ESPN’s Joe Lunardi includes KU, K-State in his first Bracketology of the school year

Kansas will claim the top overall seed, while Kansas State will secure a No. 10 seed in the 2025 NCAA Tournament, predicts ESPN.com’s Joe Lunardi.

Lunardi in his first bracketology of the 2024-25 school year indicated KU would meet No. 16 seed Colgate in a first-round Midwest Regional contest in Wichita. The winner of that game would face either No. 8 seed Clemson or No. 9 Mississippi in the second round.

Lunardi picked Auburn as No. 2 seed, Arizona of the Big 12 No. 3 and Tennessee No. 4 in the Midwest.

Lunardi penciled in K-State as No. 10 seed in the West with a first-round matchup against No. 7 seed Marquette. The winner would play either No. 2 North Carolina or No. 15 Weber State in the second round in Raleigh, North Carolina.

Lunardi awarded the Big 12 nine bids: KU, Arizona and K-State, plus Houston as a No. 1 seed, Iowa State a 2, Baylor a 3, Texas Tech a 4, Cincinnati a 5 and BYU a 7.

The regional sites are Newark, New Jersey (East), San Francisco (West), Atlanta (South) and Indianapolis (Midwest). The Final Four is in San Antonio.

Missouri, Wichita State and Kansas City will not receive bids, according to Lunardi. Nebraska was mentioned as one of four teams to be in the “first four out” category.

ESPN.com’s Jeff Borzello proclaims KU’s Nov. 26 game against Duke in Las Vegas as the Jayhawks’ “one nonconference game to watch.”

“It’s our preseason No. 1 team facing the projected No. 1 pick in the 2025 NBA Draft in Duke’s Cooper Flagg,” Borzello wrote. “The Jayhawks have big games against North Carolina and Michigan State earlier in the month, but the role allocations should be a bit more defined by the time they arrive in Vegas.

KU tops poll of coaches

KU will be the “best team” in the country this season, according to a poll of 100 college coaches conducted by CBS Sports.

In, all, 35.6% of the coaches chose KU as top team in the country. Alabama received 27.9% of the vote, Houston 13.5%, Duke 9.6% and UConn 7.7%. Arizona, Baylor, Gonzaga and North Carolina also received votes.

Here are some comments about the 2024-25 Jayhawks from coaches who were not identified:

• “They have a strong group of returners, with Hunter Dickinson being a potential player of (the) year. AJ Storr could prove to be a huge pickup for them, with Rylan Griffen from Alabama being a major sleeper too.”

• “They have a phenomenal core of experienced players in Dajuan Harris, Hunter Dickinson and KJ Adams. They also add AJ Storr and others to go with that incredible home-court advantage.”

• “They absolutely reloaded. Self ain’t going through what he went through last year!”

UConn will be vying for a third straight NCAA title this season.

An unnamed coach had this to say about the Huskies: “Until somebody knocks UConn off the throne, I’m going with them. I know the team will be different and there will be unreal expectations, but they were playing at a different level than everybody else last year in the tournament. I know a lot of it had to do with their personnel, but it also had a lot to do with Dan Hurley and his coaching staff.”