BY25 preseason poll: Results are in

[Plebe]

Also receiving votes (on at least two ballots): Michigan 41, North Carolina 32, South Dakota State 17, South Dakota 13, Florida State 12, Iowa 12, Marquette 10, Tennessee 6, Kansas State 3.

The following teams appeared on only one ballot: Florida Gulf Coast, Rutgers, BYU, Boston University, Duke.

Thank you to all who voted. The turnout was great: 23 ballots submitted, including quite a few first-timers. The next poll will be on Monday, Dec. 7 (two weeks from today).

 

[LowkeyX]

View attachment 61622

Also receiving votes (on at least two ballots): Michigan 41, North Carolina 32, South Dakota State 17, South Dakota 13, Florida State 12, Iowa 12, Marquette 10, Tennessee 6, Kansas State 3.

The following teams appeared on only one ballot: Florida Gulf Coast, Rutgers, BYU, Boston University, Duke.

Thank you to all who voted. The turnout was great: 23 ballots submitted, including quite a few first-timers. The next poll will be on Monday, Dec. 7 (two weeks from today).

Excited for the next one! We’ll have a better feel of who the pretenders & contenders are from our preseason rankings!

 

[triaddukefan]

At least Duke got one vote, that's better than nothing

 

[Lorcan]

At least Duke got one vote, that's better than nothing

Here I thought it was you throwing one vote to Duke for old times sake.

Honestly, there’s a few surprises to me in this poll. First, I genuinely think Florida Gulf Coast is the best team in Florida this year, but they likely won’t have much chance to prove that distinction.
Ohio State? How do they always get ranked? I expect them to underperform and be behind Iowa by the seasons end.
I’m a little miffed that Gonzaga, a top 10 team last year, drops all the way to 20 despite not losing much, I hope they knock everyone’s socks off and stun South Carolina. If they manage that and run the table, they’re my No. 1.
I’m not sure that Arkansas belongs here either. Sure, they got plenty of media hype, but they also haven’t consistently performed. It remains to be seen if Dungee and Slocum mesh, but if Kelsey Plum is on staff, good things must happen.

I can’t argue with the fact that South Carolina was the No. 1 team, but I do take umbrage with UConn getting more top votes than Stanford on an admittedly skewed board, Plenty of good bulletin board material there. I look forward to proving those voters wrong.

 

[triaddukefan]

Here I thought it was you throwing one vote to Duke for old times sake.

 

[j66kicker]

Here I thought it was you throwing one vote to Duke for old times sake.

Honestly, there’s a few surprises to me in this poll. First, I genuinely think Florida Gulf Coast is the best team in Florida this year, but they likely won’t have much chance to prove that distinction.
Ohio State? How do they always get ranked? I expect them to underperform and be behind Iowa by the seasons end.
I’m a little miffed that Gonzaga, a top 10 team last year, drops all the way to 20 despite not losing much, I hope they knock everyone’s socks off and stun South Carolina. If they manage that and run the table, they’re my No. 1.
I’m not sure that Arkansas belongs here either. Sure, they got plenty of media hype, but they also haven’t consistently performed. It remains to be seen if Dungee and Slocum mesh, but if Kelsey Plum is on staff, good things must happen.

I can’t argue with the fact that South Carolina was the No. 1 team, but I do take umbrage with UConn getting more top votes than Stanford on an admittedly skewed board, Plenty of good bulletin board material there. I look forward to proving those voters wrong.

Well that was certainly an impartial and geographically unbiased analysis!

 

[Plebe]

At least Duke got one vote, that's better than nothing

Clearly we have a low bar for voter qualifications

 

[triaddukefan]

Clearly we have a low bar for voter qualifications

 

[chrissaran]

Here I thought it was you throwing one vote to Duke for old times sake.

