And so it begins!

https://www.espn.com/mens-college-basketball/story/_/id/36058691/uconn-huskies-no-1-2023-24-way-too-early-top-25-men-college-basketball-rankings

The talking heads have us at #17, seems pretty reasonable?

17. Texas A&M Aggies
Buzz Williams' team won 19 of 22 games before losing in the SEC championship game and then in the first round of the NCAA tournament. And he's expected to bring back several key pieces from that group. The most important is Wade Taylor IV, one of the best point guards in the country. Henry Coleman and Julius Marble should form a very solid frontcourt tandem, and several role players are also expected back.
Projected starting lineup:
Wade Taylor IV (16.3 PPG)
Manny Obaseki (5.2 PPG)
Andersson Garcia (3.2 PPG)
Henry Coleman (9.0 PPG)
Julius Marble (9.1 PPG)

Got a kick about being one spot above the sips at 18!

https://collegehoopstoday.com/index.php/rothstein-files/rothstein-45-2023-24-preseason-edition/

Rothstein has us at 17 as well

Seth Davis with the Athletic has us at 11 and has Radford as a departure. He said Radford could come back, but no announcement has been made. So I am not sure if that means he has us top 10 if Radford makes it official he is coming back

Boots will be in that starting 5

MarcAg said:

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https://collegehoopstoday.com/index.php/rothstein-files/rothstein-45-2023-24-preseason-edition/

Rothstein has us at 17 as well

Seth Davis with the Athletic has us at 11 and has Radford as a departure. He said Radford could come back, but no announcement has been made. So I am not sure if that means he has us top 10 if Radford makes it official he is coming back

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where is Radford going? He's not NBA material. Would he transfer? What better situation is he going to find than a starter at A&M?

I figured Boots may just want to move on with his life. I would love to have him back, though.

gunan01 said:

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MarcAg said:

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https://collegehoopstoday.com/index.php/rothstein-files/rothstein-45-2023-24-preseason-edition/

Rothstein has us at 17 as well

Seth Davis with the Athletic has us at 11 and has Radford as a departure. He said Radford could come back, but no announcement has been made. So I am not sure if that means he has us top 10 if Radford makes it official he is coming back

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where is Radford going? He's not NBA material. Would he transfer? What better situation is he going to find than a starter at A&M?

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It's possible he doesn't want to go to school and continue to play college basketball. I figure he will be back, but he might just decide he is done playing college ball and being a student. He has been a student athlete for 5 years, 6 might be more than he wants to do

It's hard to believe that if he wasn't coming back they wouldn't have honored him on senior night this year. The only guy who took place in senior night this year was Dex

https://www.foxsports.com/stories/college-basketball/college-basketball-power-rankings-all-too-early-top-25-for-2023-24

Fox's version. Ags at #15:

15. Texas A&M (Last season: 25-10, Round of 64)

Wade Taylor IV is only going to get better, and he highlights four returning starters plus a strong returning core from a team that was a 7-seed in the NCAA Tournament this season.

#gB pic.twitter.com/kAjRjKnz2E

— Josh Chambers (@ByJoshChambers) April 3, 2023

warreng said:

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It's hard to believe that if he wasn't coming back they wouldn't have honored him on senior night this year. The only guy who took place in senior night this year was Dex

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I agree.

Calculus has also changed with NIL -- used to be a player might get an offer to make $100k+ playing overseas and would jump at that opportunity. Now a lot of programs can just dangle that $100k in NIL money to stay another year.

Fox ranking has us at 15. I can make a case that we should be preseason top 8-10 based on losses of teams ranked ahead of us.
Seems likely Dennis will be our only major contributor not coming back. That is alot of returning production, way more than average for such a good team.

San Diego State loses 3 major contributors.
UCLA loses their 2 very best players, Jaquez and Tiger Campbell
Alabama loses the best player in America, Miller
Arkansas loses arguably their 2 best players, Nick Smith and Anthony Black (we already beat them twice this year with those guys)
UH loses Sasser and Mark...again their best and near best players.
KU loses Wilson, McCullar and Dick...considerable.
Duke loses Filipowski and others...yes they have a bunch of 5 stars coming in but even those usually don't dominate as freshmen.

