BATON ROUGE — Street and Smith magazine has become the latest pre-season publication to rank the LSU men’s basketball team highly in its Top 25 look at the upcoming 2006-07 basketball season.
LSU is ranked sixth in the Street and Smith poll in the magazine that hits shelves on Oct. 10. It is the second outlet, following ESPN’s Andy Katz and his Summer Top 50 ranking of No. 5 for LSU, that has put the Tigers, the defending SEC champions, in the Top 10. LSU was 27-9 a year ago, 14-2 in the SEC and advanced to the school’s first NCAA Final Four in 20 years.
The defending national champions, the Florida Gators, are ranked as the pre-season No. 1, followed by Kansas, North Carolina, Pittsburgh and Duke in front of LSU. Wisconsin, Georgetown, Ohio State and UCLA round out the top 10.
Other SEC teams in the Top 25 are Alabama at No. 11 and Kentucky at No. 22.
The complete pre-season Top 25 from Street and Smith:
1. Florida
2. Kansas
3. North Carolina
4. Pittsburgh
5. Duke
6. LSU
7. Wisconsin
8. Georgetown
9. Ohio State
10. UCLA
11. Alabama
12. Arizona
13. Texas A&M
14. Memphis
15. Boston College
16. Marquette
17. Creighton
18. Syracuse
19. Georgia Tech
20. Nevada
21. Gonzaga
22. Kentucky
23. Villanova
24. San Diego State
25. Southern California
Glen Davis of LSU was chosen first team All-SEC and preseason second-team All-American.