College Basketball: UCLA highlights teams being disrespected in preseason polls

UCLA is one of a group of college basketball teams that are not receiving the recognition they deserve in various preseason polls.

There are a few reasons why high-profile college basketball teams are not ranked higher in preseason polls for the 2023-2024 season.

*Graduation and transfer losses. Many of the top teams in the country lost key players to graduation and/or transfers.
*Uncertainty about new players. Even high-profile teams with returning stars can be difficult to rank in the preseason if they have a lot of new players. For example, UCLA is bringing in a highly touted freshman class, but it is unclear how quickly those players will be able to contribute at a high level.

Then there are other reasons that can’t be explained such as the teams that will be featured who are not ranked higher in various polls and rankings and there are no good reasons as to why these three teams are not ranked higher than they are in these national polls.

Let’s first take a look at UCLA and they’re not being ranked in the top 25 in many preseason polls for this upcoming season.

Numerous national publications have UCLA not even ranked in their top 25 preseason polls.

Fox Sports has UCLA ranked outside their top 25 college basketball preseason rankings.

247 Sports is another national publication that does not have UCLA ranked in their preseason top 25 poll.

CBS Sports has UCLA not ranked in the top 25 in their preseason rankings which is somewhat surprising as they have given the Bruins some good praise and recognition in the past.

It makes little to no sense why UCLA is not ranked in the top 25 in these various polls. They have an absolutely amazing freshman class, a proven coach, and great depth for this season and they are not being ranked in these various preseason polls may just fuel this team to do great things this season.

Now let’s look at some other basketball programs not getting the respect they deserve in preseason polls and other national college basketball publications.