ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Tuesday, November 12, 1996 TAG: 9611120097
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-2 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
Cincinnati, with three starters returning from a team that fell one step short of the Final Four this year, is No.1 in The Associated Press' preseason college basketball poll released Monday, the school's first top ranking in 34 years.
The Bearcats were the runaway choice of the national media panel, receiving 34 first-place votes and 1,641 points. Kansas, which will have to play at least the early part of the season without injured point guard Jacque Vaughn, is second with 15 first-place votes and 1,548 points, six more than defending champion Kentucky, which had 13 first-place votes.
Wake Forest, which has the only returning All-American in center Tim Duncan, is fourth with six No.1 votes and 1,524 points.
UCLA, which will enter the season led by 32-year-old interim head coach Steve Lavin, is fifth. Utah, Villanova, North Carolina, Michigan and Duke complete the top 10.
Cincinnati was ranked as high as third this past season and finished 28-4 after losing to Mississippi State in the NCAA Southeast Regional final.
``It doesn't mean anything because we haven't played a game, but it means something to our program because we have worked so hard to rebuild this thing,'' said Bob Huggins, the Bearcats' coach.
Junior forward Danny Fortson leads a Cincinnati team that is expecting a lot from a recruiting class that features three junior college standouts.
``The preseason talk hasn't affected them at all,'' Huggins said. ``They have gone about doing what they have to do. We haven't talked about it. It's just been kind of go out and play.''
The last time the Bearcats held the No.1 spot was 1962-63, when they were coming off consecutive national championships and four straight Final Four appearances. Cincinnati lost to Loyola (Ill.) in the 1963 championship game.
``There's a great sense of history around Cincinnati, but not with the kids,'' Huggins said. ``Kids don't remember. The people here certainly remember.''
Iowa State is No.11, followed by Syracuse, Arkansas, Fresno State, Massachusetts, Texas, New Mexico, Stanford, Arizona and Clemson. The last five teams are Boston College, Minnesota, Iowa, George Washington and Marquette.
The No.1 preseason ranking wasn't bad for Kentucky last year as the Wildcats went on to their sixth national championship. All but two schools in last year's preseason Top 25 - No.14 Missouri and No.19 Virginia - advanced to the NCAA Tournament.
Eight of the teams in this year's preseason poll weren't in last season's final poll and all of the them except Fresno State were ranked at some point during the season. The ranking for Fresno State, which is beginning its second season under coach Jerry Tarkanian, is its first since 1984.
Massachusetts was No.1 in the final poll for the 1995-96 season, and the Minutemen were beaten by Kentucky in a national semifinal. Mississippi State, which lost to Syracuse in the other Final Four semifinal, lost all five starters and didn't receive a single point in the preseason poll.
The Top 25 again was dominated by the bigger conferences, with all the teams coming from nine leagues. The Atlantic Coast Conference led the way with four teams, with three (Wake Forest, North Carolina, Duke) in the Top 10. Five conferences - Big 12, Pacific-10, Western Athletic, Big East and Big Ten - each had three teams in the rankings.
LENGTH: Medium: 65 linesby CNB