Honestly, there’s a few surprises to me in this poll. First, I genuinely think Florida Gulf Coast is the best team in Florida this year, but they likely won’t have much chance to prove that distinction.
Ohio State? How do they always get ranked? I expect them to underperform and be behind Iowa by the seasons end.
I’m a little miffed that Gonzaga, a top 10 team last year, drops all the way to 20 despite not losing much, I hope they knock everyone’s socks off and stun South Carolina. If they manage that and run the table, they’re my No. 1.
I’m not sure that Arkansas belongs here either. Sure, they got plenty of media hype, but they also haven’t consistently performed. It remains to be seen if Dungee and Slocum mesh, but if Kelsey Plum is on staff, good things must happen.

I can’t argue with the fact that South Carolina was the No. 1 team, but I do take umbrage with UConn getting more top votes than Stanford on an admittedly skewed board, Plenty of good bulletin board material there. I look forward to proving those voters wrong.

UConn would have played Stanford, but Stanford didn't want to play UConn. Don't want to hear about COVID and travel restrictions. When, or if they meet in the tournament, we'll see who wins. My money is on the Huskies.

 

[HuskylnSC]

UConn would have played Stanford, but Stanford didn't want to play UConn. Don't want to hear about COVID and travel restrictions. When, or if they meet in the tournament, we'll see who wins. My money is on the Huskies.

Are you insinuating Stanford is the Florida State of Women's Basketball????

 

[JonathanXIV]

Here I thought it was you throwing one vote to Duke for old times sake.

Honestly, there’s a few surprises to me in this poll. First, I genuinely think Florida Gulf Coast is the best team in Florida this year, but they likely won’t have much chance to prove that distinction.
Ohio State? How do they always get ranked? I expect them to underperform and be behind Iowa by the seasons end.
I’m a little miffed that Gonzaga, a top 10 team last year, drops all the way to 20 despite not losing much, I hope they knock everyone’s socks off and stun South Carolina. If they manage that and run the table, they’re my No. 1.
I’m not sure that Arkansas belongs here either. Sure, they got plenty of media hype, but they also haven’t consistently performed. It remains to be seen if Dungee and Slocum mesh, but if Kelsey Plum is on staff, good things must happen.

I can’t argue with the fact that South Carolina was the No. 1 team, but I do take umbrage with UConn getting more top votes than Stanford on an admittedly skewed board, Plenty of good bulletin board material there. I look forward to proving those voters wrong.

Umbrage? At a preseason poll which has UConn ranked behind Stanford? And exactly how are you going to prove the voters wrong?

 

[Plebe]

Here I thought it was you throwing one vote to Duke for old times sake.

Honestly, there’s a few surprises to me in this poll. First, I genuinely think Florida Gulf Coast is the best team in Florida this year, but they likely won’t have much chance to prove that distinction.
Ohio State? How do they always get ranked? I expect them to underperform and be behind Iowa by the seasons end.
I’m a little miffed that Gonzaga, a top 10 team last year, drops all the way to 20 despite not losing much, I hope they knock everyone’s socks off and stun South Carolina. If they manage that and run the table, they’re my No. 1.
I’m not sure that Arkansas belongs here either. Sure, they got plenty of media hype, but they also haven’t consistently performed. It remains to be seen if Dungee and Slocum mesh, but if Kelsey Plum is on staff, good things must happen.

I can’t argue with the fact that South Carolina was the No. 1 team, but I do take umbrage with UConn getting more top votes than Stanford on an admittedly skewed board, Plenty of good bulletin board material there. I look forward to proving those voters wrong.

Florida Gulf Coast was a strong team last season but lost their entire starting five, including the stellar guard trio of Jewett-Giles, Wingate and Ulel. They do have a few promising transfers, headlined by Kierstan Bell (is she eligible this season?), but I can see why voters didn't flock to their corner. You still may well be right about the #1 team in Florida, as Florida State lost a ton of star power to graduation and I personally wouldn't project them as top 25 either.

