Welcome back to Check the Net Impact eighty nine FM's men's and women's college basketball podcast. I'm your host, Colin Pearson, and I am joined today by my exhausted soul, as well as my podcast partners, Josh, Eli, Porter, and Kylie. How's everyone doing?

Good to know where you like us less than your soul.

Yeah. Oh

my. I'm exhausted with you,

Kyle. Don't worry. Some of us some of us are aging this week. Hold on.

Midterm week, man.

Birthday Josh

and Kylie week, everybody.

Let's go.

Josh is already old. Kylie gets old in like four hours.

I've been old.

I've been old. Was number 20 for me, and I'm already tired.

That's so ridiculous. I turned 22.

Already I've already exhausted.

Tomorrow a k a Thursday.

What are will you say that louder for the crowd?

No. No.

Say it. Unc.

I'm gonna start crying. Crying right now.

Alright. Let's jump into our women's basketball rankings. This episode, we are going to go through our top 25 preseason for women's and men's. We've got individual top fives for each of us. We've got we're gonna compare to the AP top 25, and then we'll give you a little preview of some preseason games at the end.

But without further ado, Kylie, why don't you kick us off with your top five?

Wait, guys. We can't start yet. I'm still reserving Kylie her room in the nursing home. Oh, sorry.

I'm gonna need it. Listen, my knees are have already they've they've they're gone. They're long gone.

Well, those have been gone.

That's what I'm saying. Like, my back, uh-uh.

The knees, the heart, the back.

Yeah. The the whole thing. Like, I'm just I'm a mess. I need to I need to to go home and nap. But instead, I'm here and I did my homework and I'm now I'm doing a top five because I'm a great.

So I have, they don't believe me. They don't they don't believe in me.

For our listeners, it has been a long week, if you can't tell already.

Which is

why Kylie wants to take

a nap at 8PM. Only Wednesday,

and it's already been a long week.

Yeah. My day is very, very, very busy.

Fall break cannot

So come soon true. Okay. So my number one overall, I have UCLA, and then number two, South Carolina. I know those of you out there are probably shocked I don't have South Carolina at one. But as much as I am a fan, I'm a realist as well.

I have UConn at three, I have Duke at four, and then I have LSU at five. Because I know ball.

Fair enough. Josh I'll let you go next.

I'm almost in agreement with Kylie, especially for the top three. I have UCLA at one. I think Lauren Betts is gonna have a dominant senior year. University of South Carolina, can't bet against Don Staley, three. UConn, Gino, he's gonna he's gonna roll with his squad as always.

I have Texas at four, and then I have the Duke Blue Devils at number five, who I absolutely love last season for the defense they played.

Mhmm. I will say though, what I forgot about, which it doesn't change our ranking anyway, but South Carolina, Chloe Kitts just tore her ACL. A big contributor and a big player on their team now out for her senior season, which is very sad.

Yeah. Yeah.

Not changing my ranking though.

On that note, it did change my ranking. I dropped South Carolina to three. So I have Yukon at one, which actually, believe it or not, agrees with the AP poll. I don't do that very often. But I really like the look of Yukon this year.

I've used

AP poll.

I had South Carolina at two, but I dropped them to three. I have UCLA at two, Texas at four, with Josh, and then I brought in Oklahoma at five. Oklahoma looks pretty strong. It's about

Raymond time that Beard still there?

That's a great question. That is a phenomenal question.

You just picked them based on vibes. Yeah.

Completely I based on

with Kylie and Josh. My top three is UCLA, South Carolina, Yukon, and also was that before because I believe in myself. Number four, I have LSU because I really like what I saw from them in the portal in the off season. And I just really think they've got something going there, and I think they're gonna be very, very good in the SEC this season. And then I've got Duke in at number five because I also really like how the Blue Devils play basketball.

Real.

Yeah.

I have USC at one or University of South Carolina at one because I am a fan and not a realist. I got UCLA at two, UConn at three, then the Texas team at four, and then Duke rounds out my top five.

When Dawn's daily comes for us, all Porter will be spared. Yeah.

I should be spared. I've been defending her for I've been I've been on her team for four years.

Yeah. If there's anyone that shouldn't be spared, it's probably me. That's Yeah.

And you wouldn't be.

And I wouldn't be. No. For reference, Reagan Beers is still on Oklahoma.

Okay. Now I can now, you know, less crazy.

And for reference, you picked Texas to win the SEC last year.

That I did. That I did. Mhmm. Alright. Should we hop into our top 25?

We should because it's better and more correct than the Associated Press.

So true. I I would a 100% agree with that. Let's just go I'll run through the AP top 25 or top five at the moment. So the AP's got Yukon, South Carolina, UCLA, Texas, LSU. So really not that far off of us.

Oklahoma, Duke are six and seven, which again, we kinda just mix those up. It's pretty close within the top like seven. And in our top seven, we didn't really switch up which teams were there. Going off of our top fives, we obviously kinda agreed. UCLA, South Carolina, Yukon at one two three.

Texas, Duke, LSU, and Oklahoma at four through seven. We all mixed it up in different orders there personally,

I don't

believe in Texas

as much as the rest of you do.

I also do not believe in Texas at all.

Yeah. So coming together, we brought that all together in that top seven. After that is where it gets really really interesting. And I'll give you the next three and we can talk for a very short bit about these, because I think they're they're the same on the AP and top 25 as ours. We switched up the order a little bit.

AP's got Tennessee, NC State, and Maryland at eight, nine, and 10. We've got NC State, Maryland, and Tennessee at eight, nine, and 10. And so who wants to jump in and talk a little bit about these?

