Florida is No. 1 in preseason AP men’s poll
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Florida will start the men’s college basketball season where it ended it two seasons ago: No. 1.
The Gators were the overwhelming pick to top the preseason AP Top 25 on Monday, receiving 47 of the 59 first-place votes from a panel of national media. It is the first time that coach Todd Golden’s bunch has resided on top since the final poll in 2025, after they had beaten Houston to deliver the school its third national championship.
“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.”
Duke received 10 first-place votes and was second in the preseason poll. Illinois received the other two and was third.
The Gators started last season at No. 3 but crashed out of the poll entirely by early January. They rallied to win the Southeastern Conference regular-season championship, only to get stunned by Iowa as a No. 1 seed in the second round of the NCAA Tournament.
“I think we’re more prepared this year for early-season expectations than we were last year,” Golden said. “We were kind of gathering ourselves, figuring (things) out for the first time, where this year we can use last year’s experience to learn from.”
In an era of roster upheaval -- some teams still don’t know who will be eligible as court cases play out -- the Gators have the benefit of experience on their side. Thomas Haugh, Alex Condon, Rueben Chinyelu and Denzel Aberdeen all played on their national title team.
Aberdeen, back after a year at Kentucky, is among the players who’ve been granted another season of eligibility by the courts.
The Blue Devils matched their highest preseason ranking since they were No. 1 in 2017, though coach Jon Scheyer is well aware that where they end up is what matters. Duke has won 70 games over the past two seasons, a school record for such a stretch, but losses to UConn in the Elite Eight and Houston in the Final Four have left a sting on Tobacco Road.
“I feel like any time I step on the court, I believe me and my teammates are going to win,” said Dame Sarr, who along with Caleb Foster, Patrick Ngongba II and Cayden Boozer give Duke a talented returning nucleus to go with its top-tier recruiting class.
Illinois matched its best preseason ranking since 2001, and returns five of its top eight scorers -- headlined by Andrej Stojakovic and David Mirkovic -- from a team that made its first Final Four appearance in two decades last season.
UConn and Arizona, each coming off a Final Four trip of their own, rounded out the top five of the preseason poll.
Michigan State, Texas, Tennessee, Virginia and Houston finished out the first 10, while Louisville, Arkansas, St. John’s, Miami and Gonzaga were next. Michigan, Kansas, Iowa State, Texas Tech and Alabama rounded out the top 20, while the final five in the Top 25 were USC, UCLA, Kentucky, Vanderbilt and BYU.