http://www.sportsline.com/collegebasketball/polls Associated Press Top 25 1 North Carolina 2 Connecticut 3 Louisville 4 UCLA 5 Pittsburgh 6 Michigan State 7 Texas 8 Duke 9 Notre Dame 10 Gonzaga 11 Purdue 12 Oklahoma 13 Memphis 14 Tennessee 15 Arizona State 16 Marquette 17 Miami (Fla.) 18 Southern California 19 Florida 20 Davidson 21 Wake Forest 22 Georgetown 23 Villanova 24 Kansas 25 Wisconsin
I think UCLA is going to have some trouble this year but I expect them to hover in the 3-12 range most of the year.
Why would they have trouble? UCLA added Jrue Holiday and Drew Gordon w/ 2 great PG's, while returning quite a bit of talent, they'll be fine.
Well #1 they lost Kevin Love. He was a huge part of their offense and really was the only legit low post threat Howland has had at UCLA. Love's impact on UCLA's offense was and will be more important than Jrue Holiday's and Holiday is another future lotto pick. Russell Westbrook gave the Bruins two of the best defensive guards in the nation. While I think Holiday can easily replace him on offense, nobody is going to replace him on defense. Mbah a Moute, while never living up to expectations, was a very versatile threat for the Bruins on defense and played into his role on offense. Obviously Jrue Holiday is going to be fantastic, but I seriously doubt Drew Gordon emerges as a threat this year in the post. Gordon is an athletic guy who is good in transition, but doesnt have many post moves, daoesnt have a great basketball IQ (which you need in a half court set), and I dont think he sees that many minutes anyway (15). Look, UCLA is going to be good, but the Pac-10 is down and the Bruins are not the same Bruins from the last 3 years. They have a lot of young guys that need to fill in. I still think they win the Pac-10, but they are not locks to the Final Four like they have been. They need a lot of things to go right in order to get that far.
