NCAA Basketball: Takeaways from 2021-22 AP top 25 preseason poll
Who’s underrated?
No. 11 Illinois Fighting Illini
At the very least, Illinois basketball is a Top 10 squad with the return of four players with starting experience, including Kofi Cockburn and Andre Curbelo, set to take over the starting point guard spot, but instead, they’re just outside the first 10 teams in the AP Poll at No. 11.
This is a tough one to understand from the voters given the Fighting Illini won the Big Ten Tournament title and finished second in the conference ranks (13-4) in 2020-21. Losing Ayo Dosunmu hurts, but they’ll add Alfonso Plummer (Utah) and Omar Payne (Florida) while fielding one of the deeper teams in Brad Underwood’s tenure as head coach. Their preseason spot should act as merely bulletin board material.
No. 16 Arkansas Razorbacks
Eric Musselman and Arkansas basketball made history this past season, making a run in the 2021 NCAA Tournament to their first Elite Eight appearance since 1995 when they lost in the National Championship game.
They return a core of four players in J.D. Notae, SEC basketball’s Sixth Man of the Year, Davonte Davis, Connor Vanover, and Jaylin Williams while revamping the roster as is Musselman’s usual style with six players from the transfer portal. They’ll look to get back to the top of the conference after finishing second (13-4) this past season.
No. 20 Florida State Seminoles
If Florida State basketball fans are confused about the Seminoles No. 20 rank in the AP Preseason Poll, we understand here at BustingBrackets. The Seminoles finished last season as the 14th ranked team in the final AP Poll and made their third-consecutive appearance in the Sweet 16.
Head coach Leonard Hamilton and his squad didn’t get much of the benefit of the doubt with a mix of eight returners and six newcomers including Caleb Mills (Houston) out of the transfer portal. As they revamp their backcourt, look for them to move up the ranks rather quickly as a top team in ACC basketball.