Yeah. Me. I I genuinely think that NC State's strength of schedule carries them a long way. And I also think that I know they have a lot of new contributors, new players. It's a very new team, but this is a consistently like, this coach has been here building this program for a while.

So I think that he's he's gonna pick up players that are gonna be strong, and I think their strength of schedule is gonna prepare them even more for in conference play. And I can see them competing for the top of the conference again. So I and I and personally, I think they're a 100% more impressive than Tennessee. I the same I say the same for Maryland. I think they're both just, in general, more impressive than Tennessee.

I was very impressed with Tennessee's recruiting class. Mhmm. But as I've talked about on the podcast before when we were doing conference picks, I'm a little worried about a team that's a little too reliant on a like, again, a high quality freshman, but a lot of high quality freshman. You just never know. No plan survives contact with the enemy, you know?

Mhmm.

And if you put, like, three freshmen out there, and they come up against, like, a senior guard who's been playing SEC basketball for, like, five years, it's a toss-up.

Yeah. Yeah. I really like the look of Maryland as well. They were pretty strong in the Big Ten last year, and they've got all the pieces to continue that.

Yeah.

Not really missing a whole lot. So jumping down beyond that top 10, we have Notre Dame, Ole Miss, North Carolina, TCU, and Baylor in 11 through 15. This is really where we start to stray a little bit from the AP. AP is sitting here with North Carolina, Ole Miss, Michigan, Iowa State, and Notre Dame. We brought TCU up quite a bit there.

We dropped Notre Dame quite a bit there. No. In fact

We dropped North Carolina. Sorry.

We we bumped up Notre Dame quite a bit. We dropped North Carolina two spots. Yeah.

We dropped Michigan and Iowa State.

Dropped Michigan and Iowa State A lot. Quite a bit. In fact, we dropped Iowa State down to 22, not to give it away, but we dropped them quite a bit because there's just some things about those teams that we don't have confidence in as a as a podcast.

Iowa State's really trusting, like, they're returning. We're sophomores, now juniors to really lead this team. But that team was an 11 seed in the first four last year.

Mhmm.

Exactly. I do not have confidence that they are a top 25 team in contention for the big 12 title. I just don't think they're there yet.

They lost to UNI last year, wasn't it?

Yeah. Certainly not above TCU or Baylor for that matter. No. Yeah. Yeah.

That's a team that we dropped quite a bit. Michigan shows a little bit more signs of life compared to Iowa State They've got a last year.

They've got

a good

they had a good group of freshmen last year that were very clearly talented. They all, I believe, remained on the team, and they all are a year older with more experience. So I can like, I still think that the AP ranking them at 13 is way too high, but I still think that they're a top 20 team.

Simply because they're unproven. And so when we go with that, we drop Michigan to 17. I'll just go through kind of the next five, in fact. We've got USC at 16. Juju Watkins obviously out for the season or at least most of it.

That really is gonna be tough for that team, so dropping them to 16. Michigan at 17, Louisville at 18, Vanderbilt at 19, and then Iowa at 20, above Iowa State, above some of those other schools. Yeah. Compared to the, the AP, a lot of those teams remain in around the same spot. We moved a few teams up.

We moved a few teams back down. We swapped the positions of Vanderbilt and Louisville pretty much. No no particular reason for that other than we think Louisville is would probably be bandy in a head to head, just looking at rosters and coaching.

I mean, the big story that you kind of skipped over is that we moved Notre Dame up four spots from 15 to 11.

Yes.

Because out of all of the teams we discussed, we really believe in them the most. And I think behind Duke and NC State, they showed, obviously, tons of talent, tons of promise last year in the ACC. And despite losing some pretty big name contributors, I think they're still gonna be right up there, maybe half a step behind. And I think we really wanted to respect that, especially with the strength they've they showed against non conference opponents last year that weren't in the big 12.

Yeah. I mean, we have five ACC teams in the top 20 of our of our poll.

Right.

So Mhmm.

Yeah. Five in the top 25. Not to give anything away, but yes. Definitely a strong conference. Just jumping down to the rest of our top 25.

We had Michigan State at 21. I think that's a team we all have a lot of hope in. We didn't really wanna move them around too much from where they were because we're all biased, But we do have a lot of faith in this team. And Robin Fralick has pulled together not only a really great roster, but a great coaching staff back there. And so we're all excited to watch Michigan State basketball as per usual.

And some of us are excited to call Michigan State basketball.

Yeah. That'll be fun. Next Wednesday, we're gonna be on the call for the exhibition game, which we're gonna talk about a little later. But, no, this team's gonna be a lot of fun. Media day was, I believe, last week.

Grace Van Slooten, Darren Hallock were there. I think those are gonna be two huge contributors for this team moving forward. Bring in some good transfers. Jaylen Brown from Arizona State. That'll be fun.

Watch her. I think Emma Schumay is somebody that I'm looking forward to seeing her step up. Mean, she came over from Ohio State, transferred in. I think she's gonna be a huge contributor. And then I think Anessa Tullow, in her sophomore season, I think she's gonna be really crucial because I love the fact that she was kind of that trailer.

She could knock down that three ball. I think she's super impressive.

She got a lot of great playing time last season Yes. Where it gave her that experience where now that she's able to

And part of the reason why she contribute. Part of the reason why she got playing time, I hope I'd I'm gonna learn your first name before the season starts, but I don't wanna butcher it now. I wanna say it's Islane Alexander. Maybe I butchered that first name. But she's returning from injury.

