http://espn.go.com/mens-college-basketball/story/_/id/15123601/duke-blue-devils-kentucky-wildcats-college-basketball-top-25-2016-2017

UK#3
Ags #19

So we lost our senior leadership and our two best assistant coaches and they think we'll be the 19th best team in the country next year?

Bold move, Cotton. Bold move...

Apparently this guy doesn't count year 1 for Kennedy either.

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Billy Kennedy's fourth season was a resounding success that brought him not only his first NCAA tournament berth in College Station, Texas, but a No. 3 seed and a trip to the Sweet 16. At first glance, losing Danuel House, Jalen Jones, Anthony Collins and Alex Caruso should be crippling. It won't be easy, to be sure, but the recruiting work Kennedy has done the past two seasons has given him a deep pool of talent from which to find their replacements. We're particularly high on sophomores Admon Gilder and DJ Hogg, both of whom looked extremely promising in limited minutes as freshman. Tyler Davis already was, and will continue to be, a beast.

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I think this guy is playing a game called rank all the Sweet 16 teams and name all the players on the team you can remember.

Happy with the recognition though and nothing he says is inaccurate. Well other than this was Kennedy's fourth season.

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Apparently this guy doesn't count year 1 for Kennedy either.

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And then there are guys like you who don't count Year 4 or Year 5 (a.k.a the Stansbury seasons).

It will be Kennedy's best coaching job of his career IMO if he has us as a top 20 team all year next year.

Well... yeah...

Just 2 SEC teams.

Nationally, some big named seniors need to be replaced, but it should be a good year overall across the nation. Duke and Kentucky have some sick freshmen. Hopefully they reach their potential and we see them match up in the tournament.

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Just 2 SEC teams.

Nationally, some big named seniors need to be replaced, but it should be a good year overall across the nation. Duke and Kentucky have some sick freshmen. Hopefully they reach their potential and we see them match up in the tournament.

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Shocked LSU did not make the list. Just shocked!

Miss State will be one of the major wild cards next season 'cause Howland lost several seniors but is adding 1,342 4-star recruits.

It will be Pearl's Year 3 and I want to say based on his track record and recruiting that a good jump is coming soon, but still not sure he will have enough of a stable core roster built yet to do that.

Look for Arkansas also.

some guy from 247 put out his too-early top 25 17. Ags in the group outside the rankings.

1. Duke
2. Kentucky
3. Villanova
4. Kansas
5. North Carolina
6. Oregon
7. Virginia
8. Arizona
9. Xavier
10. Louisville
11. Michigan State
12. West Virginia
13. Connecticut
14. Oklahoma
15. VCU
16. Texas
17. Wisconsin

TEN MORE TO WATCH
Baylor, Dayton, Indiana, Michigan, Middle Tennessee State, Saint Mary's, SMU, Syracuse, Texas A&M, UCLA

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Look for Arkansas also.

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Is Moses Kingsley for sure returning? Whether or not he stays in NBA draft is huge for Arky's chances next season IMO.

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Look for Arkansas also.

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Is Kingsley coming back?

We'll see, but if he does I think that could be a pretty good team.

A top 17 is stupid and Texas might be absolutely horrible next year if Isaiah Taylor jumps.

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We'll see, but if he does I think that could be a pretty good team.

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Yes, but counting on a bunch of JUCOs is risky.

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A top 17 is stupid and Texas might be absolutely horrible next year if Isaiah Taylor jumps.

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Yeah that is ridiculous.

It is, and I'm not saying Arkansas is heading to the Elite Eight or anything, I just think they'll be a factor in the SEC next season (which, admittedly, doesn't take much.)

And relying on JUCOs is somewhat less risky for them since they depend mostly on athleticism and chaos than actual skill level.

I could have said this each year for the last three, including this one, but look out for Florida. There is still individual talent there and they'll be the second year under Mike White so should have more of an identity.

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And relying on JUCOs is somewhat less risky for them since they depend mostly on athleticism and chaos than actual skill level.

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I could see that.

Have we ever finished in the top 25 in back to back years??

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Have we ever finished in the top 25 in back to back years??

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Yes, under Mark Turgeon. People liked him a lot more back then.

Given the destruction of his roster last season, I was actually a bit impressed that Anderson was able to get a 9-9 SEC record out of that Arkansas squad.

The hog fans appear to be totally ready to fire him. 5 seasons and only one NCAA appearance (coming in Year 4 with then regression back to no post-season in Year 5 with very little fan optimism of getting back to the NCAA in Year 6). The freshman Jimmy Whitt transfer announcement last week added more fuel to the fire.

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Given the destruction of his roster last season, I was actually a bit impressed that Anderson was able to get a 9-9 SEC record out of that Arkansas squad.

The hog fans appear to be totally ready to fire him. 5 seasons and only one NCAA appearance (coming in Year 4 with then regression back to no post-season in Year 5 with very little fan optimism of getting back to the NCAA in Year 6). The freshman Jimmy Whitt transfer announcement last week added more fuel to the fire.

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9-9 in the SEC is nothing special. And his team nosedived from a national perspective.

