Duke No. 1, GW Is 21st, Terps 24th
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Tuesday, November 8, 2005
Duke, as expected, was the overwhelming choice as the nation's best men's basketball team and North Carolina, the defending national champion, was unranked in the preseason Associated Press poll released yesterday.
The Blue Devils, who received 61 of 72 first-place votes, returned two of the country's best players in seniors J.J. Redick and Shelden Williams, both of whom opted against turning pro early. The Tar Heels lost their top seven scorers, including four underclassmen who were selected among the first 14 picks of the NBA draft in June.
"Anytime you have a Duke jersey on, you're going to have a lot of pressure on you because you get everyone's best game everywhere you go," Williams said yesterday in a telephone interview. "It's highly unusual to have two heralded players come back for their senior years. We put ourselves in good position to become number one, but at the start of the season rankings really don't matter."
George Washington, ranked 21st, was the highest-positioned area school, followed by 24th-ranked Maryland, which is looking to return to the NCAA tournament after failing to reach it last season for the first time since 1993.
The Terrapins, who returned 10 players from last year's team, will compete in the talent-rich Maui Invitational from Nov. 21 to 23, a tournament that includes four top 10 teams -- Connecticut, Michigan State, Gonzaga and Arizona.
In another early-season marquee matchup, Duke will get a stern test on Dec. 10 in East Rutherford, N.J., from Texas, the nation's second-ranked team that returned four double-digit scorers.
North Carolina became the first defending national champion not to be in the preseason poll the next season since Kansas in 1988-89. The Jayhawks also were the last NCAA champion not to make the NCAA tournament the following season, missing it in 1989.
The 16-team Big East has three schools -- Connecticut, Villanova and Louisville -- in the top seven and leads all conferences with five.
"The Big East always says" the ACC is down, Maryland Coach Gary Williams said recently. "But the ACC always seems to do pretty well in March."
