For starters

As an AP basketball poll voter, I received a friendly reminder from the powers that be to consider results (especially head-to-head results) while filling out my ballot while discounting name value and preseason hype as the season commences.

Most people voting in such matters shouldn’t need such a reminder, but it is nice to see some suggested guidelines.

SEE RELATED:

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That said, chances are not very good that I’ll change my mind on just about anyone in the top 40 or so based on the first weekend of play.

This is mainly because of two things.

1) A lot of teams look shaky in an opener while working the kinks out.

2) Just about no national power plays anyone of much repute in its opener.

Think about the early upsets last year —- Southern Cal to Mercer, Kentucky to Gardner-Webb. Those matchups are perfectly typical.

Here, by the way, is a rundown of the preseason top 25, their season-opening opponents and those opponents’ RPI from last year. There’s quite a trend (NA-Non-Division I team last season):

No. Team	Opening Opponent	‘08 RPI
1. North Carolina	Penn	261
2. Connecticut	Western Carolina	293
3. Louisville	Morehead State	232
4. UCLA	Prairie View A&M	321
5. Pittsburgh	Fairleigh Dickinson	282
6. Michigan St.	Idaho	299
7. Texas	Stetson	257
8. Duke	Presbyterian	333
9. Notre Dame	USC Upstate	306
10. Gonzaga	Montana St.-Billings	NA
11. Purdue	Detroit	287
12. Oklahoma	American	91
13. Memphis	Fairfield	176
14. Tennessee	Chattanooga	146
15. Arizona St.	Mississippi Valley St.	223
16. Marquette	Houston Baptist	NA
17. Miami	Florida Southern	NA
18. Southern Cal	UC Irvine	152
19. Florida	Toledo	187
20. Davidson	Guilford	NA
21. Wake Forest	N.C. Central	279
22. Georgetown	Jacksonville	164
23. Villanova	Albany	206
24. Kansas	Mo.-Kansas City	288
25. Wisconsin	Long Beach State	323

That precisely one team in the top 25 opening with a top-100 team from last year (Oklahoma, which plays host to American). Only two play an NCAA tournament team from last season (Oklahoma and Arizona State). Just six bother with a top-200 program from a year ago.

Sure, college basketball begins next week, but you’d be foolish to expect to see much of anything in the season’s first few days.

—- Patrick Stevens