Duke ‘developing,’ but still No. 1 pick

— Defending national champion Duke was a runaway No. 1 in The Associated Press preseason Top 25 men’s basketball poll.

At the other end of the Top 25 there was big news Thursday with San Diego State entering the rankings for the first time ever.

Duke, on top for a seventh time, has two starters returning to a roster featuring highly touted freshman Kyrie Irving and transfer Seth Curry, the younger brother of NBA player Stephen Curry.

Hall of Fame coach Mike Krzyzewski doesn’t think it’s fair to say a team is trying to repeat when there have been so many changes since the Blue Devils beat Butler for their fourth national championship.

“To repeat is a bad word [to use],” said Krzyzewski, who spent the summer leading the U.S. national team to the gold medal at the world championship. “... What you want to do is have the same result, of winning the national championship, but figure out what journey you’re going to be on along the way. And so pursue is a good word for me, and develop. We’re going to be a developing team throughout.”

They’re also a team that garnered 55 first-place votes from the 65-member national media panel, easily outdistancing Michigan State, which had eight No. 1 votes. Kansas State was third, followed by Ohio State and Pittsburgh.

Four schools that were not ranked at all last season made the preseason poll: Missouri,Memphis, Virginia Tech and San Diego State.

The Big Ten, Big 12 and Big East all had four teams in the rankings, while the Atlantic Coast Conference and SEC both had three. The Mountain West was the only other conference with more than one team in the poll.

Sports, Pages 25 on 10/29/2010

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