Athlon ranks Loyola in their Preseason Top 25

[tornado]

The preseason previews get earlier and earlier every year...

Here's Athlon's Preseason Top 25 - Loyola is #25

1-Kansas
2-Virginia
3-Gonzaga
4-Duke
5-Nevada
6-Michigan State
7-Tennessee
8-West Virginia
9-North Carolina
10-Syracuse
11-Auburn
12-Virginia Tech
13-Kansas State
14-UCLA
15-Kentucky
16-Villanova
17-TCU
18-Oregon
19-Mississippi State
20-Michigan
21-Washington
22-Cincinnati
23-Marquette
24-Nebraska
25-Loyola

[pfcmsh]

I'm surprised Louisville and Wichita State are not in the top 25.

[PTownHawkeye]

I'm surprised Louisville and Wichita State are not in the top 25.

I'm not surprised about Wichita. I think they are going to be a .500 team this year. They lost pretty much everybody.

[tornado]

yeah- there's an MVC team there but not Wichita or Creighton...but the money probably soothes everything

[pfcmsh]

I'm not surprised about Wichita. I think they are going to be a .500 team this year. They lost pretty much everybody.

What did Coach Marshall do to fill the vacancies he knew were certain?

[tornado]

he has a bunch of decent recruits coming in and one transfer that is NOT yet cleared to be eligible and may have to sit out a year

They missed on several higher rated recruits and most of the ones they landed are 2 star - plus a couple juco kids - one of whom wasn't even a starter on his juco team and averaged just 9 ppg & 6 rpg
....hard to see where any of his newcomers will have much impact at that level right away - might take a couple years...
...if I am wrong and Gregg Marshall can quickly turn these guys into studs and wins the American Athletic Conference,
then I will plead my mea culpa and convert to Greggorianism

[Dub]

100% agree Loyola should be in the preseason T25. I think this is a great sign of respect for our league champion not to be thought of as a fluke 2 months after the season ends.

Besides that, anyone who actually watched them in the NCAA tourney can't deny they truly played as a legit top 10 team. Different style of play, yes, but at an elite level nonetheless.