Long way to go as far as who's leaving and who's not, but bottom line - Texas A&M basketball should be top 10ish all year...should be a fun year.

warreng said:

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It's hard to believe that if he wasn't coming back they wouldn't have honored him on senior night this year. The only guy who took place in senior night this year was Dex

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You are assuming he had his mind made up one way or another a month ago. I think he come back, but I wouldn't read much into senior day activities as the guide

Quote:

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Long way to go as far as who's leaving and who's not, but bottom line - Texas A&M basketball should be top 10ish all year...should be a fun year.

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Yeah it's going to be really disappointing if we back ourselves into a corner again next year.

Yeah I think 17 is about right in terms of a starting point (which I can't emphasize enough, does not matter when it comes to basketball).

If Boots announces a final year and/or we land some big time transfer then maybe we creep into the back half of the top-15, but I'm more than happy to let our play do the talking come November.

Do these rankings include the conference tournament

Redfishag93 said:

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Arkansas loses arguably their 2 best players, Nick Smith and Anthony Black (we already beat them twice this year with those guys)

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Council and Davis have already declared as well, that's every contributing guard
Walsh likely gets drafted too

Encouraging stuff, definitely, but would still love to see us be aggressive in the portal. We need length and depth for certain.

If Boots is not back with Dexter already gone, you lose
your top 2 rebounders.

bobinator said:

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Quote:

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Long way to go as far as who's leaving and who's not, but bottom line - Texas A&M basketball should be top 10ish all year...should be a fun year.

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Yeah it's going to be really disappointing if we back ourselves into a corner again next year.

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Y'all know I love Buzz and I am very glad he's our coach, but it is definitely time for him to take the next step in his coaching maturity progression. He should be at the point in his career - specifically in his time with A&M - where there should be no more losses to teams like Harvard, Temple, Fairfield, or Wofford, there should be no more 8-game losing streaks, and there should be no more childish rants against the NCAA selection committee (not saying he wasn't right...it's just not something a grown man and head coach of a major D-I program should have done).

I'm not saying Buzz has to win the national title every year, but I am saying that it is very much time for him to take that proverbial next step and get us past the terrible "pee down your leg" events that make every Selection Sunday and adventure.

Also, #19 in the CBS Sports too early top 25 and 1 ranking.

CBS Sports

You can live with an upset if you're playing well otherwise and it was just one of those "one shining moment" kind of nights, but yeah. The tournament should never be in doubt next year, though it never should have been in doubt this year either.

Luke The Drifter said:

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bobinator said:

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Quote:

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Long way to go as far as who's leaving and who's not, but bottom line - Texas A&M basketball should be top 10ish all year...should be a fun year.

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Yeah it's going to be really disappointing if we back ourselves into a corner again next year.

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Y'all know I love Buzz and I am very glad he's our coach, but it is definitely time for him to take the next step in his coaching maturity progression. He should be at the point in his career - specifically in his time with A&M - where there should be no more losses to teams like Harvard, Temple, Fairfield, or Wofford, there should be no more 8-game losing streaks, and there should be no more childish rants against the NCAA selection committee (not saying he wasn't right...it's just not something a grown man and head coach of a major D-I program should have done).

I'm not saying Buzz has to win the national title every year, but I am saying that it is very much time for him to take that proverbial next step and get us past the terrible "pee down your leg" events that make every Selection Sunday and adventure.

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I wouldn't call anything about his rant childish lol. The guy had an entire memo printed out with data showing why they should've gotten in and questioned the transparency. Buzz did what no one else wanted to do and I commend him for it

MarcAg said:

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https://collegehoopstoday.com/index.php/rothstein-files/rothstein-45-2023-24-preseason-edition/

Rothstein has us at 17 as well

Seth Davis with the Athletic has us at 11 and has Radford as a departure. He said Radford could come back, but no announcement has been made. So I am not sure if that means he has us top 10 if Radford makes it official he is coming back

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Sounds like he is still on the fence. Definitely weighing all of his options:

https://instagr.am/p/CqoPvl5JjNG

These are pointless chatter until portal season is done and actual rosters are known

I mean they're pointless chatter after that also.

