VCU and Other Top 25 Teams to Watch

VCU, No. 15

Treveon Graham has already been named preseason Atlantic 10 Player of the Year. This a great accomplishment for a player that was under-recruited and huge win for VCU because they now have a conference player of the year who has been able to make four NCAA tournament appearances. VCU comes in at the preseason rankings at No. 15 and with Graham’s return following a summer of training at elite camps such as Lebron James, Kevin Durant and Chris Paul. Graham averaged 15.8 points, 2.0 assists per game and 7.0 rebounds per game during his junior season, and is expected to impress even more this season to take VCU to another tournament appearance.

Villanova, No. 12

Villanova goes into this season as the only Big East team to be ranked in the top 25 and following a disappointing end to last season. The good news about the end to last season is that Jay Wright is returning four seasoned players who now have more experience under their belt and a fueled fire to get back to the tournament. Key players like Darrun Hilliard, JayVaughn Pinkston and Ryan Archidiacono are going to have to prove their team especially against non-conference match-ups against other top 25 teams to make up for a not-so-challenging rest of the Big East.

Connecticut, No. 17

UConn was able to breeze by with sometimes messy wins during last year’s tournament and make it to that Final Four and then onto the final round of the tournament where they suffered a disappointing loss to Kentucky in the championship game. The most notable departure and potentially reason for the No. 17 ranking for the runner up is Shabazz Napier, along with four of the other five leading scorers on the team. Needing to step up to the plate and be prepared to lead the team is senior point guard Ryan Boatright. The team will have a lot of work to do during this transition year.