Though the National Championship Game just ended, several outlets already have their way-too-early Top 25 polls, shunning the UCLA Basketball team in the process.
The UCLA Basketball team made a huge turnaround from the 2015-16 season to this last season, going from 15-17 to 31-5. Though it was a disappointing end, for all intents and purposes, it was a good year.
Things will change a lot going forward and the 2017-18 season will be interesting on several levels.
The big issue is that the Bruins lose Lonzo Ball, TJ Leaf, Bryce Alford and Isaac Hamilton, four of their five starters, but the Bruins are reloading with six commits that include 5-star PG Jaylen Hands and SF Kris Wilkes.
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UCLA should essentially finish where they left off (and possibly do even better), but many outlets do not have that same mentality when they published their way-too-early Top 25 polls for the 2017-18 season.
In fact, it seems that many are looking for the Bruins to have a sizeable setback. On top of that, perception of other Pac-12 teams seem slightly off as well. Let us take a look at a few way-too-early polls to see what I mean.
UCLA and the Pac-12 in 8 Way-Too-Early Top 25 Polls
USA Today: UCLA #7, Arizona #1, USC #11, Oregon #12
Sports Illustrated: UCLA #19, Arizona #1, USC #13
Fox Sports: UCLA #9, Arizona #1, USC #12
ESPN: UCLA #23, Arizona #11, Oregon #13
Sporting News: UCLA #11, Arizona #1, Oregon #24
Yahoo: UCLA #19, Arizona #2, USC #14
SB Nation: UCLA #25, Arizona #3, USC #14
Bleacher Report: UCLA #16, Arizona #10, Oregon #19
Losing Ball and Leaf is bad, but the Bruins are reloading, just like every other team in Divison I hoops. So what is up with the rankings lower than 15th? Kentucky, North Carolina, Kansas and Louisville (to name a few) didn’t have that problem.
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Though the Bruins have an argument to be a Top 10 team, #23 and #25 is a bit ridiculous. Is it Steve Alford?
And then what about the anazysis of other Pac-12 teams? Let me start with Oregon, the Pac-12 representative in the Final Four. The conference team to go furtherest in the tournament, they only showed up in half of these polls. Ridiculous.
And what is with all the USC love? They get hot and are all of a sudden the Pac-12 darlings? Did these outlets not witness the Trojan’s mid-conference meltdown?
And speaking of meltdowns, all of these polls, sans ESPN and Bleacher Report, must have had blinders on when Arizona lost in the Sweet 16… again. If you are going to reward USC for a late season push, then you have to knock Arizona down a few pegs for their inabaility to miss the Elite 8 with all that talent and depth.
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Still, these are just projections for next season and have no bearing on what will actually happen. There’s a lot of time between now and then and UCLA Basketball will show the nation that there will be very little drop off next season, if at all. We hope.