Before she got injured, she missed the last two seasons with injury. But when she was healthy, she played in all 30 games. She started 19 of them. She averaged around six and a half points per game. So maybe that's another contributing piece that can help this team elevate to the next level.

So it should be fun here in East Lansing this season, and you'll be listening to me all season long on the call for at least home games and then maybe some road games.

Absolutely. Yes. So excited.

I I and I think we are blessed to have another year of Theron Halleck. Oh. And thank goodness.

Absolutely.

Thank goodness for Theron Halleck basketball.

Thanks.

Yeah. Rest of our top 25, we had Iowa State at 22, and then we get into our mid majors. We've got

three Who mid love.

Think who

deserve more respect than they were getting. We have Richmond at 23. They were put at 25 in the AP poll. Very excited that they were ranked Yes.

Shout outs

to the deserve to

be. Mhmm.

We've got Princeton at 24. Again, very much deserving of ranking. They were receiving some votes. And then South Dakota State at 25 receiving just three votes in the AP, but we think they deserve to be at that 25 spot. If not a little bit higher depending on how they prove themselves later in the season.

Mhmm. All three of these teams, we've talked about in our conference previews, but they are just so so put together and so talented that we think they deserve that top 25 spot preseason.

I wanna spend a little bit of time on SDSU's non conference schedule. They play Creighton, Columbia, North Carolina, K State, Duke, and Texas.

They have plenty of chances to prove themselves.

Yeah. Yeah. Also, UNI. Also, UNI. Yeah.

But they have a lot of good games, so I I think they should probably roll through the Summit League. And, you know, they got a good chance to be end of free sea end of regular season ranked going to the Summit League tournament.

Heck, end of 2025 ranked with that kind of a schedule.

They could be ranked by winter break. Yeah.

If they go out and beat Texas and If North Carolina they go out If they can beat Texas or North If Carolina

they go beat some good teams

Beat Crane, Columbia, you know, maybe Kansas State, lose to UNI. Yeah.

No. No. No.

I don't

think UNI they could be hosts Iowa at the McLeod this year.

Very exciting.

So go Panthers. If we can pull it off last year, we can pull it off this year.

Yeah. No. For sure. Real quick, let's also talk about who we who we knocked out of the top 25.

Yeah. Kylie, jump right in

with Yeah. We Oklahoma State was ranked 22, and Kentucky was ranked 24 in the AP. And we said, absolutely not. I'm I

don't think I said that.

No. I said that. Especially with Kentucky, Georgia O'More graduated. I cannot name a single other player on Kentucky's team. And I know they just picked up a really really, like, strong recruit.

I've like, really great recruit. However, she still got another year of high school left.

Yeah.

So I I don't know. I think this is gonna be a bit of a rebuild year for them. They're not mean, they're gonna be a bad team, obviously, but I don't think

Preseason ranked is a little

too high. Little nuts. They almost got upset in March

in I first round. I don't think they'll be competing in the SEC as much as they were No. Even sort of doing last year.

Most certainly not. Oklahoma State, the other team we dropped out, pretty similar Yeah. Situation where they were Mhmm. They were good last year, and so I think they're kinda getting in off name alone. They beat Fairfield last year?

Yeah. Yeah.

So, go cowgirls, I guess.

Yeah. Lokia vibes move, not gonna lie.

But our our other honorable mentions just outside the top 25 kind of hovering in that nebulous zone of you impressed us last year, but you we need to see more. We've got Minnesota who won the WBIT last year Yep. After having to play two home games they earned on the road because of a facilities conflict and still making it all the way through the tournament. We've also got Columbia, who we really think is gonna be a contender in the Ivy. If you wanna know why, you should listen to the last episode.

We've got West Virginia, James Madison, and Fairfield as well.

Yeah. And Fairfield, the issue with them is that they need to prove themselves to get into this top 25 simply because we haven't seen them play anyone. Obviously, haven't seen anyone play anyone. Right? But Fairfield's schedule is not looking that impressive.

I mean, they have North Carolina.

They have North Carolina, and we're gonna need we're gonna need to see something big out of them. We have a lot of faith in that team as well.

They're here because we love them and we know what they're capable of.

Yes. But we're not quite ready to rank them yet, like we did last year, where we stuck them at 25 right

away. Did. They earned it. They earned They earned

Let's hop over to the men's side. And let's start with Josh on the top five.

So as much as this pains me to say, number one is easily Purdue. Barf.

Bring back you bring

bring back that many players. You bring you bring in the big man from South Dakota State. They are number one. Number two, I have Houston. I just think that you always get a a consistent product out of them, and they'll be right around that top five range all season long.

Regardless if they have a loss, they'll bounce back like they always do. Number three, I have Florida because I think Florida I think floor I I genuinely believe Florida is gonna be back in that mix for the final four of season. I think they have a chance to go back to back unlike many people can ever do. Duke, because John Shire brought in an incredible recruiting class, unlike the women's college basketball where freshmen aren't necessarily the key to a championship team. The exact opposite of men's college basketball brought an incredible recruiting class.

John Shire is gonna do it. Speaking of great recruiting class, BYU, I think this is definitely a make it or break it year. Like I've always said, for their program, if they can go off the back of having this great recruiting class and you go do well, I think BYU can launch themselves into consistently being in the NCAA tournament, winning things, stuff like that. If you don't, it might it won't be fun to be a BYU Cougar fan when it comes to men's basketball. But, yeah, that's my top five.

