2009 pre-season poll

Holy crapoly! Ron Kern's pre-season poll is due out in a couple of weeks and I am still one of the pollsters. (We call ourselves "pollsters", as you can see. Dweebs may be more accurate, but we're not using that. End of discussion.) It's a lot of work, let me tell you, with very little appreciation in return. Ron appreciates it, of course, since the damned poll has his name on it, but that's about it.

Here's what I've gathered together so far, after a good three hours of unappreciated work:

1) My 2008 end-of-the-year ranking -- as good a place to start as any, if I say so myself.
2) Pablo's 2008 end-of-the-year ratings. Si!
3) Ron's final 2008 RKPI. Required, says Ron.
4) PrepVolleyball.com's 2009 recruit lists -- senior aces and top recruiting classes.

What I still need:

1) A refresher on the 2008 seniors (and 2009 transfers) -- damned if I remember anyone other than Larson, Barboza, Akinradewo, Fawcett and Harmotto. I bet there were more.
2) That AVCA preview deal they do every year, which gets more and more unreliable with each passing year. Half-assed comes to mind, if you pardon my Deutsch. It would not surprise me if they just skip it this year.
3) Pre-season conference rankings. Always nice to have to coaches' input.
4) A shot or ten of whiskey.

Excited to see the results? Me neither, but that's what I'm going to have for you. It'll be good for a blog or ten.

Oh! I remember something else. A list of surprises so far. Stuff I never knew or have forgotten already:

1) USC isn't in the top 30 recruiting classes and they are coming off of a 17-12 year. 2010's class looks fabulous, but what's 2009 going to be like for the Trojanettes? No Carico either.
2) The RKPI has those funky rankings for St. Louis (#8) and Tulane (#19). Shall I ignore them again?
3) Pablo has those funky ratings for UCLA (#8) and Florida (#22). Ditto?
4) The RKPI and Pablo really don't get along -- see Florida (#12 v. #22), Colorado State (#21 v. #49), Oregon (#7 v. #20), Iowa State (#31 v. #11), Michigan (#39 v. #14), New Mexico State (#33 v. #16), St. Louis (#8 v. #27), Arizona (#78 v. #23!), Texas A&M (#57 v. #13!), Ohio (#23 v. #49), Middle Tennessee (#24 v. #66), and Florida International (#25 v. #78!).
5) Top 10 recruiting classes include Purdue (#8), Cal Poly (#9) and Iowa State (#10). Nice to see some rising programs getting even better.

More to come ...