With men’s basketball approaching, the Associated Press released its preseason Top 25 poll on Monday. Kansas is once again ranked No. 1, with Alabama in second and UConn, the defending NCAA champions, in third.
Kansas received 30 first-place votes to take the top spot, while Alabama received 14 and UConn 11. Houston, which is in fourth place, received four first-place votes, while No. 6 Gonzaga received one.
Rounding out the rest of the Top 10 are Iowa State at fifth, Duke – led by freshman recruit Cooper Flagg – at No. 7, and Baylor, North Carolina and Arizona at eighth, ninth and 10th, respectively.
Kansas, which also topped the preseason poll last year, struggled all season, ultimately losing to Gonzaga in the second round of the NCAA tournament. This season, Kansas coach Bill Self — in addition to senior Jayhawks stars Hunter Dickinson, Dajuan Harris Jr. and KJ Adams Jr. – added several key transfers, with AJ Storr (Wisconsin), Zeke Mayo (South Dakota State) and Rylan Griffen (Alabama) joining the team.
“We’re happy to be No. 1, especially with our returning players like Hunter, Dajuan and KJ, and then you add in the players we brought in,” Self told the Associated Press. “The goal is to be No. 1 at the end of the season, and while we welcome this, it is not the end goal.”
The Big 12 Conference has some of the highest-ranked teams in the poll, including three of the top five and five of the top 10. The SEC has the most in the Top 25 overall, with a total of nine teams.
No. 14 seed Purdue will have to adjust without star center Zach Edey, who was drafted by the Memphis Grizzlies. Rutgers, meanwhile, is ranked No. 25, which is the first time the team has been ranked in the preseason poll since 1978, according to the AP.
AP Top 25
The full AP preseason Top 25 poll from October 24, 2024
1. Kansas
2. Alabama
3. UConn
4. Houston
5. Iowa State
6. Gonzaga
7. Duke
8. Baylor
9. North Carolina
10. Arizona
11. Chestnut brown
12.Tennessee
13. Texas A&M
14.Purdue
15.Creighton
16.Arkansas
17.Indiana
18. Marquette
19.Texas
20. Cincinnati
21. Florida
22.UCLA
23.Kentucky
24. Ole ma’am
25. Rutgers
