Thursday, October 30, 2008

No Pressure or Anything...

The highest ranking in program history in the Pac-10 Preseason Men's Basketball Media Poll was 3rd in 1991.

The Sun Devils haven't been ranked in a preseason national poll since then as well, when they were voted #24 in the nation before the season started.

That season, the Devils finished 19-14, didn't go to the NCAA Tournament and have only visited the Big Dance twice since then.

Those droughts are supposed to end this year, and the preseason accolades show that the nation and the rest of the conference expect just that to happen.

The USA Today/ESPN Coaches' Poll was released last night and it ranks Arizona State #15 in the nation, their highest such preseason ranking since joining the Pac-10. The Devils were ranked 18th in the AP poll in 1975-76.

As if that wasn't notable enough, the gathered Pac-10 media believe that the Sun Devils are going to be second to only UCLA in the conference in 2008-09, and some gracious soul actually gave ASU a first-place vote.

Here's the rest of the Pac-10 Poll:
1) UCLA
2) Arizona State
3) Southern California
4) Arizona
5) Washington
6) Washington State
7) Oregon
8) California
9) Stanford
10) Oregon State

1 comment:

Unknown said...

15...

I hope this doesn't turn out like our OTHER team with a preseason ranking of 15...