Kansas tops preseason AP men's basketball poll
Head coach Bill Self likes to remind his team that the faces may change at Kansas but the expectations within his program never do.
Expectations outside the program? Turns out they are as high as possible this year.
The Jayhawks were the clear No. 1 pick in the AP Top 25 preseason men's basketball poll released Monday, earning 46 of 63 first-place votes to easily outdistance No. 2 Duke and No. 3 Purdue. It's the third time since Self's arrival in Lawrence in 2003 that his team will start the season on top but the first time since the 2018-19 season.
The Jayhawks had a disappointing follow-up to their 2022 national title last season, losing to Texas in the Big 12 championship and falling to Arkansas in the opening weekend of the NCAA Tournament.
Kansas has three returning starters in McCullar, DaJuan Harris Jr. and KJ Adams, along with top-50 recruit Elmarko Jackson and Michigan transfer Hunter Dickinson, perhaps the biggest prize of this past summer's portal moves.
Duke picked up 11 first-place votes to land at No. 2 in Jon Scheyer's second season, and Purdue got three first-place nods as it tries to avenge a stunning end to last season. AP player of the year Zach Edey and the Boilermakers became the second men's No. 1 seed to lose to a No. 16 seed when they lost to Fairleigh Dickinson in the NCAA Tournament.
Edey's deadline-day decision to return to the Boilermakers, rather than turn pro, kept them a national title contender.
Michigan State was fourth with one first-place vote, its highest ranking since December 2020, and Marquette rounded out the top five with AP coach of the year Shaka Smart returning a loaded squad led by third-team All-American Tyler Kolek.
That's the highest ranking for the Golden Eagles since they were No. 3 in March 1978, when they were known as the Warriors.
Defending national champion UConn was sixth with two first-place votes after losing standouts Adam Sanogo and Jordan Hawkins. The Huskies were followed by Big 12 newcomer Houston, Creighton, Tennessee and Florida Atlantic, which returns just about everyone from the team that went 35-4 and made a surprising Final Four run last season.
Gonzaga was No. 11 followed by Arizona, Miami, Arkansas and Texas A&M. Kentucky came in at No. 16 with national runner-up San Diego State next, while Texas, North Carolina and Baylor rounded out the top 20.
USC, coming off a 22-11 season, is 21st. UCLA, which was No. 7 in the final poll last season, missed out on the Top 25.
Former All-Star first baseman Walsh outrighted by Angels
Jared Walsh, who was an All-Star in 2021, was among six players outrighted by the Angels. It's the first step toward all six of them becoming free agents.
Right-handers Jaime Barria and Carson Fullmer, left-hander Jhonathan Diaz, outfielder Brett Phillips and catcher Chad Wallach were also outrighted.
Walsh, Barria, Phillips and Wallach were all arbitration eligible, making them candidates to be non-tendered in November.
All six players will officially become free agents once they refuse the outright assignment. The Angels could eventually re-sign any of the players.
Walsh, 30, never returned to the level he reached in his breakthrough season in 2021, when he hit 29 homers with an .850
OPS. In 2022, he battled thoracic outlet syndrome, hitting .215 with 15 homers and a .642 OPS.
This season, Walsh struggled with insomnia and neurological issues in April and early May. Once he was finally activated, he struggled and was sent back to Triple-A. Walsh returned to the majors in September, in which he was 5 for 37 with 19 strikeouts and no walks. For the season, he hit .125 with four homers and a .494 OPS.
Barria, 27, had a 2.61 ERA, pitching mostly in long relief, in 2022, but he had a 5.68 ERA in 2023.
Wallach, 31, was one of the Angels primary catchers for much of the season, while Logan O'Hoppe was injured.
• Kim Ng is leaving the Miami Marlins after three seasons as general manager, Marlins chairman and principal owner Bruce Sherman announced Monday.
Ng, 54, became the majors' highestranking woman in baseball operations and the first female GM in the four major North American professional sports leagues in a groundbreaking hire in November 2020.
The Marlins exercised their team option for her to return for the 2024 season, Sherman said in a statement, but Ng declined her mutual option.
“Last week, Bruce and I discussed his plan to reshape the Baseball Operations department. In our discussions, it became apparent that we were not completely aligned on what that should look like,” Ng, a former Dodgers assistant general manager, told the Athletic on Monday. “I felt it best to step away. I wish to express my sincere gratitude and appreciation to the Marlins family and its fans for my time in South Florida. This year was a great step forward for the organization.”
Ng previously spent 21 years in the front offices of the Chicago White Sox (1990-96), New York Yankees (1998-2001) and Dodgers (2002-11). Before joining the Marlins, she was an MLB senior vice president for nine years.
Miami went 220-266 during Ng's tenure, including 84-78 this season.
Last October, she hired former Cardinals bench coach Skip Schumaker, and he guided the Marlins to a postseason berth in his first year as manager.
Miami lost to the Philadelphia Phillies in the Wild Card Series earlier this month.
Ng was the fifth general manager in the Marlins' history.
Georgia standout tight end Bowers undergoes ankle surgery
Brock Bowers, the dynamic tight end for No. 1 Georgia and one of the nation's most versatile offensive players, will be out at least a month after sustaining a high ankle sprain that required surgery.
Georgia announced that Bowers had surgery on his left ankle on Monday, two days after he hobbled off the field in the first half of a 37-20 victory at Vanderbilt.
Bowers, who combines speed and size rarely found in a tight end, leads Georgia with 41 receptions for 567 yards and four touchdowns. Lining up all over the field, he also has rushed six times for 28 yards and another score.
• Wisconsin quarterback Tanner Mordecai is out indefinitely after undergoing surgery after breaking his throwing hand in a loss to Iowa on Saturday.
Mordecai, a sixth-year senior, has completed 63.7% of his passes for 1,127 yards with three touchdowns and three interceptions this season. He also had rushed for 161 yards and four touchdowns.
He transferred to Wisconsin (4-2, 2-1 Big Ten) after throwing for 3,500 yards each of the last two seasons at SMU.