At the conclusion of last week's NCAA championship game, people immediately started looking ahead to the 2011-12 basketball season. While many teams are expected to fade next season with the loss of star players or other teams could rise with the addition of a strong recruiting class, we all know what to expect from the Michigan basketball team (assuming Darius Morris returns, of course). After making a strong run to finish the season and nearly upsetting Duke in the third round of the NCAA tournament, hopes are naturally high in Ann Arbor with the entire team set to return.
↵Expectations outside of Ann Arbor are also high for the Wolverines. Similar to two years ago after a tournament run, early polls for 2011-12 have Michigan not only ranked, but ranked pretty high. The Wolverines were 15th in the preseason polls two years ago, and some of the early polls that came out last week have them even higher than that. Below is a rundown of the different polls or tournament projections and where they place Michigan.
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- ESPN.com's Andy Katz: 16th ↵
- SI.com's Luke Winn: 13th ↵
- RealGM's Dan Hanner: 2nd in Big Ten ↵
- CBSSports.com's Gary Parrish: 16th ↵
- USA Today's 2012 Tournament Projection: 4 seed ↵
- Sporting News: 10th ↵
Aside from being mentioned as a sleeper, Michigan State is not included in any of the preseason polls. In the Big Ten standings projection the Spartans are fourth in the conference and in the tournament projection they are an 11 seed.