To be fair, Gonzaga simply didn't look anything like a top 10 team in the latter part of last season. Lost to St. Mary's and Portland and struggled significantly against some other (frankly weak) WCC teams. I do think they'll be a tough out, but it'll be a tall order against South Carolina, as well as against South Dakota in Sioux Falls, South Dakota State in Brookings, and BYU twice in conference. But maybe they can do it.

 

[j66kicker]

Are you insinuating Stanford is the Florida State of Women's Basketball????

Haha. @chrissaran = Dabo

 

[Lorcan]

UConn would have played Stanford, but Stanford didn't want to play UConn. Don't want to hear about COVID and travel restrictions. When, or if they meet in the tournament, we'll see who wins. My money is on the Huskies.

Hm. I don't think any of us can presume to understand why Tara had to end the series for a year or two. Perhaps it was due to a scheduling conflict, perhaps it was due to how Tara wanted to develop her players, perhaps it was because Tara felt like she would have better luck if she didn't reveal her strategy against UConn until the tournament and give Geno a season to prepare for what she threw at them. There's any number of valid and logical reasons. Perhaps Tara asked to re-instate the series, but UConn had already committed to playing at Cal for the next few years so there wasn't room on the schedule for UConn to fly across the country and Stanford already had locked in their East Coast swing. I think we can assume for the next two seasons we will likely see more localized play as we weather the rest of the pandemic. While I love the history involved in UConn-Stanford (Hello, Jeannette, hello Amber!), it's hard to know exactly what has prevented the series from re-starting. Tara has often stated that she doesn't like playing against her friends, which is why she often didn't play Notre Dame with Muffet. Perhaps Geno got upgraded to the friend category due to the immense respect the legends have for each other. I wouldn't be surprised to see Notre Dame come on the schedule under Ivey. While we can all make assumptions, none of us are truly the actors involved who understand the exact reason why.

@Plebe I think when I pulled up the FGCU roster, I somehow had the 2019-2020 roster up and was like, oh, good, all their studs are back. I retract any previous statements about the state of Florida. As for Gonzaga, their late season swoon was largely due to losing their best outside shooter and second leading scorer Katie Campbell due to injury in the Feb 1 game against BYU. This season will be built around a solid trio of the Wirth Sisters, Jill Townsend. The Truongs will have to step up -- and have shown that they have some firepower. I think with more consistent time, this could be a dangerous Gonzaga team.

 

[j66kicker]

Hm. I don't think any of us can presume to understand why Tara had to end the series for a year or two. Perhaps it was due to a scheduling conflict, perhaps it was due to how Tara wanted to develop her players, perhaps it was because Tara felt like she would have better luck if she didn't reveal her strategy against UConn until the tournament and give Geno a season to prepare for what she threw at them. There's any number of valid and logical reasons. Perhaps Tara asked to re-instate the series, but UConn had already committed to playing at Cal for the next few years so there wasn't room on the schedule for UConn to fly across the country and Stanford already had locked in their East Coast swing. I think we can assume for the next two seasons we will likely see more localized play as we weather the rest of the pandemic. While I love the history involved in UConn-Stanford (Hello, Jeannette, hello Amber!), it's hard to know exactly what has prevented the series from re-starting. Tara has often stated that she doesn't like playing against her friends, which is why she often didn't play Notre Dame with Muffet. Perhaps Geno got upgraded to the friend category due to the immense respect the legends have for each other. I wouldn't be surprised to see Notre Dame come on the schedule under Ivey. While we can all make assumptions, none of us are truly the actors involved who understand the exact reason why.

@Plebe I think when I pulled up the FGCU roster, I somehow had the 2019-2020 roster up and was like, oh, good, all their studs are back. I retract any previous statements about the state of Florida. As for Gonzaga, their late season swoon was largely due to losing their best outside shooter and second leading scorer Katie Campbell due to injury in the Feb 1 game against BYU. This season will be built around a solid trio of the Wirth Sisters, Jill Townsend. The Truongs will have to step up -- and have shown that they have some firepower. I think with more consistent time, this could be a dangerous Gonzaga team.

