In a few weeks, the NCAA basketball season will begin. The National Association of Basketball Coaches and USA TODAY Sports have partnered to publish the preseason coaches poll in anticipation of that.
Preseason rankings do provide a glimpse into which programs are seen to have the most talent, even though they frequently prove to be an unreliable indicator of future success. As a result, one may anticipate seeing many well-known colleges listed in the Top 25. That is accurate, but there are also some relatively new programs that just generated a lot of buzz during March Madness.
One of those enduring powers, Kansas, will start the year atop the rankings. 23 of the 32 panelists chose the Kansas Jayhawks as the top team. It will be Kansas’ fifth preseason No. 1 ranking overall and its first since 2018 when USA TODAY started conducting the coaches poll.
In the coaches poll, Purdue debuts at No. 2, which is their highest preseason position ever. Five of the first-place votes went to the Boilermakers, while Duke garnered three more. The third-ranked Blue Devils will go first, then No. 4-ranked Michigan State.
The defending national champion Connecticut received the lone first-place vote, and it will start the season at No. 5 overall. In the preseason poll, which is led by the Huskies, all of previous season’s Final Four teams are included. Florida Atlantic is among them, following their unexpected run as a No. 9 regional seed to the season’s final weekend. The Owls received their first-ever preseason ranking at No. 9. San Diego State, the runner-up, and Miami (Fla.), the other Final Four participant, respectively open at Nos. 13 and 15.
The preseason rankings place Kansas atop a group of four Big 12 members. The list also has league rookie Houston at No. 6, Baylor at No. 17, and Texas at No. 18. Alongside UConn in the top 10, the Big East also claims four positions, with Marquette at No. 7 and Creighton at No. 8. Five teams from the SEC, led by No. 10 Tennessee, make up the most teams in the Top 25.
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“You know you’ll have a target on your back playing at Kansas,” said Kevin McCullar Jr., who elected to return for his second season with the Jayhawks and sixth overall in college basketball. “We’ll have that chip on our shoulder, you know, to prove everyone wrong and show why you should be the No. 1 team in the country.” You take that and put it to use. Every day, you use that as fuel.”
Last season, the Jayhawks followed up their 2022 national championship by losing to Texas in the Big 12 championship and Arkansas in the first weekend of the NCAA tournament. Self, 60, missed both of those events after having a heart valve replaced, but the coach is back on the sidelines and hunting a third national title in the AP poll’s 75th anniversary season.
He returns three starters in McCullar, Dajuan Harris Jr., and K.J. Adams, as well as top-50 prospect Elmarko Jackson and Michigan transfer Hunter Dickinson, who was perhaps the biggest prize of the portal moves this summer.
“I think this summer definitely put us ahead because we have so many new faces, even though our core is still the same…,” said Self, whose team participated in a preseason tour of the Caribbean. “The chemistry is certainly one that, I don’t know that we’re ahead of schedule, but they certainly seem to like to play off each other.”
Most teams begin their seasons on Nov. 6, with several marquee games in the first few weeks. This includes the annual Champions Classic doubleheader, which will take place in Chicago this year and will pit No. 2 Duke against fourth-ranked Michigan State and No. 1 Kansas against No. 16 Kentucky.
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