Cincinnati To Start The Season As Top-Ranked Basketball Team

Tue., Nov. 12, 1996

Associated Press

Cincinnati, returning three starters from a team that fell one step shy of the Final Four last season, was No. 1 in The Associated Press preseason college basketball poll Monday, the school’s first top ranking in 34 years.

The Bearcats were a runaway choice of the national media panel, receiving 34 first-place votes and 1,641 points. Kansas, which will have to play at least the early part of the season without injured guard Jacque Vaughn, was second with 15 No. 1 votes and 1,548 points, six more than defending national champion Kentucky, which had 13 first-place votes.

Wake Forest, which has the only returning All-American in center Tim Duncan, was fourth with six No. 1 votes and 1,524 points. UCLA, which will enter the season under 32-year-old interim head coach Steve Lavin, was fifth.

Eight of the teams in this year’s preseason Top 25 poll weren’t in last season’s final poll.

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Cincinnati To Start The Season As Top-Ranked Basketball Team

Jesse Tinsley

Jim Meehan

Molly Quinn

Rob Curley

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