A&M Ranked #25 In ESPN's Totally Premature Top 25

Andy Katz has his way-too-early pre-season rankings out, and the Ags scrape the bottom of the top 25, landing at exactly #25. With Bryan Davis, Junior Elonu, and David Loubeau in the post, and Donald Sloan, B.J. Holmes, Nathan Walkup, Derrick Roland, and Dash Harris on the outside, the Ags will have an excellent inside-outside game returning, and should be a veteran team to be reckoned with.

How we do next season will depend on how we fare in conference play; Katz has fellow conference members Kansas #1, texas #4, and Oklahoma #18. Considering we have to play texas and OU twice each next season, we'll have our work cut out for us. However, with Turgeon being in his third season as head coach at A&M, the excuses that we're young and inexperienced or that we're adjusting to a new system simply won't wash anymore.

Incoming freshmen Naji Hibbert, Khris Middleton, and Kourtney Roberson should help significantly next season. Hibbert will be added to our guard rotation, and Middleton will give us some more size if we slide him in at small forward. Roberson, at 6'9, can move from power forward to post if we decide to go small, so he gives us more depth inside. If we have to, we can slide Roberson down to 3, and feature a front line of 6'10, 6'9, 6'9, with Elonu, Davis, and Roberson.

Given who we return and who we have coming in, I am somewhat surprised that we weren't ranked a little higher, but since we failed to break the top 25 last season, and we haven't finished a season in the top 25 since Turgeon has been here, the skepticism is understandable. Add in the fact that Kentucky is ranked #12 in this pre-season poll, and you know not to take it too seriously. Still, any pre-season recognition is good recognition.