{"id":101131,"date":"2024-10-14T17:56:22","date_gmt":"2024-10-14T21:56:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/?p=101131"},"modified":"2024-10-14T17:56:22","modified_gmt":"2024-10-14T21:56:22","slug":"national-poll-has-reigning-champion-uconn-in-the-top-five","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2024\/10\/14\/national-poll-has-reigning-champion-uconn-in-the-top-five\/","title":{"rendered":"National Poll Has Reigning Champion UConn In the Top Five"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The first of the 2024-25 college basketball <a  href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/ap-top-25-college-basketball-poll\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">national polls<\/a> has been released. There were three Big East teams ranked in the top 25 in the Associated Press preseason poll. Two-time defending national champion UConn led the way at No. 3. No. 15 Creighton and No. 18 Marquette also finished in the top 20. St. John&#8217;s finished just 11 points behind No. 25 Rutgers with Providence being the only other Big East team to receive votes in the AP poll.<\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Kansas leads the way in the preseason men&#39;s college basketball AP Poll \ud83d\udc40 <a  href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/edyg8YBL6F\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/edyg8YBL6F<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; SportsCenter (@SportsCenter) <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/SportsCenter\/status\/1845869181385753040?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">October 14, 2024<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Kansas and Alabama finished ahead of the Huskies in the first Associated Press poll of the 2024-25 season. Kansas, Alabama, and UConn received 55 of the 60 first-place votes.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Some Big East teams are playing against fellow Division I teams in open scrimmages after getting NCAA waivers. UConn is the first to <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2024\/10\/13\/uconn-exhibition-could-see-new-faces-emerge\/\" target=\"_self\">hit the court<\/a> with a game against Rhode Island on Monday. The regular season begins with eight Big East teams in action on Nov. 4.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>National Poll Has Reigning Champion UConn In the Top Five<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">When the 2023-24 national polls came out, UConn was not the preseason favorite even after winning the national title. <\/span>Kansas received 69 out of 95 combined first-place votes to <a  href=\"https:\/\/kuathletics.com\/news\/2023\/10\/16\/kansas-no-1-in-the-2023-24-preseason-associated-press-poll\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">finish atop<\/a> both the Associated Press and <a  href=\"https:\/\/www.sportingnews.com\/us\/ncaa-basketball\/news\/college-basketball-polls-rankings-ncaa-2023-24-season-top-25\/e43b6cef93747a52081ecae4\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Coaches Top 25 polls<\/a>.\u00a0UConn was fifth in the Coaches poll and sixth in the AP poll. It wasn&#8217;t until Week 11 that UConn moved into the top spot in both national polls. However, it was a much different story at the end of the season. UConn was the top-ranked team after <a  href=\"https:\/\/www.ncaa.com\/live-updates\/basketball-men\/d1\/uconn-tops-purdue-2024-national-title-repeats-champions\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">winning another national title.<\/a><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><a  href=\"https:\/\/www.sports-reference.com\/cbb\/players\/alex-karaban-1.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Alex Karaban<\/a> is the only returning starter for UConn. The Huskies do return four players who averaged at least 10 minutes per game a season ago.<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><strong>Will The Blue Jays Soar In the 2024-25 Season?<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Even though Creighton saw its top two scorers (<a  href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/s\/scheiba01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Baylor Scheierman<\/a> and<a  href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/a\/alexatr01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"> Trey Alexander<\/a>) head off to the NBA, the Blue Jays were picked at No. 15 in the AP poll. <\/span>Creighton finished the 2023-24 season at No. 10 in the Coaches poll and came in 13th in the AP poll. <a  href=\"https:\/\/www.sports-reference.com\/cbb\/players\/ryan-kalkbrenner-1.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Ryan Kalkbrenner<\/a> leads the list of returnees for a Creighton team that is coming off a 25-10 season. He could help Creighton move up early in the season in the national poll.<\/p>\n<h3><strong>Marquette Has Some Work to Do<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Marquette came in at No. 5 in the 2023-24 AP preseason poll, one position ahead of UConn to be the top Big East team in that poll. In a vote by the coaches, the Golden Eagles were seventh. <\/span>Marquette finished at No. 11 in both national polls after going 27-10 and <a  href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/mens-college-basketball\/game\/_\/gameId\/401638637\/nc-state-marquette\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">falling to North Carolina State<\/a> in the NCAA Tournament Sweet 16. It is a different scenario heading into the upcoming season.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Marquette saw point guard <a  href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/k\/kolekty01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Tyler Kolek<\/a> and forward <a  href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/i\/ighodos01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Oso Ighodaro<\/a> selected in the second round of the 2024 NBA Draft. Leading scorer <a  href=\"https:\/\/www.sports-reference.com\/cbb\/players\/kam-jones-1.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Kam Jones<\/a> is back to lead the Golden Eagles. That led to Marquette beginning this season at No. 18. The Golden Eagles <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2024\/09\/12\/breaking-down-the-top-10-big-east-mens-basketball-matchups\/\" target=\"_self\">open the season<\/a> on Nov. 4 against Stony Brook.<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><strong>A Tough Break For Xavier<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Xavier was coming off a 16-18 season so debuting in the top 25 in the preseason national poll might have been asking a bit much. The voting was done before some huge injury news came out. <\/span>Xavier suffered a huge loss when senior center <a  href=\"https:\/\/www.sports-reference.com\/cbb\/players\/lassina-traore-1.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Lassina Traore<\/a> suffered a season-ending injury. That will leave the Musketeers without a key big man and one of the top-rated incoming transfers in the Big East.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Traore averaged a double-double in each of the last two seasons at Long Beach State. He was expected to play a key role for the Musketeers this season. <\/span>Xavier coach <a  href=\"https:\/\/www.sports-reference.com\/cbb\/coaches\/sean-miller-1.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Sean Miller<\/a> announced the news on social media on Monday as Traore suffered the injury in practice last week.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Last Wednesday, Lassina Traore suffered a season ending knee injury in our practice. <\/p>\n<p>Lassina was a starter on this year\u2019s team. He had a great summer and preseason, where he improved his game as much as any player in our program. He emerged to be our team\u2019s best rebounder, low\u2026<\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Sean Miller (@CoachMiller__) <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/CoachMiller__\/status\/1845835836610257002?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">October 14, 2024<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Musketeers do have 6-foot-11 <a  href=\"https:\/\/www.sports-reference.com\/cbb\/players\/john-hugley-1.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">John Hugley IV<\/a> and 6-foot-9 <a  href=\"https:\/\/www.sports-reference.com\/cbb\/players\/zach-freemantle-1.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Zach Freemantle<\/a> returning as top frontcourt options. Traore would have provided a defensive anchor that would have made life easier for Freemantle, one of the top returning players in the Big East.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The first of the 2024-25 college basketball national polls has been released. There were three Big East teams ranked in the top 25 in the Associated Press preseason poll. Two-time defending national champion UConn led the way at No. 3. No. 15 Creighton and No. 18 Marquette also finished in the top 20. St. John&#8217;s [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5287,"featured_media":101181,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[773,1608],"tags":[4447,2960,1451,1744],"class_list":["post-101131","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-college-basketball","category-basketball","tag-big-east-basketball","tag-creighton-bluejays","tag-marquette-golden-eagles","tag-uconn-huskies"],"modified_by":"Kenny Kluska","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101131","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5287"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=101131"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101131\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/101181"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=101131"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=101131"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=101131"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}