Florida looks like they might be the exception which is why they’ll be ranked #1. But almost no team that was one of the top teams in the country the prior year is going to look better on paper going into the next season because they all will lose key pieces.

UConn lost Reed, Karraban, and Ball and replaced them with a big from Seton Hall and an unproven freshman from Duke.

Duke lost the guy they ran their entire offense through and might lose their second best scorer too. Plus lost the guy going to UConn.

Michigan loses Yaxel and (presumably) Mara and to this point has replaced them with an ok player in Estrella and a freshman. And also lost their veteran core guys (Burnett, Gayle, Tschetter).

Houston is losing Flemings, Cenac, Sharpe, Uzan and Harwell and has brought in only one good transfer. No idea what would prompt anyone to rank them 6th.

Michigan State lost their whole veteran starting frontcourt (Kohler and Cooper) and hasn’t brought in any transfers to replace them.

I’m not saying #7 is totally outrageous as I think we should just be #4 or #5. But I’ve been seeing this pushback about why we’d be ranked that high when we aren’t better than last year on paper, and that’s just not the right way to look at it even if you agree with that stance. Everyone but one team is worse on paper.