But they've gotta get past Houston and Texas Tech.

Big twelve is a tough conference. Let's jump over to Porter.

I have Houston at one.

Because you're way better than us.

I really like this Houston team. I think the only game they probably won't be favored in this season's at BYU. But Yeah. I think they'll probably be favored at every other game. They play, like, a couple SEC teams, but they're better than Auburn and Arkansas.

So not that big a deal.

Especially in Auburn without Bruce par Pearl.

Yeah. I I really like this Houston team. And then Purdue's next, because they're turning four of your top five scores and myriad of reasons. Florida at three, they just won the national championship. I think they look super solid again this year.

And then Duke and BYO.

Yeah. Fair enough. I've got a very similar one. I've got Houston one. I've got Purdue two.

Exact same reasoning. I think Houston, you know, looking at the big 12 schedule ahead versus Purdue looking at the big 10 schedule ahead. I think Houston's got a little bit of a better look there. I've got Duke at three, I've got BYU at four, and then I've got Florida at five. But same teams, just different order.

Yeah. And and just like, you know, and I'm just gonna note that I made my top five first because Collins is way too similar to mine. I have Purdue at one unfortunately. It's just gross. But I and then I have Houston at two, which I do really like Houston's coach, so I actually do hope they they prove me wrong.

And then I I've got Duke BYU Florida. I I just think Florida Walter Clayton junior played such a pivotal role in that team I think losing him is gonna hurt hurt enough to drop them a couple stop spots like still top five But it's gonna be a different look, and then you already know how I feel about BYU, so

Yeah. Look.

Eli, what you got?

A lot of the off season buzz in the transfer portal was about Xavien Lee from Princeton, and he transferred to Florida. Mhmm. So that's why I've got them in at three. I agree with Porter and Josh. My right after Purdue and Houston for all the reasons we've mentioned before.

And then I've got Michigan at four, which I know is an unpopular pick in this basement and on this campus. But as we know, the Akron gambit scares me and they're kind of doing.

Well, it's But it's only the Akron Gambit because it's a mid it's a mid main It's

a

max getting all power conference people. The only person off of Michigan paper wise that I'm, like, actually impressed with is Yaxle I think his name?

Yeah, who counts as a power conference transfer because it's Yaxle I

was gonna say the one that scares me the most is Morris Johnson from Illinois. I remember what he did I remember what he did on our campus, and

And we won.

He's he's he's impressive.

But we

won. Very He's very impressive. I know he spent the summer playing with The USA, I believe, u nine teens. Yeah. He's he's gonna be a product for them.

And as much as it pains me to say Purdue this is Purdue at Michigan's conference to lose, realistically.

Yeah. I think Yaxle, he's he's phenomenal. Dusty May is gonna be drawing up plays, getting him the ball. Yeah. His stats alone will be significant.

I just don't know besides I just don't know what else what else they've got around those guys. Because looking at the rest of the roster besides those, like, four transfers they brought in, I was like

Yeah. They're gonna have a

depth

stun.

Yeah. That's that's my big thing about them. Because if it because if, you know, forbid anyone ever get, like, gets injured, this becomes a big issue.

And just look what happened to BYU in March Madness last year. Yep. They had a super top heavy lineup. Couple people get injured. Mhmm.

Whole shift goes down. Yeah.

Hey, Eli. You gonna throw us another curveball at your five?

Nope. It's BYU.

Yeah. Yeah. Eli knows ball except for that Michigan take.

Okay. I was say,

hey, they lost they lost fat fat Brooks. I mean, how could you rank them top Yeah.

I'm gonna throw at you. Compared to the AP top 25 which has Purdue, Houston, Florida at one two three, we all kind of agree there. We have two notable omissions that the AP included at four and five including the four team receiving two number one overall votes. Those two are Yukon and St. John's.

Can we talk about those for a brief moment?

I think those St. John's did unbelievable things last season under Rick Patino.

In the regular season.

In the regular season.

In the regular season. Shouldn't thank you, Kylie and Eli. That should be pointed out. They did great things in the regular season winning the Big East. Yukon did not have the season that they were expecting.

My personal take on this is it's more so the name of the coaches that are putting up them up this high. I think Dan Hurley and Rick Pettino are the reason why they're ranked this high in the preseason, but that's not how basketball is played. I mean, we're not seeing Rick Pettino and Dan Hurley going one on one on the court.

And I

wish we were. That'd be awesome.

And watching Rick Pettino backing down Dan Hurley for a fade away, but that's not how that works. There's still five guys on the floor for each side. So I think this is purely because of the names of their the coaches for the schools.

Can they do that at MSG?

That would be unbelievable. I wanna see a Rick Pitino versus Dan Hurley one on one and, like, 18,000 people in MSG. That is what I'll pay my money to watch.

That's beautiful. We really wanna put this together, let's do a five on five, all of the Big East coaches against each other.

That would be great. Look. You have to have the Patino you have to have the father and the son go against each other.

Oh, I want them together. No. I want them They're going against each other. I want

Patino on Patino, and I want one of them to hit a three in the other's face, and then just to celebrate on them. That's what I

Greg McDermott, Dan Hurley, Creighton. Yeah.

And you know who's winning that? Ain't Dan Hurley.

Look, with all due disrespect

So true.

It's the Big East.

Woah.

Outside of these two teams' non conference schedules, they are not gonna have a ton of opportunity to polish and iron sharpens iron and getting better except for really against each other and against Creighton. Yeah. So I'm sorry.

Don't you diss my team.

