Jon Wilner of the San Jose Mercury News has the Hogs at #8. If you get caught by the paywall, the Seattle Times ran the same story on its website.
ESPN’s Jeff Borzello has the Hogs at #12, and notes if we find an “impact” point guard, #12 could be too low.
The Game Haus dissed us all season in their mock brackets, but they now have us #12 for next year – although the guy doesn’t know Desi is transferring.
Noted Hog hater Jeff Goodman has the Hogs at #14.
Gary Parrish at CBS has the Hogs 16th.
247’s Kevin Flaherty also has us 16th.
Sports Illustrated has the Hogs 17th.
USA Today has them in five close-but-not-ranked below the top 25.
And Seth Davis ranked Auburn (without Cooper) but not us, for which somebody rightly called him out in the comments.
I think they need to wait till the rosters are set. I bet some of these are looking at Hogs losing three key starters when they make their predictions. And I am sure they don’t know about Toney,
These way too early polls are like a reporter trying to be the first to break the news.
No, several of them mentioned Toney as a key addition. The ones who like us think Muss will bring in even more talent from the portal.
Here’s the blurb from SI:
The Razorbacks broke through in year two under Eric Musselman, reaching the program’s first Elite Eight since the Nolan Richardson era in Fayetteville. And while multiple key cogs will depart, the Hogs aren’t going anywhere. Talented sophomores Davonte Davis and Jaylin Williams could be breakout stars, JD Notae is a gifted scorer and Pitt transfer Au’Diese Toney provides the versatility Musselman loves in his forwards. No one recruits the transfer portal harder than Musselman, so expect more big additions here.
Point being, we’ve been complaining around here about not being nationally relevant. That’s gone now. They think we’re going to stick around even with Moody (probably) leaving. And if he somehow decided to stay…
Interesting that Wilner, who ranked us highest of all, didn’t mention Toney or any of the returning players. He has us as the top team in the SEC; most of the others think Bama will be better and possibly Kentucky.
Yeah I saw that. William Hill has us as +2800 which is tied for 14th (with UNC) and third in the SEC behind Kentucky (+1800) and Bama (+2500).
The betMGM numbers have us tied for 25th with Arizona, which of course assumes Sean Miller doesn’t get the book thrown at him. With the speed the IARP is handling cases, that’s probably a safe assumption. Then again, Memphis, Louisville, Kansas and LSU are all above us, and all of those are awaiting IARP disposition.