Photo by: Chelsea Nicholson
Early 2020-21 Polls Have Men's Basketball Among Nation's Best
4/6/2020 2:00:00 PM | Men's Basketball
ESPN.com Preseason PollKentuckySportsRadio.com Preseason PollCBSSports.com Preseason PollStadium Preseason PollNBCSports.com Preseason PollUSA Today Preseason PollCollege Hoops Today Preseason Poll
The consensus of seven preseason polls has Creighton in the top four.
If not for the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic, the national championship game would be taking place tonight in Atlanta. And while it's tough to predict what will take place in the upcoming 12 months, that hasn't stopped various outlets in the national media from predicting the early preseason top-25 polls for the 2020-21 men's college basketball campaign.
And while the predictions in no ways guarantee success, a look at those polls has Creighton expected to be among the national elite. Of the seven outlets that had a ranked list of 25 teams or more, each had Creighton selected in the top-six.
ESPN.com and KentuckySportsRadio.com each forsee Creighton as the nation's No. 2 team, while both Stadium and CBSSports.com placed Creighton third in their preseason top-25 editions. NBCSports.com slotted Creighton in fourth, USA Today has the Bluejays fifth and College Hoops Today writer Jon Rothstein landed CU sixth.
While no two polls are identical, 16 of the teams were listed in the top 25 by all seven organizations. And of those 16 teams, Creighton's average ranking of 3.57 is fourth-best to trail only Gonzaga (2.29), Baylor (3.14) and Villanova (3.43) and just ahead of traditional powerhouses Kentucky (5.43), Virginia (6.14) and Duke (8.57)
Creighton finished the 2019-20 season with a 24-7 record and ranked a best-ever No. 7 in the year-end Associated Press poll. Of the dozen men to appear in a 2019-20 contest, nine are slated to return, with only transfer Jalen Windham and seniors Kelvin Jones and Jordan Scurry not coming back.
That means Creighton will return 100 percent of its 155 starts, 97.0 percent of its 302 three-pointers, 96.7 percent of its free throws, 96.5 percent of its assists, 94.4 percent of its 2,428 points, 93.4 percent of its field goals, 93.3 percent of its 60 dunks, 92.6 percent of its 6,225 minutes, 90.6 percent of its 203 steals, 88.1 percent of its 1,004 rebounds that were grabbed, 82.3 percent of its 79 blocks and 66.7 percent of its 39 charges taken. In addition, CU also figures to get center Jacob Epperson back from injury, Memphis transfer Antwann Jones becomes eligible, and four-star recruit Ryan Kalkbrenner joins the program.
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And while the predictions in no ways guarantee success, a look at those polls has Creighton expected to be among the national elite. Of the seven outlets that had a ranked list of 25 teams or more, each had Creighton selected in the top-six.
ESPN.com and KentuckySportsRadio.com each forsee Creighton as the nation's No. 2 team, while both Stadium and CBSSports.com placed Creighton third in their preseason top-25 editions. NBCSports.com slotted Creighton in fourth, USA Today has the Bluejays fifth and College Hoops Today writer Jon Rothstein landed CU sixth.
While no two polls are identical, 16 of the teams were listed in the top 25 by all seven organizations. And of those 16 teams, Creighton's average ranking of 3.57 is fourth-best to trail only Gonzaga (2.29), Baylor (3.14) and Villanova (3.43) and just ahead of traditional powerhouses Kentucky (5.43), Virginia (6.14) and Duke (8.57)
Creighton finished the 2019-20 season with a 24-7 record and ranked a best-ever No. 7 in the year-end Associated Press poll. Of the dozen men to appear in a 2019-20 contest, nine are slated to return, with only transfer Jalen Windham and seniors Kelvin Jones and Jordan Scurry not coming back.
That means Creighton will return 100 percent of its 155 starts, 97.0 percent of its 302 three-pointers, 96.7 percent of its free throws, 96.5 percent of its assists, 94.4 percent of its 2,428 points, 93.4 percent of its field goals, 93.3 percent of its 60 dunks, 92.6 percent of its 6,225 minutes, 90.6 percent of its 203 steals, 88.1 percent of its 1,004 rebounds that were grabbed, 82.3 percent of its 79 blocks and 66.7 percent of its 39 charges taken. In addition, CU also figures to get center Jacob Epperson back from injury, Memphis transfer Antwann Jones becomes eligible, and four-star recruit Ryan Kalkbrenner joins the program.
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| ESPN | Â KSR | Â CBS | Â Stadium | USA Today | CHT | NBC | Composite Average Rank* | |
| Gonzaga | 3 | 4 | 1 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 2.29 |
| Baylor | 4 | 5 | 4 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 3 | 3.14 |
| Villanova | 1 | 1 | 5 | 2 | 12 | 2 | 1 | 3.43 |
| Creighton | 2 | 2 | 3 | 3 | 5 | 6 | 4 | 3.57 |
| Kentucky | 5 | 3 | 2 | 8 | 4 | 9 | 7 | 5.43 |
| Virginia | 8 | 7 | 7 | 6 | 3 | 7 | 5 | 6.14 |
| Duke | 6 | 11 | 6 | 10 | 6 | 10 | 11 | 8.57 |
| Iowa | 7 | 9 | 9 | 11 | 7 | 5 | 12 | 8.57 |
| Kansas | 10 | 16 | 10 | 9 | 13 | 4 | 8 | 10.00 |
| Michigan State | 9 | 13 | 12 | 5 | 19 | 8 | 6 | 10.29 |
| Texas Tech | 12 | 6 | 18 | 7 | 10 | 17 | 9 | 11.29 |
| Wisconsin | 15 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 8 | 11 | 17 | 12.00 |
| San Diego State | 17 | 23 | 17 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 10 | 16.00 |
| Florida State | 22 | 17 | 25 | 13 | 9 | 13 | 15 | 16.29 |
| North Carolina | 11 | 22 | 16 | 16 | 18 | 24 | 14 | 17.29 |
| West Virginia | 24 | 19 | 14 | 19 | 17 | 19 | 21 | 19.00 |
| Ohio State | 13 | 18 | 19 | - | - | 15 | 20 | |
| Tennessee | 14 | 12 | 13 | - | 14 | 14 | 13 | |
| Houston | 16 | - | 8 | 21 | 21 | 18 | 19 | |
| LSU | 18 | - | 22 | 20 | 22 | - | - | |
| Michigan | 19 | 15 | 15 | - | 16 | 22 | 23 | |
| Arkansas | 20 | 14 | - | 22 | - | - | - | |
| Colorado | 21 | - | - | 18 | - | - | - | |
| Oregon | 23 | - | 23 | - | 11 | 25 | 25 | |
| Richmond | 25 | - | - | 24 | - | - | 24 | |
| UCLA | - | 8 | 21 | - | 20 | 12 | 18 | |
| UConn | - | 20 | - | - | - | - | - | |
| Rutgers | - | 21 | 24 | 17 | - | 20 | 22 | |
| Memphis | - | 24 | - | - | - | - | - | |
| Texas | - | 25 | 20 | - | - | 21 | - | |
| Louisville | - | - | - | 15 | - | - | 16 | |
| Arizona State | - | - | - | 23 | 25 | - | - | |
| Purdue | - | - | - | T25 | - | - | - | |
| Austin Peay | - | - | - | T25 | - | - | - | |
| Florida | - | - | - | - | 23 | - | - | |
| Oklahoma State | - | - | - | - | 24 | - | - | |
| Indiana | - | - | - | - | - | 23 | - |
*among schools listed in all seven polls
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