I think that they these are two good teams. I do not think they are top five teams.

They are top 25 teams.

They are top 25.

Top 25.

And not to spoil it, but we made sure they're they're still in the top 25.

Yukon okay. Saint John's non conference, it's you know, they got a couple games, whatever. Yukon does play a pretty good non conference. Right.

Past December. Yeah.

But they also gotta prove it. They were not as great.

Were not very

good last season.

In Maui. They lost every single game.

They lost Colorado.

I was gonna say. Not playing another tournament.

Well, yeah, because Dan Hurley whined because they lost.

Look, if we if we take this on its face, the Associated Press thinks Yukon is making the final four, and I simply cannot agree with it.

No. I need to see it before we say that.

UConn is not a one seed.

No. No.

And so And so that's not

the net would not be another option for a one seed and not the highest two seed. Absolutely not.

Not at all. With that said, our top five, Purdue, Houston, Florida, Duke, BYU, as expected.

Which makes

Josh most right,

I guess. Yeah.

Number six,

Michigan. As as we kind of

I think Michigan has six is fair.

Yeah. I

know you

have expectations

and then I think they'll flop, but I have high expectations. Yeah.

And then I'm just gonna run through 10 right now. Seven, we've got Kentucky, you know, Pope.

Mark Pope. That's all you guys.

They're gonna a good They're gonna be a good team. Yeah.

They always are.

I picked them to win the SEC.

Eight, Texas Tech, they look competitive. I'm last year. They'll be a two seed

this year. Telling you that team is gonna be scary compare competing against BYU in Houston. I would not be shocked if Texas Tech steals the crown from Houston, in my opinion. I wouldn't be surprised either. I think that's how good they are, and I think they can finally make a run-in March Madness.

But I know they made a run last season, but like beyond what they did.

I mean, we have four really good big 12 teams. Yeah.

Yeah. Mhmm.

Yeah. Absolutely. Now the rest of the big 12.

And then nine and ten, we've got Saint John's at nine, Louisville at ten. Again, Saint John's still looks like a very good team. It's still Rick Pettino coaching. Right? We just don't think they've proven anything worthwhile

Not after us last

season No. Mm-mm. Louisville, on the other hand, we did

Collins, darlings.

Move up a spot. Louisville looks, once again, quite good. They look like they are back in a spot where they could take home an ACC championship with like one or two upsets over Duke, and like North Carolina, NC State, whoever else. Right.

If if Louisville's an upset versus North Carolina they're probably not winning.

Okay that's That's what I bad example. So that's our top 10. AP has in six through 10 Duke, Michigan, BYU, Kentucky, Texas Tech as expected. AP has Louisville at eleven. We just bumped them up one spot.

We've got UConn at eleven. That's where we dropped them too. We already talked about UConn a little bit.

And we talked about why we are kind of pretty high on BYU, or at least

Mhmm.

Yeah. We kind of all are.

Yeah. Yeah.

We

are. They're they have a great mix of transfers that are very very strong and a good incoming freshman class. We're very good.

Five to ten minutes talking about it in a previous episode of Check the Net, which

you should go listen to.

Yeah. That NIL at BYU is crazy. I

did all that research.

It's impressive. Yeah. Jumping into kinda 12 through 15, we have a lot of in fact, we have the exact same four teams

as the

flipped it almost

perfectly on its head.

Pretty much. So AP has Yes. UCLA at 12, Arizona at 13, Arkansas at 14, Alabama at 15, and we flipped that. We have Arkansas at 12, Alabama at 13, Arizona at fourteen, UCLA at 15. We're just not quite as impressed by Arizona or UCLA.

I think our general consensus was that they have the reputation and that's why they're getting up there.

I do think Arizona's a good team

Yes. Like,

you know, I think Alabama and Arkansas are better.

I am worried about Alabama. I I think they I think I don't I don't see this sticking. I think they're falling. I I think they're falling.

I can agree with that. I do think that they might fall a little bit. Mhmm. Although, I they just play so fast.

Like, they're

gonna be the number one pace in the Yeah. Country again.

Oh, yeah.

And they're just gonna push the court. And I think that that wins you a lot of games pre March.

Yeah. Oh, yeah.

Pre conference tournament, pre, you know, March Madness. Think that wins you a lot of games just Yeah. Going fast. Teams are getting a little banged up and just being able to have that advantage.

And, I mean, UCLA's coaching staff talked about how hard it is to travel in a Big Ten schedule

How from Los many games like, what was their how many games did they win not on the West Coast?

Very, very few.

Not on Big Ten play.

I will get you that

Less than they I

will get you that stat in like, give me like two minutes.

Viewers. But UCLA, once again, does not play a road game in their non conference schedule.

Which is not preparing them well.

They play three neutral four neutral site games. No, just three. And they're in San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Seattle, so they're staying on the West Coast. So they're also not preparing themselves for travel.

Mm-mm. Yeah. And they're gonna complain And you already know. Mark my words. They're gonna complain about travel again this year.

Yep.

Don't join a conference where most of the team where almost all of the teams are not on the West Coast.

Or if you do, at least prepare yourself.

Yes. Play some.

Preseason Yes.

With regular season, you know, early season games, go out to Rockhurst.

Play an exhibition in Texas. Play a neutral site game in New York. Yeah. You need to get into the rhythm of how you travel as a team and how you prepare for time zones, so that you're ready to do that every ten days in conference play.

Mhmm. Exactly.

Because if you're not settled and you're not comfortable in that rhythm, if the very first time you're booking a cross country flight is to go play, like, Maryland in January, you're not gonna be ready.

