LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) – This item is going to have Mike Krzyzewski, Roy Williams and the folks in the ACC league office looking for the Tums, but today figures to be a historic day for college basketball – especially in the Kentuckiana Triangle.
It's going to be the first time that Louisville, Kentucky and Indiana all start the season in the top five in the Associated Press college basketball poll. The poll is expected to be released this afternoon.
There's an excellent chance they'll all be in the top three with Indiana first, Louisville second and UK third. Tom Crean's Indiana team has already been named Number One by the USA Today coaches' poll. Louisville and Rick Pitino are the pick of Dick Vitale and several other analysts. And John Calipari and Kentucky are trying to defend the NCAA title they won in New Orleans last April.
But they've never all been in the top five prior to the season. I asked the dean of the poll – Jim O'Connell, the national college hoops writer for the Associated Press.
This is what he said:
It's never happened with all three in the top five but it has happened four times with all three in Top Ten since the preseason poll started for 1961-62 season.
1974: No. 3 Indiana, No. 9 Louisville, No. 10 Kentucky
1976: No. 1 Indiana, No. 6 Kentucky, No. 8 Louisville
1977: No. 5 Indiana, No. 6 Kentucky, No. 9 Louisville
1983: No. 4 Kentucky, No. 8 Louisville, No. 9 Indiana
There have been 10 other times when all three were in the preseason poll:
1975: No. 3 Indiana, No. 8 Louisville, No. 16 Kentucky
1979: No. 4 Louisville, No. 10 Indiana, No. 11 Kentucky
1980: No. 1 Indiana, No. 5 Kentucky, No. 14 Louisville
1982: No. 3 Kentucky, No. 4 Louisville, No. 12 Indiana
1984: No. 2 Kentucky, No. 6 Louisville, No. 19 Indiana
1988: No. 5 Kentucky, No 6 Indiana , No. 13 Louisville
1992: No. 2 Indiana, No. 4 Kentucky, No. 25 Louisville
1994: No. 2 Kentucky, No. 7 Louisville, No. 12 Indiana
2006: No. 7 Louisville, No. 9 Kentucky, No. 23 Indiana
2008: No. 6 Louisville, No. 9 Indiana, No. 20 Kentucky.
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IU, U of L and UK have never all started the season in the Top Five of the AP college basketball poll.
