Fans who are simply itching for some basketball have been counting down the days until the start of the 2011-12 NCAA basketball season, while the preseason AP poll is putting the rank and file to all the schools, combing through to find the best of the best. One of those teams just so happens to be the Cal Golden Bears, coming in under the wire at No. 24 in the preseason poll.
North Carolina and Kentucky are the consensus No. 1 and No. 2 in the nation in both the AP and USA Today polls, with the Tar Heels getting a staggering amount of first place votes in both. In fact, the top seven schools mirror each other in both of the polls, with Ohio State, Connecticut, Syracuse, Duke, and Vanderbilt rounding out the top seven.
As for Cal, They made it by the skin of their noses into the top 25, joined by Gonzaga (No. 23), UCLA (No. 17), and Arizona (No. 16) as the only West coast schools to make the grade, holding schools like Washington and UNLV just barely off the list.
For more on Cal basketball, head over to California Golden Blogs to get your fix.