The only in season value in being ranked high in the preseason or early portion of the season is that a few losses here and there don't hurt your seeding as much as a loss to a team that is ranked lower.
Being ranked in the preseason is also nice because it shows that a team has earned respect, and a reputation, and a coach can tell a recruit "you see, we've been Sweet 16 two years in a row, and now we're top 5 heading into this season, but we could really use a man like you to help get us into the final four..blah blah blah." It also earns you much needed publicity.
Other than that there is little value in being ranked highly in the preseason. Sure, you might say that #1 seeds are much of the time highly ranked in preseason polls, but that is because they are great basketball teams, not because of any preseason ranking.
In 2009 the preseason top ten included was 1. KU, 2. Mich. St., 3. Texas, 4. UK, 5. Nova, 6. UNC, 7. Purdue, 8. WVU, 9. Duke, 10. Tenn and Butler was #11. Can someone please tell me the valuable role, other than what I described earlier, that being ranked highly in the preseason played for these teams? Because, I don't see it.
Media coverage/exposure. Pretty much all I think it is worth. Different debate about how valuable that is, but making espn highlights/national talking points is definitely top 5 territory, particularly when we are going up against the zags/duke.
Yep. It's all media exposure. Frank himself has commented on the value of getting in the top 25 because it gets us on SportsCenter every night. When you're a top 5 team, you're discussed by every talking head at every freaking halftime of every ESPN game. You're kidding yourself if you think there's no value in that. KIDDING YOURSELF.
Also, I think I'm being pretty generous by saying this might get us an extra win in the postseason. Remember when Jake had the fantastic KU game but got sat for most of @MU? Well, the loss to MU put us firmly on the bubble, and in March, Jake got brutally Travoned. "Frank being Frank" is just another way of saying "stupid being stupid".
Yeah. But we aren't a bubble team this year. I think the possibility that this helps players for the games coming up is more important than this game (which we could still win without Curt). Like I said, Frank is setting this up as a win-win.
"Curt, we can win without you. If you don't want to be here, we'll be fine."
"Curt, we need you out there. You let the team down. Earn back their respect. They need you to lead."
I understand the media and that is real and should be a consideration. But Frank is going to do what he's going to do and I think it has value as well.
