Woodling: Preseason top spot not the place to be
Uh, oh.
Kansas University is ranked No. 1 in the Associated Press preseason men’s basketball poll.
Can you cook the books, please, and make that No. 2? Third would be even better. Or fourth, or ninth or 23rd. Anything but No. 1.
Nobody in America wants to begin the season on top of a poll. That means the best you can do is live up to expectations. No way can you overachieve.
This is the first time Kansas ever has been ranked No. 1 by the AP before the season, and this is the 44th year the national wire service has asked sports writers and sportscasters for a preseason poll.
Four times in the past KU has started a season at No. 2 — the last time two years ago when Kirk Hinrich and Nick Collison returned for their senior seasons. That Hinrich-Collison club wound up No. 6 in the final AP poll, but did finish second in the country after bowing to Syracuse in the NCAA championship game.
This also is the first time Kansas has hit the AP’s No. 1 slot since the third week of last season when the Jayhawks climbed from No. 6 to the top rung based mostly on their 81-74 home victory over an overrated, chemistry-challenged Michigan State team.
Losses to Stanford, Nevada and Richmond eventually dropped Kansas out of the Top 10. KU would bottom out at No. 21 before finishing at No. 16.
Only one Kansas men’s basketball team ever has finished No. 1 on the final AP poll. That was the terrific 1996-97 team that featured four future NBA players — Raef LaFrentz, Jacque Vaughn, Paul Pierce and Scot Pollard.
Roy Williams’ 1996-97 team was ranked No. 2 in the preseason, stayed No. 2 for a couple of more weeks, then ran off a streak of 15 straight weeks on top. Those Jayhawks stayed No. 1 even after suffering their only regular-season defeat — a 96-94 double-OT loss at Missouri in early February.
6Sports video: KU ranked no. 1 in AP poll
No. 1Yet that team didn’t even advance past the Sweet 16, bowing to eventual national champion Arizona — I can still see Mike Bibby nailing those three-pointers in the Birmingham Civic Center — in the NCAA Southeast Regional.
It’s no secret why the Jayhawks are so highly regarded this year: seniors. Kansas has ’em in a day and age when few do. Appearances in two NCAA Final Fours have given those KU seniors instant name recognition, no small factor when scribes and throats from all over the country are casting ballots.
Sophomore J.R. Giddens also is in the national media consciousness. In fact, I’ll bet if I asked a voter from South Carolina or Oregon or New Jersey, for instance, to name the Jayhawks’ four seniors, the reply would be: Wayne Simien, Aaron Miles, Keith Langford and Giddens.
Michael Lee is the fourth senior. I know it, you know it and folks in the Big 12 Conference area know it, but it’s a big country and media-types are, by necessity, provincially oriented.
And how many of those AP voters know the Jayhawks’ fifth starting position is manned by committee? I’d be surprised if it were a majority. By mid- to late December coach Bill Self may have decided on a full-time starter to work in the double post with Simien, but right now it looks like that position will be in flux for a while.
At the same time, there is no evidence yet that Self has found an answer for one of last year’s weaknesses — three-point shooting, particularly off the bench. Lee may be the key. During his first two seasons as a reserve, Lee shot 50 percent from beyond the arc. Last year Lee’s three-point shooting percentage tumbled to 35.4 percent.
From an overall perspective, this may be an experienced KU squad, yet it cannot be described as athletic. This is a team composed of basketball players, not athletes.
Simien, Langford and Miles are not projected as NBA first-round draft choices. That’s because the NBA wants athletes who can play basketball first. Next the NBA wants athletes with basketball-playing potential. Third, the pro league wants proven basketball players who are shy on athleticism.
Does anyone really believe Kansas will go wire-to-wire on top of the AP poll? UConn did it last year, but such a rare feat isn’t likely to occur two years in a row.
But the Jayhawks should be a player in March, and anything can happen in a 64-team crapshoot.