The Missouri basketball team’s No. 15 ranking in the AP Preseason Top 25 Poll is tied for the eighth-highest preseason ranking in school history, as well as the highest starting point for the Tigers in the Mike Anderson era.

The ranking is a nod to Missouri’s rising national profile, but if the last 10 years are any indication, the ranking far from guarantees the team any conference or postseason success. For reference, I compiled a list of the last 10 teams voted No. 15 in the AP preseason poll, aiming to highlight the tremendous variability between teams ranked in that spot:

Follow the jump for observations on what recent history says about the preseason No. 15.

• Exactly half of the preseason No. 15 teams finished the season unranked in the final AP Poll.
• All but two of the teams ranked lower in the final AP poll than in the preseason poll.
• Eight of the teams at least qualified for the NCAA Tournament. However, only two of the teams won more than one tournament game.
• The last three years have provided a glimpse at the high and low points for No. 15 teams during this century. 2009-10 Michigan fell apart and became the only team on the list to finish with a losing record and miss postseason play altogether. Instead, Michigan’s season ended on an incredible last-second shot from Ohio State’s Evan Turner in the Big Ten Tournament. 2007-08 Texas, on the other hand, split the Big 12 regular season title with Kansas and eventually lost in the Elite Eight to Memphis, a school which would later have to vacate its win that season for use of an ineligible player (presumed to be future NBA first overall pick Derrick Rose).ici