You’re over-thinking it. Let’s simplify. Is Tara one of those great “We’ll play anybody, any place, any time” coaches? Not.

 

[Lorcan]

You’re over-thinking it. Let’s simplify. Is Tara one of those great “We’ll play anybody, any place, any time” coaches? Not.

This is ridiculous. Tara consistently has one of the toughest schedules in the country. If we go by RPI, Stanford has had one of the Top 15 toughest schedules in the country in EACH of the last 10 years. UConn can't say the same, granted it's not UConn's fault they got relegated to an easy conference.

 

[j66kicker]

This is ridiculous. Tara consistently has one of the toughest schedules in the country. If we go by RPI, Stanford has had one of the Top 15 toughest schedules in the country in EACH of the last 10 years. UConn can't say the same, granted it's not UConn's fault they got relegated to an easy conference.

OK, let’s just go with her reasons for not wanting to play UCONN are very...complicated. (SMH)

 

[Centerstream]

I'm watching the replay of last weekend's Florida vs. Vanderbilt football game. The "bottom line" is showing the SEC coaches preseason WBB poll. The Gamecocks were voted 1st place but Mississippi State is 5th.
Based upon this poll, why are others picking them so much higher in not only the BY poll but in other national polls? Even the media poll had the Bulldogs in 2nd.

Gamecocks tabbed as 2021 SEC Women's Basketball champs - Southeastern Conference

South Carolina is predicted to win the 2021 Southeastern Conference women's basketball championship in a vote of the league's coaches.

www.secsports.com

Caveat: I am not agreeing with any poll, just couldn't believe what I saw.

 

[JonathanXIV]

This is ridiculous. Tara consistently has one of the toughest schedules in the country. If we go by RPI, Stanford has had one of the Top 15 toughest schedules in the country in EACH of the last 10 years. UConn can't say the same, granted it's not UConn's fault they got relegated to an easy conference.

Let's agree to at least one principle when discussing whether or not coaches seek out tough competition. That is, you eliminate all conference games from consideration. You do not get to choose to play or opt out of those games. If a conference becomes stronger or weaker, that doesn't mean that a coach is choosing to play stronger or weaker competition. If you want to compare Tara to Geno, look at their out of conference schedules. And please don't tell me that Geno seeks out tougher opponents because he's in a weak conference. He's always scheduled a tough out of conference schedule.

 

[willtalk]

We should also consider location in respect to scheduling. Except since the recent rise of the Pac 12, most of the higher ranked teams were always east of the Miss. River. So for Stanford to schedule top teams they always needed to travel across the country. Where as for the teams on the east coast it was less challenging travel wise. They only had to travel to the west coast to play Stanford to face a top ten team, where as Stanford had to travel across country far more times to get the same strength of schedule. UConn and Stanford were not in the same travel situations. Now there are many more good teams on the coast so travel to the east coast for strength of schedule is not as important.

 

[Bigboote]

I'm watching the replay of last weekend's Florida vs. Vanderbilt football game. The "bottom line" is showing the SEC coaches preseason WBB poll. The Gamecocks were voted 1st place but Mississippi State is 5th.
Based upon this poll, why are others picking them so much higher in not only the BY poll but in other national polls? Even the media poll had the Bulldogs in 2nd.

Gamecocks tabbed as 2021 SEC Women's Basketball champs - Southeastern Conference

South Carolina is predicted to win the 2021 Southeastern Conference women's basketball championship in a vote of the league's coaches.

www.secsports.com

Caveat: I am not agreeing with any poll, just couldn't believe what I saw.

The SEC is a crapshoot at this point. Mississippi State is missing Vic, which I think is the primary reason they're so low in the coaches' poll. I think Vic leaving is a big deal, but I think coaches may overvalue coaches. IIRC the coaches' poll was taken before Mitchell retired. Arkansas's position I think relies heavily on Dungee regaining her form of two years ago and Slocum being incorporated seamlessly. I'm not drinking the A&M koolaid, but then they just may be way better without Carter.

