're meaningless! I can't wait till next Thursday when this whole thing gets going. Then we can start talking about who should be ranked where.

October 27, 2006 at 9:08 a.m. ( | suggest removal )

JayCeph (anonymous) says...

I would just as soon see no rankings 'till the teams have all played about 3-5 regular season games. Fortunately, the BBall programs don't really go by rankings anyway when it comes down to seeding for the NCAA tourney (much better than football!!). KU can be ranked wherever they want, it won't matter 'till the final horn sounds at the end of March (early April?).

Then I want them to be No.1.. rawk chawk!

October 27, 2006 at 9:17 a.m. ( | suggest removal )

StarHawk92 (anonymous) says...

Being in the Top 4 means you are a #1 in March -- that's all that matters to me!!

I could care less what order -- particularly in the preseason!!

is it game time yet?!?!?!?!

October 27, 2006 at 11:14 a.m. ( | suggest removal )

jhyphene (anonymous) says...

Easy argument could be made that KU is over-rated. Consider that KU returns all of its significant contributors from last year's team. Now consider how many "good" teams last year's KU team beat over the course of the season. I'd say two: @A&M and Texas in the conference tourney. Other than that (maybe count Cal as a good win), they didn't beat anybody worth bragging about. So, I think this group has a lot to prove. To be ranked #3 with a lot still to prove, the arguement could be made that other teams should be ranked ahead of them. All that said, everything is speculation in a preseason poll. Florida should be ranked #1, and everyone else should be tied for #2. And after Vegas, KU should be ranked #1!!!

October 27, 2006 at 11:24 a.m. ( | suggest removal )

justdoit23 (anonymous) says...

UNC #2??????? what a B/S.....

UNC is going no where! write it down!!!!

October 27, 2006 at 11:26 a.m. ( | suggest removal )

Lebowski (anonymous) says...

We have to remember... as talented as our individuals are... this group has never "clicked" together for and extended period of time. Sure, they've shown flashes of brilliance... but we've never seen anything comparable to the great teams with Kirk/Nick or Raef/Paul. We've got to remember.. .we have NO seniors. As talented as KU is, it's going to be better than last year, but no "well-oiled-machine-powerhouse-juggernaut" that crushes everybody right out of the starting gate. Hopefully, by the end of the season, the extra year of experience translates to a team capable of winning it all. Expecting more than that is really unfair for a team so young.

People so quickly forget the whole story of what last season's team did. They try to sum it up by one thing... "one-&-done in the tourney!" Who the hell cares!! After 7 games, it looked like it would take a miracle for KU to even GET TO the tournament. Halfway through the OU game, it looked like KU had no chance on earth to even compete for the Big 12 title. Playing against Texas and their 3 older pro prospects... who thought Kansas was going to win?. Who on earth would have picked KU to win even a share the Big 12 title at any of those times? What KU accomplished last year was nothing short of spectacular, regardless of what happened in the tourney. Was that dissappointing? Yes. Will it happen again? I highly doubt it.

But KU has to play like a number 1,2 or 3 team first to be ranked there. I'm with ya Studogg... these are meaningless... and I'd just as soon prefer KU be ranked 26th in the preseason so they'd play with a chip on their shoulder.

October 27, 2006 at 11:47 a.m. ( | suggest removal )

milehighhawk (anonymous) says...

lebowski...the bums will always lose.

I agree with 95% of your post, but don't think it's fair to say "we've never seen anything comparable to the great teams with Kirk/Nick or Raef/Paul." If you asked me to pick between last years frosh or any of the above pairings in their freshman year, I'd have to think it over.

Let's not forget that the biggest improvement usually comes between the freshman and sophomore years - I think we're finished being intimidated and we're ready to overwhelm teams with pure talent. We have all the ingredients to do it, and we have a "team first" mentality across the board.

11/2 can't come quickly enough...I need my KU hoops fix.

Rock chalk - preseason rankings are meaningless...see y'all in Vegas baby!

October 27, 2006 at 12:39 p.m. ( | suggest removal )

Tuskin (anonymous) says...

By the time the regular season ended last year, I think KU had pretty well locked up its position as a Top-10 team. Our team did prove a lot last year. We played good, solid teams, and we generally didn't let opposing teams keep the score close.

They didn't get as much recognition because of a slow start, but my computer system and Jeff Sagarin's (of USA Today) both showed KU in the top 7. Seems logical to me that we'd be rated more highly than that now, since most teams lost more players than we did.

But to give the team a rating with any meaning attached to it - we need to wait until a few games have been played. Go, team! Go, Coach!

October 27, 2006 at 1:40 p.m. ( | suggest removal )

cobweb (anonymous) says...

Coach Self's recruiting ability combined with a beautiful campus and the best looking girls in the nation will keep us stocked with thorobreds for years to come.

October 27, 2006 at 1:45 p.m. ( | suggest removal )

DerekR25 (anonymous) says...

Well, I saw on Rivals.com that Singler is officially a Blue Devil. I really hoped he'd come to KU, after all, no one in the country would love him like Jayhawk fans would. No one would push him harder to be the best than coach Self either. It's too bad he didn't realize that like Arthur did at the last moment. Oh well, I hope he becomes the All American he's touted to be. After reading his interviews and saying hi to him at Late Night, I think he's a real class act kid and deserves to have success at the highest level. Good luck Kyle, it's a shame you won't be wearing the Crimson & Blue though. Rock Chalk Baby!!!

October 27, 2006 at 5:38 p.m. ( | suggest removal )

phoenixjayhawk (Rodney Stice) says...

Don't worry about the pre-season rankings, what we want is a national championship

October 27, 2006 at 6:14 p.m. ( | suggest removal )

speedy (anonymous) says...

ready for vegas? well are you?
who made the decision to play at a casino??? thats right a casino! sure they call it a hotel but the orleans is formost a casino. the are using florida and ku to get respect for the venue. its not thomas & mack @ unlv. its at the orleans 1 mile west on tropicana from the strip. tickets cost $128 for fri. & sat. sat is on espn2 against florida.
oh well being # 20 afterward will open some players eyes. but why oh why at the orleans??????????

October 27, 2006 at 6:17 p.m. ( | suggest removal )

jbrownjib (anonymous) says...

KU's team consisted of a bunch of Freshmen last year and they won the Big 12 tournament versus Texas. There is no shame in that. I think Roy is overrated. His teams play great offense and mediocre defense.
This years team for KU will be playing full court D for most of the game. Having Chalmers and Robinson is like having two Mookie Blaylocks on one team. I would rather watch KU this year than any other team no matter the ratings. The no look passes from Wright last year were on the Danny Manning scale and Manning was the most incredible passer ever at Kansas. And Rush will have a full year of experience and tremendous confidence coming into this year. This team will be intimidating and fun to watch. Ratings are only a gauge until they jump ball.

October 27, 2006 at 9:06 p.m. ( | suggest removal )