BATON ROUGE — Blue Ribbon College Basketball Yearbook has put the LSU men’s basketball team No. 21 in its preseason Top 25, the company announced this week.
Blue Ribbon, known as the “Bible” of college basketball, is in its 23rd year. This season, the book is available by direct order only. Blue Ribbon can be purchased at www.blueribbonyearbook.com, or by calling 866-237-7367, Ext. 130.
Connecticut led by returnees Emeka Okafor at center and guards Taliek Brown and Ben Gordon was the unanimous choice of Blue Ribbon’s panel of editors as the No. 1 team in the preseason poll.
LSU joins Florida (4) and Kentucky (13) as the three SEC teams in the preseason Top 25. The Big 12, Big East and ACC are represented in the poll by four teams each. Also with three teams like the SEC are the Pac-10 and the Big Ten along with two from Conference USA.
In the SEC predictions, Blue Ribbon is picking the Tigers as the favorites in the Western Division followed by Mississippi State, Auburn, Arkansas, Ole Miss and Alabama. In the East, the book is picking Florida, followed by Kentucky, Tennessee, Vanderbilt, Georgia and South Carolina.
LSU senior Jaime Lloreda is listed on the preseason, first-team All-Conference team with LSU listed by Blue Ribbon as having the second best frontcourt in the league behind Auburn.