Duke Basketball: Blue Ribbon releases top 25 with insult to Blue Devils

A preseason poll has surfaced with the Duke basketball team inexplicably ranked No. 4 behind Kentucky, Kansas, and Gonzaga.

Before the release on Tuesday of Chris Dortch’s Blue Ribbon College Basketball Yearbook Preseason Top 25 — hold on a second while I rest my knuckles after having to type that lengthy title — I didn’t know much about Dortch. Now that I’ve seen where he — with some “expert” help from Fran Fraschilla — ranked the Duke basketball team, what I do know is that Dortch must not be as sold as I am on the power of Zion Williamson and the rest of the greatest recruiting class in history.

But as a Duke basketball fan, I’m OK with that. In fact, I appreciate Dortch not jinxing the freshmen-laden Blue Devils.

After all, the team that he pegged as the best in the country prior to last season, Arizona, didn’t even make the USA Today Coaches Poll Postseason Top 25 following the13th-seeded Buffalo Bulls laying a 21-point smackdown on the Wildcats in the first round of the 2018 NCAA Tournament.

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So based on the most recent evidence of Dortch’s remarkable inaccuracy when picking the top squad, the safest bet is that a different breed of Wildcats will suffer a similar fate this season.

Obviously, I’m OK with that.

And if Dortch and Fraschilla had bothered to read Ball Durham’s comparison of Duke and Kentucky posted here a few weeks ago, they would have learned from this “expert” that the Blue Devils’ other-worldly crop of incoming freshmen and superior coach gives them the edge against the blue-blooded Wildcats in the upcoming season.

Again, though, I’m OK with the fact they didn’t consult my Duke-biased analysis.

Because I’m totally OK with this season’s Blue Devils flying under the radar for as long as possible. Though after Nov. 6, when Duke and Kentucky meet in the season opener at the Champions Classic in Indianapolis, dissing the Blue Devils could be a futile task for any “expert.”

Also, it’s encouraging to notice that after Dortch and Co. picked Kentucky No. 1 prior to the 2014-15 season, the Blue Devils ended up flying home from the Final Four with pieces of a net in their possession.

And just to state the obvious: I’d be OK with that happening again.

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As for other notable picks on the [insert eight-word title here] Top 25, the Tennessee Volunteers round out the top five; other ACC teams who made the cut are Virginia at No. 7, UNC at No. 12 (my knuckles are feeling arthritic just thinking about the length of this rant had the Tar Heels appeared above the Blue Devils), Florida St. at No. 15, Clemson at No. 17, Syracuse at No. 22, and Virginia Tech at No. 24.

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