I see MSU as second or third, not first or fifth.

 

[Lorcan]

Let's agree to at least one principle when discussing whether or not coaches seek out tough competition. That is, you eliminate all conference games from consideration. You do not get to choose to play or opt out of those games. If a conference becomes stronger or weaker, that doesn't mean that a coach is choosing to play stronger or weaker competition. If you want to compare Tara to Geno, look at their out of conference schedules. And please don't tell me that Geno seeks out tougher opponents because he's in a weak conference. He's always scheduled a tough out of conference schedule.

In any logical universe why would you take away over half a teams schedule when discussing how hard it is? The conference certainly impacts how coaches schedule and how they gear up for league play. Since 2015, Tara has played at Gonzaga, Texas, George Washington (Jonquel Jones), Tennessee, Ohio State, Baylor, an explosive Buffalo with Cierra Dillard on their home floor.

Tara has consciously made an effort to aid the rise of the Pac-12 as a conference in encouraging her peers to schedule tougher contests, which has led to what is now considered THE toughest conference in the country with the logjam of excellent teams. As @willtalk pointed out, travel is also a huge factor for Stanford. Stanford has historically played a maximum of 3 games on the East Coast during the season. This makes it tough to have frequent games against the best programs since they can't do a home and home easily given the limitations of the travel they have AND trying to schedule homecoming games where possible for their team. For example, Buffalo was a homecoming game for the Canadians on Stanford's roster at the time, and George Washington was Marta Sniezek's homecoming game.

If you want to continue to sneer down your nose at a program that has consistently scheduled well just because it's not UConn-esque, fine. It's just ridiculous that you're belittling Stanford's schedule when it's typically a top 20 non-conference schedule every year. If we were talking about Maryland or Duke then we can have a field day.

 

[maccca3232]

Well in the latest ESPN article (source) on WBB, amongst other things they project their final 4, there are 4 teams selected at least 75% of the time.

2 x 100% (South Carolina-BYP#1, UConn-BYP#3)
2 x 75% (Stanford-BYP#2, Louisville-BYP#5)
2 x 25% (Arizona-BYP#7, Syracuse-BYP#21)

 

[JonathanXIV]

In any logical universe why would you take away over half a teams schedule when discussing how hard it is? The conference certainly impacts how coaches schedule and how they gear up for league play. Since 2015, Tara has played at Gonzaga, Texas, George Washington (Jonquel Jones), Tennessee, Ohio State, Baylor, an explosive Buffalo with Cierra Dillard on their home floor.

Tara has consciously made an effort to aid the rise of the Pac-12 as a conference in encouraging her peers to schedule tougher contests, which has led to what is now considered THE toughest conference in the country with the logjam of excellent teams. As @willtalk pointed out, travel is also a huge factor for Stanford. Stanford has historically played a maximum of 3 games on the East Coast during the season. This makes it tough to have frequent games against the best programs since they can't do a home and home easily given the limitations of the travel they have AND trying to schedule homecoming games where possible for their team. For example, Buffalo was a homecoming game for the Canadians on Stanford's roster at the time, and George Washington was Marta Sniezek's homecoming game.

If you want to continue to sneer down your nose at a program that has consistently scheduled well just because it's not UConn-esque, fine. It's just ridiculous that you're belittling Stanford's schedule when it's typically a top 20 non-conference schedule every year. If we were talking about Maryland or Duke then we can have a field day.

Read what I wrote. I didn't comment on Stanford's schedule. I simply noted that I find considering mandatory conference games as a poor gauge for whether or not a coach looks to schedule a tough schedule. I don't see what is so controversial about that statement. Otherwise we are talking about Washington State and how they scheduled so many tough (conference) teams. My point is simply that Geno has always looked to schedule the best teams. Now, and when he played in the toughest conference in the country.