BearTalk

ESPN The Magazine and ESPN.com have released their joint preseason college basketball “Power Rankings,” and they look awfully familiar. Compare them to both the preseason AP top-25 and the ESPN/USA Today coaches poll, and there’s hardly a difference.

Cal is No. 24 in the “Power Rankings,” the same spot it occupies in the AP and coaches polls.

Here are ESPN’s “Power Rankings:”

1. North Carolina
2. Kentucky
3. Ohio State
4. Connecticut
5. Syracuse
6. Duke
7. Vanderbilt
8. Florida
9. Memphis
10. Louisville
11. Pittsburgh
12. Baylor
13. Wisconsin
14. Kansas
15. Xavier
16. Arizona
17. Marquette
18. Alabama
19. Cincinnati
20. UCLA
21. Texas A & M
22. Michigan
23. Gonzaga
24. California
25. Michigan State