Way Too Early Top 25s

Big surprise seeing Seth Davis put Houston this high. Errored in having Gorham returning. Has Memphis at 21 also.

9. Houston

Key departures: DeJon Jarreau, 6-5 Sr.

Top returnees: Quentin Grimes, 6-5 Sr.; Marcus Sasser, 6-1 Jr.; Tramon Mark, 6-5 So.; Justin Gorham, 6-7 Sr.; Reggie Chaney, 6-8 Sr.; Fabian White, 6-8 Sr.

Incoming: Ja’Vier Francis, 6-8 Fr.; Ramon Walker, 6-5 Fr.; Robbie Armbrester, 6-6 Fr.; Josh Carlton, 6-11 Sr.

Houston fans should enjoy seeing Grimes’ name among the returnees, because I expect him at least to test the NBA Draft waters. Even without him, the Cougars will be the heavy favorites in the AAC once again, especially with the recent addition of Carlton, who is transferring from UConn. Francis and Walker were both top-200 recruits per 247Sports, so they fit the profile of players in this program who stick around and develop over time.

That much better than the crap I read from ESPN’s way too early top 25.

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Gorham can return if he wants to, but none of us expect him to do so. That also makes his ranking make a lot of sense. If we really had all those people back plus Carlton we should probably be top 4ish since it’s almost exactly our current roster plus a legit 5.

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Typical espn. Much like their b10 bias, they refuse to acknowledge that they might be wrong sometimes. Once the anoint a team or conference as royalty, we are always going to get stories like this.

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https://www.cbssports.com/college-basketball/news/college-basketball-rankings-ucla-is-no-1-in-never-too-early-2021-22-top-25-and-1-preseason-rankings/

Houston at 12

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I haven’t read all of these. Are they assuming our roster isn’t complete when making these predictions? I just can’t see the justification right now. We land a couple of guards and I believe we are a top 15-20 team.

A lot of inaccuracies for who is leaving and staying mostly. Seth Davis has Grimes coming back after testing the waters.

ESPN has us at 24 in its early rankings lol

According to Seth Davis, our only departure will be DeJon Jarreau. On the one hand I would love for that to be true. On the other, it is Seth Davis.

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ESPN’s projected starters for us:

Projected starting lineup:

Sasser
Shead
Mark
Chaney
Tyson

Um, no. We’re not starting 4 guards and as of now Fabian is definitely coming back. Tyson has to improve immensely on defense before he becomes part of the main rotation.

I just read ESPN’s. It REAKS of P5 bias.

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:joy: :joy: ESPN should have just put we Trust in Kelvin Sampson and left it alone.

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It has gotten even worse than P5 bias IMO. It’s “teams that are going to play in featured games on our network” bias.

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It’s interesting how more than one of those has Grimes returning. Gosh, to have Gorham and Grimes BOTH back would be an absolute DREAM scenario!!!

We’d be a legit national title favorite at that point!

Goodman has us at 19, which is where I think we will most likely end up in preseason rankings (15-20ish).

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What a joke!

I really don’t see all the Baylor love. Aren’t they supposed to lose four of five starters and five of their top six players?

To me, Baylor is likely “one and done.”

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If so… They won’t be back in the championship game next year.

Much has been made of Baylor’s rise over the last 18 years. What about Gonzaga’s?

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13. Houston (28-4): The Cougars have won 111 games over the last four seasons, and have ranked 21st or better in KenPom’s defensive efficiency metric in each of them. In other words, they can survive the possible loss of star Quentin Grimes and be just fine. Maybe not Final Four fine, but Houston should again be the favorites in the American Athletic.

6. Houston

Kelvin Sampson has built a program with staying power at Houston, and the Cougars should be excellent again in 2021–22 even with the graduation of star point guard DeJon Jarreau. Quentin Grimes and Marcus Sasser should return in the backcourt (though Grimes is likely to consider pro options), and the addition of grad transfer Josh Carlton (UConn) should solidify the interior and provide a boost on the glass. Watch out for Tramon Mark, who could break out after a strong freshman season.

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