Marquette is ranked No. 17 in the USA Today/ESPN Coaches Top 25 poll, and the Blue Ribbon College Basketball Yearbook poll puts Marquette at No.,”All indications suggest Marquette will be in every major publication's top 25 when the Golden Eagles host Hillsdale College in the season opener Nov. 10.
Marquette is ranked No. 17 in the USA Today/ESPN Coaches Top 25 poll, and the Blue Ribbon College Basketball Yearbook poll puts Marquette at No. 12. It's certainly debatable whether the Golden Eagles are a top 25-caliber team, but No. 12 pushes the envelope.
Does anybody else think this gives Marquette's roster too much credit? Let's not forget Marquette lost its best player in Steve Novak, and ideal power forward replacement, Ryan Amoroso, who transferred to San Diego State. Not one frontcourt player on this year's roster eclipsed 3.0 rebounds per game in 2005-'06.
The guard-oriented offense has been proven to win college games, but rankings that high should mean the publication thinks a team is in contention for a national championship.
As the following list indicates, national title winners always have at least one inside scorer and terrific rebounder.
2006: Florida, Joakim Noah (14.2 points per game, 7.1 rebounds per game)
2005: North Carolina, Sean May (17.5 PPG, 10.7 RPG)
2004: Connecticut, Emeka Okafor (17.6 PPG, 11.5 RPG)
2003: Syracuse, Carmelo Anthony (22.2 PPG, 10.0 RPG)
2002: Maryland, Chris Wilcox (12.0 PPG, 7.1 RPG)
2001: Duke, Shane Battier (19.9 PPG, 7.3 RPG) and Carlos Boozer (13.3 PPG, 6.5 RPG)
The list goes on.
Then again, we are talking about a pre-season poll, so let's not read too much into it – which is exactly what I just did. But it's fun.
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