AggieCrew44 said:

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Luke The Drifter said:

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bobinator said:

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Quote:

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Long way to go as far as who's leaving and who's not, but bottom line - Texas A&M basketball should be top 10ish all year...should be a fun year.

---

Yeah it's going to be really disappointing if we back ourselves into a corner again next year.

---

Y'all know I love Buzz and I am very glad he's our coach, but it is definitely time for him to take the next step in his coaching maturity progression. He should be at the point in his career - specifically in his time with A&M - where there should be no more losses to teams like Harvard, Temple, Fairfield, or Wofford, there should be no more 8-game losing streaks, and there should be no more childish rants against the NCAA selection committee (not saying he wasn't right...it's just not something a grown man and head coach of a major D-I program should have done).

I'm not saying Buzz has to win the national title every year, but I am saying that it is very much time for him to take that proverbial next step and get us past the terrible "pee down your leg" events that make every Selection Sunday and adventure.

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I wouldn't call anything about his rant childish lol. The guy had an entire memo printed out with data showing why they should've gotten in and questioned the transparency. Buzz did what no one else wanted to do and I commend him for it

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Everyone who doesn't wear maroon-tinted glasses thought it was childish. Even a lot of folks who do wear maroon glasses thought so. The NCAA and this year's selection committee clearly took issue with it.

There are grown up, professional ways to handle adversity and there are petulant ways to do so. Unfortunately, Buzz chose the latter.

Luke The Drifter said:

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AggieCrew44 said:

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Luke The Drifter said:

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bobinator said:

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Quote:

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Long way to go as far as who's leaving and who's not, but bottom line - Texas A&M basketball should be top 10ish all year...should be a fun year.

---

Yeah it's going to be really disappointing if we back ourselves into a corner again next year.

---

Y'all know I love Buzz and I am very glad he's our coach, but it is definitely time for him to take the next step in his coaching maturity progression. He should be at the point in his career - specifically in his time with A&M - where there should be no more losses to teams like Harvard, Temple, Fairfield, or Wofford, there should be no more 8-game losing streaks, and there should be no more childish rants against the NCAA selection committee (not saying he wasn't right...it's just not something a grown man and head coach of a major D-I program should have done).

I'm not saying Buzz has to win the national title every year, but I am saying that it is very much time for him to take that proverbial next step and get us past the terrible "pee down your leg" events that make every Selection Sunday and adventure.

---

I wouldn't call anything about his rant childish lol. The guy had an entire memo printed out with data showing why they should've gotten in and questioned the transparency. Buzz did what no one else wanted to do and I commend him for it

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Everyone who doesn't wear maroon-tinted glasses thought it was childish. Even a lot of folks who do wear maroon glasses thought so. The NCAA and this year's selection committee clearly took issue with it.

There are grown up, professional ways to handle adversity and there are petulant ways to do so. Unfortunately, Buzz chose the latter.

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By everyone do you mean Joe Lunardi? I had Tsip friends tell me it was warranted. He didn't attack their character or anything like that. He asked for transparency, something every coach in the country wants. It wasnt childish at all. The committee's response to it this year was the childish part

It is entirely possible both Buzz and this year's committee were both wrong.

Buzz asking for transparency in the process isn't wrong

We got almost equally screwed this year on seeding as we did last year. Notice there was no manifesto this season - he kept quiet and handled it like an adult.

Well not really. He commented he's aware who the SEC representative is, calling him "Bill's son" and saying conversations will be had. If anything that was more childish than the year prior

In the latest @TheFieldOf68 Daily, I compiled 11 Way Too Early Top 25 rankings.

The early team to beat? @MarquetteMBB.@UConnMBB, @DukeMBB, @BoilerBall & @BluejayMBB round out the top 5.

Read more here: https://t.co/N9pivntpE4 pic.twitter.com/NrLtGJdE52

— Mike Miller (@mikemillerF68) April 5, 2023

bobinator said:

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I mean they're pointless chatter after that also.

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Agree with you both! Just started it because it's the off-season haha