College Basketball Preseason Rankings: AP No. 1 Teams To Win Championship
College basketball preseason rankings history on AP No. 1 teams which have gone on to win the men's NCAA championship.
The leaves are falling, the pumpkin spice is flowing, and college basketball is almost back.
Mike Krzyzewski’s Duke Blue Devils were ranked No. 4 in the AP poll heading into last season, but they ended up going all the way thanks to some very, very talented true freshmen — oh, and some guys who weren’t teenagers.
John Calipari’s Kentucky Wildcats were the No. 1 team in the college basketball preseason rankings last year, but they were knocked off by the Wisconsin Badgers in the Final Four. And then, as we all remember, Duke topped Wisconsin to win the whole thing.
Throughout the history of the hardwood, there have only been 14 seasons in which the AP No. 1 team in the preseason college basketball rankings has gone on to win the national championship. With the 2015 season nearing, let’s take a look back at the squads who went wire to wire.
AP Preseason No. 1 Teams To Win Championship
UCLA
1967
In his 19th season as the UCLA Bruins head coach, John Wooden secured his third national championship with the help of Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. Of course, back then he was known as Lew Alcindor, but the 7-foot-2 freshman center led the Bruins with 29 points per game and won his first AP Player of the Year award. The Bruins went undefeated on the year and ran through Wyoming, Pacific and Houston in the NCAA Tournament before finishing off Dayton 79-64 in the final.
1968
In Abdul-Jabbar’s sophomore season, he dominated as usual. He averaged 26.2 points and 16.5 rebounds per game for the UCLA Bruins. Abdul-Jabbar got help from guard Lucius Allen, who tacked on 15.1 points per game that season. It was the fourth national championship for Wooden. After managing just a nine-point win against New Mexico State in the first round of the tournament, UCLA sailed past Santa Clara and Houston before taking down North Carolina in the championship. The Bruins’ average margin of victory in the tournament was 21 points.
1969
Unfortunately for New Mexico State, it ran into the UCLA Bruins one more time in the opening round of the NCAA Tournament in what would be Abdul-Jabbar’s final collegiate season. Abdul-Jabbar averaged 24 points and 14.7 rebounds per game in the Bruins’ second consecutive year with a 29-1 record. Santa Clara, too, was unlucky enough to play UCLA in the second round. Wooden then led his squad past Drake and Purdue to win his fifth national title.
1971
After picking up a fourth-straight national championship the year before, Wooden’s Bruins went on to another 29-1 record. Junior Sidney Wicks led the team with 26 points per game and was a consensus All-American. Wicks was named the Helms Foundation Player of the Year, the Sporting News Player of the Year, and the USBWA Player of the Year. UCLA ran through BYU in the first round before narrowly beating Long Beach State 57-55. The Bruins snuck past Kansas and then Villanova in the final to win yet another title.
1972
Three years after Abdul-Jabbar left UCLA, Wooden found himself coaching yet another wildly talented big man in freshman Bill Walton. Walton led the Bruins with 21.1 points and 15.5 rebounds per game en route to the third undefeated season in the program’s history. UCLA crushed Weber State and Long Beach State in the first two rounds before beating Louisville to advance to the final. The Florida State Seminoles made it a ballgame but still lost 81-76 thanks to 24 points and 20 rebounds from Walton.
1973
In Walton’s sophomore season, he proved his stellar freshman season wasn’t a fluke. He went off for 20.4 points and 16.9 rebounds per game as the Bruins notched their second-straight season without a loss. UCLA eased on by against Arizona State, San Francisco and Indiana before beating Memphis in the final. The Bruins won by an average of 16 points in the NCAA tournament, and Wooden picked up his ninth title in 10 years.
Florida
2007
After winning his first national championship in 2006, Billy Donovan found himself coaching a Florida Gators team stacked for another title run. Joakim Noah, Al Horford and Corey Brewer combined for approximately 37 points per game. But it was point guard Taurean Green who led the Gators with 13.3 points per game and shot 40.6 percent from three-point range. Florida ran through Jackson State, Purdue and Butler to advance to the Elite Eight. The Gators then knocked off Oregon, UCLA and Ohio State to win their second straight championship.
Kentucky
1996
In his senior season, guard Tony Delk led Rick Pitino’s Kentucky Wildcats to a 34-2 record and was named the Southeastern Conference Player of the Year. Delk led the team with 17.8 points per game, and he shot 44.3 percent from three. The Wildcats wrecked San Jose State, Virginia Tech, Utah, Wake Forest, Massachusetts and finally Syracuse in the NCAA Tournament. Their average margin of victory was 21.5 points. It was their first championship since 1978.
Indiana
1987
By the 1986-87 season, Bob Knight had already led the Indiana Hoosiers to two national championships. With a 30-4 record, the Hoosiers captured their third title under Knight. Guard Steve Alford led the team with 22 points per game. Indiana’s path to the title included Fairfield, Auburn, Duke, LSU, UNLV and Syracuse. In the final round against the Orange, the Hoosiers squeaked by with a 74-73 win thanks to 23 points from Alford, 21 points from Keith Smart, and 20 points from Darryl Thomas.
Duke
1992
Mike Krzyzewski needed nine years to reach a national championship game with the Duke Blue Devils. In his 10th year, they won the whole thing. In the 1991-92 season, the Blue Devils got him a second ring. Christian Laettner, Grant Hill and Thomas Hill combined for approximately 50 points per game that season that saw Duke finish with a 34-2 overall record. The Blue Devils had no trouble in the NCAA tournament until a No. 2 seeded Kentucky team gave them a run for their money with a 104-103 final score in the Elite Eight. Duke beat Indiana 81-78 in the Final Four before securing a 20-point win against Michigan in the championship game.
North Carolina
1982
The North Carolina Tar Heels had only won one national championship when Dean Smith took over the program in 1961. Twenty years later, Smith’s team entered the season as the No. 1 ranked team in the country. James Worthy led the Tar Heels with 15.6 points per game while Sam Perkins also contributed 14.3 points per game. A true freshman named Michael Jordan was third on the team in scoring with 13.5 points per game. UNC finished 32-2, and Jordan hit one of the most iconic shots of his career in a 63-62 win against Georgetown for the championship — the first title of Smith’s career.
2009
It wasn’t until 27 years later that the Tar Heels again won the national championship after being the No. 1 ranked team in the AP Preseason poll. Roy Williams’ squad went 34-4 behind the leadership of senior Tyler Hansbrough and his 20.7 points per game. UNC finished off the season with an 89-72 win against Michigan State in the championship game. Hansbrough and point guard Ty Lawson combined for 39 points.
UNLV
1990
It took head coach Jerry Tarkanian 17 years to finally lead the UNLV Rebels to a national championship game, and they capped off the season with a 103-73 win against Duke in the final. UNLV finished the season 35-5 thanks to Larry Johnson, who averaged 20.6 points and 11.4 rebounds per game as a freshman. Johnson torched the Blue Devils for 22 points and 11 rebounds in 30 minutes while Anderson Hunt poured in 29 points in the championship game.
UConn
2004
The Connecticut Huskies were led by Ben Gordon and the eventual No. 2 overall pick in the 2004 NBA Draft: Emeka Okafor. They combined for approximately 43 points per game that year. UConn finished the season with a 33-6 record and edged out Vermont, DePaul, Vanderbilt, Alabama and Duke to advance to the title game against Georgia Tech. Jim Calhoun’s team beat the Yellow Jackets 82-73. Okafor went off for 24 points and 15 rebounds.
