By Dalton Ray —
Living in the top 25 for the past five years, men’s and women’s basketball will start the 2017-18 season ranked once again.
The men begin the season at No. 16 in the AP and Coaches Poll. The women start the season at No. 9 in the AP and No. 10 in the Coaches.
On the men’s side, U of L plays seven preseason ranked opponents. Out of conference, the Cards play No. 5 Kentucky, No. 20 Purdue and No. 23 Seton Hall.
In conference, the usual suspects start the season ranked: Duke (No. 1), North Carolina (No. 9), Miami (No. 13) and Notre Dame (No. 14).
Sitting just outside the 25 is Virginia and Virginia Tech, who received votes in both polls. Louisville will also host Indiana on Dec. 3 at home.
For the women, coach Jeff Walz and the gang faces five preseason ranked opponents: No. 1 UConn, No. 5 Ohio State, No. 6 Notre Dame, No. 12 Duke and No. 18 Florida State.
Seven of the women’s opponents received top 25 votes, highlighted by Kentucky, Virginia, Miami and North Carolina.
The men are led by seniors Quentin Snider and Anas Mahmoud and junior Deng Adel. Snider and Adel are All-ACC selects.
Senior Myisha Hines-Allen and junior Asia Durr lead the way for the women. Both made the All-ACC preseason team with Durr being selected as the preseason ACC Player of the Year.
Freshman Dana Evans was selected to the Newcomers Watch List, chosen by the league’s coaches.
The men are predicted to finish fifth by the coaches while the women are placed to finish second.
You can follow Dalton Ray on Twitter at @dray5477.
File photo / The Louisville Cardinal
