1 North Carolina
2 Syracuse
3 Northwestern
4 Notre Dame
5 Penn State
6 Florida
7 Stony Brook
8 Maryland
9 Virginia
10 Boston College
11 Towson
12 Duke
13 Navy
14 Virginia Tech
15 Richmond
16 Drexel
17 Louisville
18 Loyola
19 Stanford
20 Hofstra
Hopefully some teams will continue to improve so the NCAA tournament can be competitive and entertaining. Not sure which teams can do it, Penn State, Florida, Boston College, Maryland, Virginia? Obviously North Carolina and Syracuse are at the Top right now, If Northwesters defense has improved since last year they will be in the mix. Notre Dame is getting their usual hype but they are unproven so far. Stony Brook has not looked good, Loyola has fallen, Duke is still in a tail spin (what has happened to Duke). The rest of the Top 20 does not look competitive when compared to the Top 3 or 4 teams.
This 5th year nonsense is not good for the sport. In normal years the Top Programs stockpile the best players but now a few of those top teams are simply too deep. There is not enough talent to go around to begin with and now the Top Programs can keep their best players around for an extra year and also bring in seasoned high quality 5th year transfers.
IMHO, Stony Brook does not look like a Top 10 team, Duke and Towson are questionable inn the Top 15, Loyola has done nothing to prove that they belong in the Top 20. I guess the pollsters just go with the usual suspects.
On a positive note, after the Top 4 I think we will see some very competitive games. Towson vs Stony Brook was competitive, Ohio State, Hopkins, Rutgers and Michigan will compete with each other as will PSU and Maryland (I don't think anyone in the Big 10 beats Northwestern). Louisville, Virginia, Duke, Virginia Tech should all compete with each other just don't think they are as strong as BC or ND and UNC and Syracuse are in their own league.
Notre Dame, Penn State, Florida and BC will fight it out for the 4th spot in the Final Four.... Maybe Maryland as well.
With teams having to go back to normal scholarship numbers next year maybe we will see less of the 5th players.
I don't mind the 5th year players ,most other sports have even more and essentially you are adding in more skilled players to a sport that needs them. Most schools still stayed at their 12 scholly limit so next year will be the same.
I think you are giving BC too much credit at this point and would say SBU has been better against their common opponents and would put ND PSU easily ahead of them with Fl MD slightly ahead.