No. Absolutely not.

They won two on the road outside of the West Coast time zone. They lost six. Yeah.

There it is.

Outside of it. Every other game was roughly either Seattle, Oregon, LA, Nevada, Arizona, like, in that rough area. But every other game, like I said, they went two and six.

And the two teams they beat were Northwestern and Indiana. Exactly. And

There you go.

I mean, you can add a seventh loss to it if you wanna take Wisconsin in the Big Ten tournament.

Yeah. I mean, you could go there. I was just keeping it to the regular season when I was looking, to be honest.

So that that's why we dropped GCL Live.

Like, like in We theory

don't think they'll be prepared.

I In theory, I could just We we all probably could have justified dropping them lower, but they're they're up too high in the AP that it's like, it's kinda hard. Yeah. If not,

but Well, I mean, the other thing though is that, like, once we get lower, some of these teams are just kinda all

Mhmm.

About the same average level.

Yeah. A lot of parity here.

Speaking of which, I'm gonna jump from, you know, I'll do 16 through 22 because Yeah. Frankly those are all pretty much the same in a different order from the AP. We've got Iowa State which agrees with the AP at sixteen.

Wow.

We have Tennessee at seventeen. We have Auburn at eighteen. We have Illinois at 19. Creighton at 20. Gonzaga at 21.

And your Michigan State Spartans sticking right with the AP poll at 22. AP's got Iowa State at 16, Illinois 17, Tennessee at 18, Kansas at 19, Auburn 20, Gonzaga 21, and then MSU 22 obviously. Look,

We dropped Kansas out of the poll.

Yeah. We did.

Womp

womp. Because we know ball. And that's why we did it.

Because we know that they got in strictly off a name.

Yeah. That's the problem with the AP poll is they it's really just the popularity contest.

And you know, sometimes we benefit from that.

Maybe MSU did a

little And sometimes we benefit from that, but I mean, some of it's just absurdity with Yeah. With some with how some of these teams actually look.

I I don't know about you guys, but one one team I really wanna highlight is Illinois. We did drop them from 17 to 19. And I know I was kinda leading the charge on this when we were talking pre show was, I love the recruiting class they brought in. Don't get me wrong. Very impressive.

Very impressive.

However, a lot of foreigners,

and it's A lot of different languages on that team.

And a lot of

itches for last names. So we can't I'm not even gonna try and pronounce it. I feel bad for our men's basketball beat that are gonna have to try and pronounce those names. But I just think it's I wanna see how it does. I just wanna see it because that's a lot of that's a big gamble to take.

It's a whole new type of gambit that we have yet to see. We've talked about a lot of gamblers.

You guys might be talking about the Illinois gambit next year Yeah. If they pull this off. Yeah?

Yeah. Coin it. Coin copyright right now.

Illinois Yeah. It's it's very hit or miss. And so we dropped him a few spots because of that. We bumped Auburn up two spots. They they're sitting at 20 in the AP.

We have him at 18.

Isn't Todd Pettyford coming back?

Yes, they have a lot of talent returning

so I mean

they're just losing Bruce Pearl But it's being the program is being taken over by his son

also Chad bigger Mazzara and and I've room

yeah cares about jabber Mazzara he should be

Out of out of playing college basketball.

Should be working at, like, State Farm by now.

Yeah. But For real?

I mean, also Auburn plays a they play a good non conference schedule. Although, we'll know if they're good early.

Yes. So we did bump them up two spots because we think the AP poll kind of just dropped them a little bit extra.

Know who else up? Know who else we bumped up? We bumped up Crayton three spots.

Yeah, we did.

Because because we know ball.

We know ball. Because Crayton, I mean, again, talked about this on a previous episode. Go check it out. Prayton looks great. I really do I really think they look great.

I think that I mean, I I could have easily fought way harder for them to be higher, but I wasn't going to.

They they look quite good, especially when you compare them to the rest of the Big East. Yes. And so that kind of propels us to put them a little bit higher in that top 25, just based on that conference

Mhmm.

Comparisons. But also, yeah, they play a really great non conference and they have a lot of really great players.

You know? Like the Iowa roommates.

Like the Iowa roommates. They've got

good transfers, they've got good

And if you don't know who those people are, go listen to the previous episode.

Check it out. So we talked about that. Creighton, we put at 20. AP had him at 23. And let me just round it out quick.

We had at twenty three, twenty four, and twenty five. NC State, San Diego State, and Oregon who were all left out of the AP poll just outside of it. NC State, Will Wade, coming over from McNeese grabbed an absurd number of good transfers in addition to his already strong McNeese State team essentially all transferring over. That includes a certain transfer from Michigan State University, Trey Holloman, who will likely lead them at point guard. We miss you.

I forgot anyone. We do.

It's gonna be really sad.

Go go do good things.

Yeah. Very excited for them. San Diego State looks incredible. They are completely disrespected, and you gotta put a little respect on the Mountain West.

Best conference in basketball.

You know? And then you got Oregon.

I'm I'm shocked they got left out of this. Shocked. And you know because the AP put in Creighton at 23 Wisconsin at 24 and North Carolina at 25 ridiculous

This is like when they snuck UNC into the tournament last

yeah, I'm taking Oregon over Wisconsin and North Carolina a 100%

Like, why North Carolina's in this poll?

We know why.

Name, name.

Why were they in the tournament last year?

Name, name, name.

Yeah. You can't preseason rank a last four in. Team. I'm sorry.

No.

That's that's just wrong.