'12: 132th in Kenpom
'13: 79
'14: 52
'15: 29
'16: 90

Not sure Arkansas fans can complain about the improvements he made cleaning up the pelphrey mess those first 4 years, but maybe the peak in '15 was not high enough, they're off the national radar and Anderson let Malik Monk get away. They might be stuck in purgatory with an ok coach and no obvious choices for a replacement with a bunch of quality coaches getting scooped up the past 24 months.

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A top 17 is stupid and Texas might be absolutely horrible next year if Isaiah Taylor jumps.

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absolutely horrible? seems a bit harsh, but their front line will be paper thin. Shaka desperately needs a grad transfer or 2.

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Given the destruction of his roster last season, I was actually a bit impressed that Anderson was able to get a 9-9 SEC record out of that Arkansas squad.

The hog fans appear to be totally ready to fire him. 5 seasons and only one NCAA appearance (coming in Year 4 with then regression back to no post-season in Year 5 with very little fan optimism of getting back to the NCAA in Year 6). The freshman Jimmy Whitt transfer announcement last week added more fuel to the fire.

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9-9 in the SEC is nothing special. And his team nosedived from a national perspective.

'12: 132th in Kenpom
'13: 79
'14: 52
'15: 29
'16: 90

Not sure Arkansas fans can complain about the improvements he made cleaning up the pelphrey mess those first 4 years, but maybe the peak in '15 was not high enough, they're off the national radar and Anderson let Malik Monk get away. They might be stuck in purgatory with an ok coach and no obvious choices for a replacement with a bunch of quality coaches getting scooped up the past 24 months.

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When he lost like 7 of his top-8 players from the previous season to graduation, declaring early for NBA, or counterfeiting charges, and then his recruiting class got whittled down with at least one guy ineligible/not cleared...I had Arky pegged as probably a bottom four team in SEC but they managed to do a little better than I thought. His roster looked completely f***ed going into the season, yet They finished higher in SEC than Bama, Tenn, Miss State, & Auburn.

That said, they still were not a 'good' team and understandable Arky fans are not happy.

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yet They finished higher in SEC than Bama, Tenn, Miss State, & Auburn.

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That's not exactly a murderer's row of basketball teams. 3 schools that fired their previous coaches and a 4th going through its own roster meltdown

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yet They finished higher in SEC than Bama, Tenn, Miss State, & Auburn.

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That's not exactly a murderer's row of basketball teams. 3 schools that fired their previous coaches and a 4th going through its own roster meltdown

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What's funny is those were the teams everyone had lauded for coaching upgrades. Not suggesting they weren't upgrades but it does highlight the critical importance of having good players

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absolutely horrible? seems a bit harsh, but their front line will be paper thin. Shaka desperately needs a grad transfer or 2.

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They lose Hollad, Felix, Lammert, Ibeh and Ridley already and if Taylor goes...

Maybe absolutely horrible is stretching it but getting to .500 in that league without some major additions would be a hell of a coaching job.

Why is it funny?

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absolutely horrible? seems a bit harsh, but their front line will be paper thin. Shaka desperately needs a grad transfer or 2.

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They lose Hollad, Felix, Lammert, Ibeh and Ridley already and if Taylor goes...

Maybe absolutely horrible is stretching it but getting to .500 in that league without some major additions would be a hell of a coaching job.

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I think shaka's style of play will help, but yeah don't expect them to be a top 20 team next year.

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Why is it funny?

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Because everything is black and white on texags (the Internet). He's saying everyone is like BK and needs more talent to be successful. Nevermind that we had to have eight 4 star and 5 star players to make the tourney and not have embarrassing losses.

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yet They finished higher in SEC than Bama, Tenn, Miss State, & Auburn.

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That's not exactly a murderer's row of basketball teams. 3 schools that fired their previous coaches and a 4th going through its own roster meltdown

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Yeah, like I said they just did a bit better than I thought given the enormous losses from their roster last off-season.

They ended up winning three games at home vs. teams that got NCAA bids (Vandy, A&M, Texas Tech) and had a couple of road wins (@Tenn and @Alabama) where they were dogs. Given the roster that he had, I thought Anderson actually maybe overperformed a little bit by a few wins. Of course, blame for the roster situation like everything else (right or wrong) goes back to the coach and they still were a bad team that missed post-season.

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Why is it funny?

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Because everything is black and white on texags (the Internet). He's saying everyone is like BK and needs more talent to be successful. Nevermind that we had to have eight 4 star and 5 star players to make the tourney and not have embarrassing losses.

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Strike one try again

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Have we ever finished in the top 25 in back to back years??

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Yes, under Mark Turgeon. People liked him a lot more back then.

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The only year I found that we finished in the final coaches top 25 (AP does not do a poll after the tourney) under Turgeon was in 2010 when we finished 25th. I believe you are mistaken. I'm pretty sure we have never finished ranked in the top 25 in back to back years. Metcalf, BCG and Turgeon never accomplished this feat. I'm not saying Kennedy can't accomplish it, but it's highly unlikely based upon our history.