Florida begins the upcoming men’s college basketball season exactly where it finished two years ago – at the top of the AP preseason Top 25. The Gators secured 47 of the 59 first‑place votes from a national panel of media members, marking the first time Coach Todd Golden’s squad has opened a season ranked No. 1 since the final poll of 2025, when they captured the school’s third national championship.
Coach Golden’s Outlook
“It’s cool,” Golden said of the ranking, “but like, we’ve been No. 1 before. We won a national championship before. That’s what I want our program to expect. That’s what we want to kind of go into every season at.” He added that the team feels better prepared for early‑season expectations after learning from last year’s experience.
How the Gators Earned the Top Spot
Florida entered last season at No. 3 before dropping out of the poll in early January. The Gators rebounded to win the SEC regular‑season title, only to be upset by Iowa as a No. 1 seed in the second round of the NCAA Tournament. Returning players such as Thomas Haugh, Alex Condon, Rueben Chinyelu and Denzel Aberdeen—who was granted an extra season of eligibility by the courts—provide a solid core of experience.
“We didn’t finish the way that we wanted to last year, so everyone’s kind of got that in the back of their head as motivation,” Condon said. “Times where we’re struggling in conditioning at 6 a.m., we just went back to that, and I feel like we’ve talked about it a few times with the core group, how motivating it is the fact that we fell short.”
Duke and Illinois Also Receive First‑Place Votes
Duke earned 10 first‑place votes and sits second in the poll. The Blue Devils matched their highest preseason ranking since 2017, though Coach Jon Scheyer cautioned that the final placement will depend on performance. Duke has won 70 games over the past two seasons—a school record for such a span—yet recent losses to UConn in the Elite Eight and Houston in the Final Four have left a sting.
“I feel like any time I step on the court, I believe me and my teammates are going to win,” said forward Dame Sarr, who joins Caleb Foster, Patrick Ngongba II and Cayden Boozer as the team’s returning nucleus.
“I feel like we have a chance to win a national championship,” Sarr added. “It’s just doing a better job this year.”
Illinois captured the remaining two first‑place votes and sits third. The Illini return five of their top eight scorers—including Andrej Stojakovic and David Mirkovic—from a squad that reached the Final Four for the first time in two decades.
Other Top Teams in the Preseason Rankings
UConn and Arizona, both coming off recent Final Four appearances, round out the top five. Michigan State, Texas, Tennessee, Virginia and Houston complete the top ten.
Louisville, Arkansas, St. John’s, Miami and Gonzaga follow, while Michigan, Kansas, Iowa State, Texas Tech and Alabama close out the top 20. The final five spots are occupied by USC, UCLA, Kentucky, Vanderbilt and BYU.
Notable Mentions and Milestones
Kansas’ roster features the nation’s No. 1 recruit, Tyran Stokes, a year after Darryn Peterson’s highly touted season ended with an early tournament exit. The addition of All‑Big Ten forward Trey Kaufman‑Renn from Purdue, along with the return of Tre White and Melvin Council III thanks to court decisions, could shift Kansas’ fortunes.
Kentucky logged its 998th appearance in the poll and is poised to become the first program to reach 1,000 entries within two weeks.
Vanderbilt, which finished 19th last year, re‑entered the Top 25 for the first time since 2015, while BYU returned despite losing one‑and‑done phenom A.J. Dybantsa, the No. 1 overall pick in the NBA draft.
Teams on the Cusp of the Top 25
Missouri sits just outside the Top 25 and could break in soon. Forward Mark Mitchell was granted an injunction to play another season, joining a roster loaded with veterans, elite transfers and five‑star freshmen.
Nebraska follows as the next‑best of the rest, while Purdue received a respectable number of votes but fell short of ending its 79‑week streak in the poll—a run second only to Houston’s 127‑week streak.
These rankings set the stage for a competitive season, with veteran squads and fresh talent alike vying for national prominence.
Original reporting: KSAT Sports (San Antonio) — read the source article.