Mean, they did. Did. Did. You can say they can't, but

They they

have no evidence to support them being in this poll. And I can't I can't do it. Right. So Yeah.

Because we don't go based on name.

Yeah. And that's, you know, I'm not even gonna talk about San Diego State because that completely goes against what I just said.

But

They know ball.

But San Diego State looks a lot better than North Carolina anyways.

And we know ball.

Yeah. Yeah. Don't worry. They won't win in March. It's okay.

Yeah. They'll make it there, probably.

Oh, they'll Yeah. Be

Yeah. Mountain West will get six teams again, and then Colorado State will win, and then everybody

You know, I really hope they get six teams again.

Me too.

It'd be fun.

Wanna I run it back.

Last year in the Mountain West before it gets turned into the Pac twelve

Yep.

Mhmm. Which will also probably get, like, four bids for you for some reason.

Well, they've got Gonzaga. So naturally, they'll get At least two. Yeah.

Yeah. Probably two to three.

Rounding out our honorable mentions, we've got Kansas in there, unfortunately, but they do deserve an honorable mention. We've got Wisconsin.

We've the AP poll.

We've got VCU. We've got Boise State. Yep. We've got Kansas State. We've got Saint Mary's.

We've got McNeese State. We've got Yale, and we've got Washington.

Collin, go for it.

I I did add in Washington at the end here. They're receiving votes in the AP, and that's because they look really good. The Metrix absolutely love this team. I believe Porter said that the Metrix, in fact, have them beating us.

I believe that was Eli that said it before we came onto the show.

It But came on also, we play them in Seattle.

But anytime we talk Metrix, we all go, Porter.

Because

Yeah. Porter's got the model.

Porter's our metrics guy.

And so Washington's looking really good on the metrics, and that's because they do have a lot of talent. You know, they they are looking quite a bit better than last year, but obviously, we're not gonna rank them. I just wanted to mention them.

Yeah. I I do think they will finish with a below 500 record in conference, but that's not important.

Fair enough.

Yeah. Should be should be important to know. I think we mentioned in a previous episode, all 18 teams in the big ten make the tournament. So even if they do finish with a below 500 record, they will still play

Big can't Ten tournament. Miss the Big Ten tournament like they did last year.

So they could run the table if the if the metrics really low.

Can you tell that? None of us wanted Colin to put Washington in here.

Yeah. We were not

on board with it. I'd like to quick make a comment to Josh that it is all 18 on the men's side, but only 15 on the women's side. I do know

I do know that. That I do know. I think that's dumb, but

We don't understand. Whatever.

Whatever. Alright.

Let's We talk about the finally get to see how some of these teams actually compete. Just just a little bit.

With like publicized final scores and everything.

Yeah. We get like a hint.

Some of these like people people can go to.

Yeah. So we've got some charity and exhibition games. Who wants to start us off? We've got we've each got one women's and one men's.

I can go first.

Go for it.

So for my men's game, I picked number 22 Michigan State at number four UConn, which is happening October 28 at People's Bank Arena in Hartford, which is the bigger off campus arena that UConn men's and women's basketball use for about half of their home games. I think that'll be really fun. I would love to see what Michigan State and UConn's freshmen look like. I'd love to see them matched up against one another. And I'm just really excited to see how I'm I'm really excited to see Tom Izzo basketball against UConn basketball in an exhibition.

I agree.

Because we didn't get the chance to play them in Maui last year. Mm-mm.

They avoid us. They knew what was gonna happen.

They lost they lost on purpose. Did.

They lost yeah. They lost on purpose to to not play us.

That's I'm sure what happened. Yeah. Eli, what you got on your women's side?

Well, my honorable mention mentioned

Oh, sorry. Didn't mean to skip over that.

It's d two Upper Iowa at d one Northern Iowa on November 1 for the battle of, I guess, who gets to be higher up in Iowa. There a Lower Iowa? I don't think so.

Is there an LIU?

Lower Iowa? There's also not a Southern Iowa. Oh,

that's boring.

Or a Lower Iowa. What about a Middle Iowa? Middle Iowa. Iowa. That's

what Drake is. I was gonna say, that's just Drake.

Or Iowa State.

M I u.

Iowa Iowa State's pretty central. Yeah. I

need a middle Iowa State University like Middle Tennessee.

Real. I'll contact the board of regents.

I believe the board of regents is considering a Western adding a Western Iowa.

They are considering adding a Western Iowa.

And I want Eli to be the president of that university.

I agree.

Or at least athletic director.

I agree.

I'll do it.

Yeah. Okay.

My women's game is number nine NC State versus number 10 Maryland on October 26. And this is part of the Bad Boy Mower series of preseason men's and women's exhibitions happening across the country. This one is happening at First Horizon Coliseum in Greensboro, North Carolina, which is about an hour and a half from Raleigh. So it'll be a pretty close neutral site game for NC State fans. But two top 10 teams should be really fun.

That's awesome. Kylie, what you got?

Yes. So on the men's side, I have a real test of of some top 10 talent. We have number one Purdue traveling to number nine Kentucky for exhibition. Very exciting. And this happens on October 24.

I I think this is this is good. This is gonna give us a good, like, temperature check for the entire season, honestly. For for both these teams, for basketball in general, I think, At least men's basketball, clearly, but I I'm very excited for it. I think it'll be I think it'll be fun, and I'd maybe I'll be able to watch it or something like that. But my women's game, I'm actually even more excited about.

It is number two, South Carolina versus number 11, North Carolina.

What a rivalry.

