USA Today/ESPN Preseason Poll

[moytoy12]

At least Saint Louis received one vote...

"OTHERS RECEIVING VOTES

Gonzaga 88, Wichita State 78, Louisville 77, Southern Illinois 70, Illinois 52, Xavier 44, Villanova 39, Air Force 26, San Diego State 24, Hofstra 20, Oklahoma State 19, Michigan 17, Michigan State 15, Maryland 12, DePaul 11, Florida State 9, George Mason 6, Indiana 5, Houston 3, Brigham Young 2, George Washington 2, Winthrop 2, Utah 1, Bucknell 1, New Mexico State 1, Saint Louis 1."

[slu72]

Better than a stick in the eye...for all you historians when was the last time we showed up in the also receiving votes section...1997 would be my guess.

[billiken_roy]

i don t think spoon and his hughes team got close to being ranked. and romar and love came on late to get any votes as well. i would guess claggett, highmark and h were the last team to get any poll votes.

[Scoop]

Good deal. Maybe this will start some postive talk on the board.

[DoctorB]

That puts us in the top 51, I guess -- which actually I think is about right.

The others receiving minimal votes -- Houston 3, Brigham Young 2, George Washington 2, Winthrop 2, Utah 1, Bucknell 1, New Mexico State-- I feel like we can beat those guys more often than not, and so we might be hovering in the mid-40s.

[SShoe]

>i don t think spoon and his hughes team got close to being

>ranked. and romar and love came on late to get any votes as

>well. i would guess claggett, highmark and h were the last

>team to get any poll votes.

I'm almost positive that year (97-98) we were getting a number of votes and were just outside the top 25. I can remember the hype the home game against UC was getting because we were just outside the top 25. Then we got smoked and we dropped like a rock. But I can't remember (maybe 94-95) actually being recognized preseason.

[DeSmetBilliken]

As I remember, SLU started off the Hughes season well and received some Top 25 votes. They had a good chance to garner more votes by playing against several big name schools in some tournament(I think in Puerto Rico) during the holidays, but they lost every game, or went 1-2 down there.

I also remember being very surprised to see SLU receive a vote or two very early in the season during the Romar tenure. From what I remember, we either started off the regular season by blowing out two very weak teams, or convincingly blew out both exhibition teams, scoring around 100 points. I just remember looking at the polls and being shocked to see the Billikens receive a vote or two.

[DeSmetBilliken]

I just checked the archives on slubillikens.com. SLU received 10 votes in the AP preseason poll for the 2001-2001 season. It also says that SLU received votes following winning the 2000 C-USA tournament championship.

The link takes you to a game preview article for their season opener against SIU. Go down to the part titled "In the Polls."

http://slubillikens.cstv.com/sports/m-bask.../111501aaa.html

[kshoe]

based on my memory but I can think of maybe 3 instances:

Hughes' team was a 10 seed which implies a top 40 ranking which is generally includes the "others receiving votes" section. Factor in that we started that season 8-0 and I'd bet we were receiving votes.

After the CUSA win they come out with one final poll before the NCAA tourney. Given that we were a 9 seed that would again imply that we were top 36 and surely deserving of a few votes.

http://www.cstv.com/sports/m-baskbl/polls/...nal-appoll.html

This is the one I think will surprise people...I believe at the beginning of Reggie/IO's/Frericks senior year we received a few votes in one of the pre-season poll. That season turned out to be a disaster but people forget that nearly everyone on this board was predicting 20 wins that season after we had gone to the 2nd round of the NIT the year before...

[slufanskip]

I'm not surprised we were getting a few votes with that team. Based upon what we saw from Reggie and Tom during their Jr years. Had they both stayed healthy and we made the NCAA or even a decent run in the NIT ... we might be recruiting a little differently now.

Official Billikens.com sponsor of H Waldman

[Chicago Billiken]

Any speculation as to who gave us the one vote? Is there an STL sportwriter who votes in the poll?

[slufanskip]

I think it was Metz ... he's a journalist right?

Official Billikens.com sponsor of H Waldman

[TheBand]

I was wondering the same thing today.... The list of voters:

The USA TODAY/ESPN Board of Coaches is made up of 31 head coaches at Division I institutions. All are members of the National Association of Basketball Coaches. The board for the 2006-07 season: Mike Adras, Northern Arizona; Dana Altman, Creighton; Tevester Anderson, Jackson State; Ronnie Arrow, Texas A&M-Corpus Christi; Eddie Biedenbach, North Carolina-Asheville; Jim Boeheim, Syracuse; Matt Brady, Marist; Rick Byrd, Belmont; Charlie Coles, Miami (Ohio); Dick Davey, Santa Clara; Steve Fisher, San Diego State; Pat Flannery, Bucknell; Tim Floyd, Southern California; Greg Graham, Boise State; Tom Green, Fairleigh Dickinson; Johnny Jones, North Texas; Jim Larranaga, George Mason; Bob McKillop, Davidson; Phil Martelli, Saint Joseph’s; Ron “Fang†Mitchell, Coppin State; Dan Monson, Minnesota; Dave Odom, South Carolina; Doc Sadler, Nebraska; Joe Scott, Princeton; Jimmy Tillette, Samford; Bob Thomason, Pacific; Perry Watson, Detroit Mercy; Gary Williams, Maryland; Doug Wojcik, Tulsa; Ted Woodward, Maine; Rich Zvosec, Missouri-Kansas City.

Maybe Bob Thomason since we play Pacific? Perhaps Dana Altman?

[3star_recruit]

The A-10's very own Phil Martelli is one of the voters.

[billiken_roy]

i would think it was martelli.

[TheA_Bomb]

According to "The Official 2000 Men's Basketball Records Book" SLU was last ranked (as we know they haven't been ranked since 2000) in the AP in 93-94, JAN 17th at #23, 24th at #23, 31st at #18, FEB 7th at #17, 14th at #18, 21st at #19, 28th at #16, MAR 7th at #21, and MAR 14th at #24. UC was #25, MINN #23, NEBRAKSA #22 and MARQ #21 in the MAR 14th POLL.

In the 1994 USA Today/CNN Post Season poll SLU was ranked #21.

The last time SLU was ranked prior to 93-94 was 64-65. SLU was ranked #4, #10, #9 and #9 in sucessive polls that DEC.

60-61 SLU was rnaked at #16 and #8 for two weeks.

59-60 started the season ranked #7 ended ranked #15.

58-59 started at #9 finished #12.

57-58 ranked #9 and #18 for two weeks.

56-57 ranked most of the year best rank was #5 worst #20.

55-56 ranked #17 most of the year best rank was #11 worst was #19.

54-55 started at #12 then went unranked until last poll and finished at #20.

53-54 started at #18 then was unranked.

52-53 started at #17 then was unranked.

51-52 started at #4 finished at #5.

50-51 best rank was #5 finished at #10.

49-50 best rank was #11 worst #19.

48-49 started ranked #1 finished #3.

(were annotated that SLU finished at #X that is not representative of the Final Season poll just the final weekly poll of that year)

The AP began ranking basketball on JAN 20, 1949. Starting in 1961-1962 season AP provided a Pre-season poll. AP did a post tournament poll in 53, 54, 74, and 75.