It’s almost time for tip off, ladies and gentlemen!
The first Associated Press (AP) Top 25 college basketball poll of the season — known exactly as the AP preseason men’s Top 25 basketball poll — was released Monday, leaving the mark that a new campaign is on the horizon! Glory! (Especially after the Final Four season from my Miami Hurricanes last year)
And the verdict of the polling is … *drum roll* … not many surprises. Deflating, I know.
Though I do have a complaint regarding my Canes, but we’ll get to that in a minute.
Here are the Top 25, with Kansas and Duke dominating No. 1 and No. 2 with 57 combined first place votes out of 63 total:
- Kansas (46)
- Duke (11)
- Purdue (3)
- Michigan State (1)
- Marquette
- UConn (2)
- Houston
- Creighton
- Tennessee
- FAU
- Gonzaga
- Arizona
- Miami
- Arkansas
- Texas A&M
- Kentucky
- San Diego State
- Texas
- North Carolina
- Baylor
- USC
- Villanova
- Saint Mary’s
- Alabama
- Illinois
Kansas is No. 1 in the preseason men’s AP Top 25; Duke, Purdue next as 5 teams get first-place votes https://t.co/VJqIFHJsL4
— The Associated Press (@AP) October 16, 2023
See, not any shockers, pretty much what you would expect heading into the new season.
But with that being said, like I mentioned earlier, I do have a complaint regarding my Canes. I’m just a bit confused as to why we — despite us making the Final Four last campaign — come in at No. 13 in the preseason poll. It doesn’t make any sense to me, especially considering a smaller school (and fellow Final Four ticket puncher), FAU, is ahead of us at No. 10 (but shout out to FAU though).
Is it because we lost Isaiah Wong to the NBA?
That can’t be it, because we return Nijel Pack, Norchad Omier and Wooga Poplar as starters, who are surrounded by one of the most experienced lineups in all of college basketball going into 2023-24. (RELATED: Auburn Basketball’s Jewish Head Coach Bruce Pearl Blasts Obama, Biden As The Ones Who ‘Created The Crap’ In Israel)
We’re at least Top 10, easily. But you know how it goes … more anti-Miami bias from the national media.