Carolina Showdown. It's on It's being played in neither Carolina. Neither Carolina. Yep. We're neutral sighting it.

It's on October 30. It is also a part of the Bad Boy Mower series of games, and it's happening at State Farm Arena in Atlanta.

For some reason.

So we brought the Carolina showdown to To Georgia. Georgia. To Georgia.

Yeah. So I'm really excited. Okay. I think that South Carolina is gonna win. I really but I'm really excited to see what their talent's gonna look like and how well it's they're all gonna mesh together, so.

Yeah. That's a fun one. Josh, what you got?

For the men's, I have number six Duke traveling to number 18 Tennessee. Here's what just happened why Eli's got a pouty face.

Because I apparently interrupted him. Eli, do you have

something Eli, to

please say it now.

I was gonna say I'm excited to see UNC because I wanna know how much of a challenge they're gonna be against Duke and the ACC this year. But you cut me off. Sorry.

A pretty stacked ACC on the woman's side. Yeah.

Which is why I wanted to talk about it.

I'm sorry, Eli. No. Do you forgive me?

I'll think about it.

Okay. That's a no.

That is a definitely no.

But while you think about it, Josh, what you got?

For the men's, I have number six Duke traveling up to number 18 Tennessee on October 26. That'll be a fun matchup. I mean, John Shire, and I'm sure Tennessee's gonna get up for this even though it's an exhibition game. Rick Barnes teams are always super tough to play against, especially in Knoxville. So this will be fun to watch.

I believe this is on am I even allowed to say the network it's on? It's on ESPN two. So that'll be a good one to watch. And then for the women's, I have division two Michigan Tech taking on Michigan State here in East Lansing next Wednesday. I picked this one purely because we finally get basketball to come back to the Perez.

I know a lot of

people excited.

Are super excited for it, including myself. I will be on the call for Impact eighty

nine Wow.

Impact eighty nine FM on Wednesday. It'll be fun. We talked about some of the players earlier in the segment for the women's. I'm just really excited to see this team and be able to cover it all season long. So it's a good test to start off the season.

Michigan State should win, but the Huskies might give a tough challenge against this Barnes early on. Hopefully, they can blow the doors off towards the end, but this will be fun to watch.

I give him one quarter.

One quarter? I give him at least a quarter and a half.

Fair enough. Yeah. Porter, what you got?

I have for the men's side number eight BYU playing number 25 UNC in Salt Lake City in Utah, so almost a home game for BYU. I am excited to see this BYU team.

What do you think they're having this

year? Embarrass UNC.

And facts.

I I hope they embarrass you and see.

Yeah. I'll take BYU minus 12 and a half.

I'm very excited to see BYU's roster debut.

I am too. I'm I'm interested in their starting line

Yeah. Me too. Very curious.

Porter, what did your metrics say about that one?

I will get back to you after I tell you my woman's pick.

Go for it.

Memphis versus Vanderbilt.

Very fun.

Yeah. I I I'm excited to see this Vanderbilt team.

Mhmm.

I liked them last year. I think, you know, this year, another good team, but, you know, it's fun. It's also the Saint Jude's game in Memphis, and so I I do appreciate a good charity game. So yeah. That's awesome.

Metrics wise, I got BYU minus seven and a half.

Minus seven and a half? Alright.

Mhmm.

Appreciate it. I was just curious. Alright. And I'll close it out with my games, I guess. I've got number 12 UCLA heading down to San Diego State.

That's fun.

I hope stats. That this will be a very fun game. This one is actually coming up very soon on the seventeenth. Yeah. Very excited to see how San Diego State plays against a ranked team, you know, in the preseason.

Very curious to see how well they compete and whether they they may in fact deserve to be to be in the poll as we all think. So And then on the women's side, I've got receiving votes Kansas State, adding to Tarleton State in Texas. Tarleton State was my pick to win the WAC. I think they're a very strong women's team. I don't think they'll beat Kansas State.

But I'm curious to see how that one, you know, plays out especially being at Tarleton State. I'm curious to see if Tarleton State can put up a good fight, put up some really good numbers in there, and give us a good blueprint for how they're gonna win the WAC.

Mean, it's a great warm up. It is.

Yeah. I'm interested in Kansas State, honestly, more so, because they looked really strong last year for a bit. And I just think this year, I mean, I don't think any of us picked them to win the

No ball.

The conference. No. So I think it's

Well, we all picked TCU.

We did, because we know ball. But I think I think it'll be an inter it'll be interesting to just see the tone of the Big 12.

I also think, though, like, it being an exhibition, Kansas State's got a little room to experiment. Like, maybe we get to see some fun roster combinations, get to see some players play together who might not normally and just get a chance to shine a little bit.

Yeah. Alright. Well, if no one has anything else to say, any other comments, questions, concerns? Eli, will you forgive me?

Fine. Knew what

was gonna happen. Can never stay mad at Colin.

He can.

No, he can't. No. Of us can stay mad at Colin.

Aw. Alright. That I wish I could. On that very heartwarming note. Thank you guys

I'm kidding.

Thank you guys for listening to this week's episode, Check the Net, on Impact eighty nine FM. Let us know what you think by connecting with the station on Facebook, x, or Instagram at w d b m and at Impact eighty nine FM. This is our third full basketball season. We can't wait for it to begin. In the coming weeks, we've got I mean, games.

We've got a season that's about

to We have basketball.

So I'm so excited. This season's madness is about to begin. We cannot wait to talk about it more in two weeks on Jack for that. Thanks all for listening.