Kansas, Alabama, UConn peak AP Lead 25 preseason males’s basketball ballot: Key takeaways

By means of Brendan Marks, Justin Williams and Mark Cooper

For the second one consecutive season, Kansas will start the week because the Negative. 1 group in males’s faculty basketball. This moment, the Jayhawks hope to stick there.

Kansas won 30 of 60 first-place votes to peak the preseason AP Lead 25 on Monday, hanging it narrowly forward of Negative. 2 Alabama (14 first-place votes) and two-time protecting champion Connecticut, which was once ranked 3rd. The Huskies won 11 first-place votes.

Houston (4 first-place votes) and Iowa Circumstance rounded out the peak 5. Gonzaga, which won one first-place vote, was once 6th, adopted via Duke, Baylor, North Carolina and Arizona.

Kansas, which went 23-11 and misplaced in the second one around of the NCAA Event extreme season, returns 3 starters — Hunter Dickinson, KJ Adams Jr. and Dajuan Harris Jr. — and added a litany of transfers, together with former Wisconsin preserve AJ Storr, former Alabama preserve Rylan Griffen and previous South Dakota Circumstance preserve Zeke Mayo, the Zenith League participant of the week. It’s the thirteenth consecutive week Invoice Self’s program has begun the season ranked within the peak 10, and the 5th moment in KU historical past that it’ll distinguishable the season Negative. 1. The Jayhawks path most effective North Carolina (10), Duke (9) and UCLA (8) for essentially the most since preseason ratings started in 1962.

5 Fat 12 groups ranked within the peak 10. The SEC led all meetings with 9 groups within the Lead 25.

Others receiving votes: Illinois 92, St. John’s 91, Xavier 73, Texas Tech 58, Wake Jungle 37, Kansas St 30, Michigan Circumstance 29, Ohio Circumstance 29, Michigan 19, BYU 14, Oregon 12, McNeese Circumstance 11, Miami 11, Boise St. 9, Saint Louis 9, Clemson 9, Windfall 9, Mississippi Circumstance 6, VCU 6, Wisconsin 5, Saint Mary’s 5, Louisville 4, UAB 4, Arkansas Modest Rock 3, Magnificent Canyon 3, Arizona Circumstance 2, San Diego Circumstance 2, Princeton 2, Top Level 1, Maryland 1.

Why Kansas is Negative. 1

A variety of groups have affordable arguments to be Negative. 1. Alabama — untouched off its first Ultimate 4 look in program historical past — returns All-American preserve Mark Sears and added the public’s second-ranked highschool recruiting magnificence. Houston has gained 30 video games or extra 3 years working, and year level preserve Jamal Shead is off to the NBA, the go back of forwards Joseph Tugler and Terrance Arceneaux must as soon as once more construct the Cougars certainly one of The us’s inner most groups. Upcoming there’s Gonzaga, which returns 4 of 5 starters from extreme season’s Candy 16 squad, year additionally including a couple of fresh members by means of the switch portal.

However in the long run, it’s dried to put out of your mind Kansas’ selection of skill, which is why the Jayhawks are a meriting preseason Negative. 1. Self now not most effective returns a trio of examined starters in Adams, Harris and Dickinson, however went bulky within the switch portal this spring, too, touchdown probably the most public’s peak switch categories. Griffen, the previous Alabama wing, shot 39.2 % from 3-point territory extreme season and can be a welcome 3-and-D addition at the perimeter, particularly beside relative non-shooters in Adams and Harris. He was once Negative. 7 in The Athletic’s switch portal ratings. Storr — who led Wisconsin in scoring extreme season — arrives as every other key perimeter piece, and must permit Self a degree of lineup versatility he hasn’t had the extreme two seasons. Upcoming there’s Mayo, whose pull-up capturing can be a boon for a group that once in a while struggled to get a basket extreme week.

Upload in a couple of top-50 newbies, and Self has every other lineup apparently constructed to advance the space. — Brendan Marks, body of workers editor

UConn’s bid for a 3-peat starts at Negative. 3

Dan Hurley and Connecticut will try to do one thing that deny males’s faculty basketball program has achieved since John Picket’s UCLA dynasty: win 3 consecutive nationwide titles.

The Huskies returned a number of key items extreme season from Hurley’s first identify group in 2022-23, however that’s now not the case this week. 4 of 5 starters are long past, and the lone holdover — redshirt youth wing Alex Karaban, who handed on probably changing into a first-round NBA Draft selection to go back to university — should suppose a far higher function. Nonetheless: Hurley’s group has greater than earned the good thing about the confusion, which is why UConn opens the week within the peak 3.

But even so Karaban, UConn has 3 alternative rotational gamers again this season — guards Hassan Diarra and Solomon Ball, plus middle Samson Johnson — who will compete for essential enjoying moment. But when the Huskies are rather moving to compete for a 3rd directly identify, Hurley will want oversized contributions from Saint Mary’s switch Aidan Mahaney and five-star freshman Liam McNeeley, arguably his peak two additions this offseason. We’ll know a dozen about UConn, and its relative probabilities of three-peating, via the moment convention play games starts; the Huskies are a part of a stacked Maui Invitational ground that includes 4 of the public’s peak 11 groups and later play games Texas, Baylor, and Gonzaga all in a row in mid-December. — Marks

Fat 12 dominates the peak 10

There’s a dozen of Fat 12 taste on the peak of the ballot. The convention has 3 of the peak 5 and part of the peak 10 with Kansas, Houston, Iowa Circumstance, Baylor and Arizona. The 6th and ultimate Fat 12 group within the Lead 25 is Cincinnati at Negative. 20. It’s the Bearcats’ first look within the AP ballot for the reason that finish of the 2018-19 season, Mick Cronin’s extreme as head teacher of this system.

The brand new-look, 16-team league options 9 techniques that made the NCAA Event extreme season, seven of which might be returning individuals, and has been the top-rated convention 4 of the hour six years, consistent with KenPom metrics. Kansas is the Fat 12’s most up-to-date nationwide champion from the 2021-22 season. — Justin Williams, body of workers editor

A stacked SEC

9 of the 16 SEC individuals seem within the preseason ballot, led via Alabama at Negative. 2. The Pink Wave are the one SEC college within the peak 10, adopted via Auburn at Negative. 11. League newcomer Texas clocks in at Negative. 19. Arkansas, underneath fresh head teacher John Calipari, opens at Negative. 16, year his former college Kentucky and head teacher Mark Pope are Negative. 23. — Williams

Negative love for mid-majors

There are 0 mid-major or conventional non-power techniques within the Lead 25, with Gonzaga the one ranked group from outdoor the game’s 5 essential meetings. The nearest is McNeese Circumstance, which won 11 votes, adopted via Boise Circumstance and Saint Louis with 9 votes each and every. McNeese is coming off a 30-4 season underneath head teacher Will Wade through which it poised this system’s single-season wins file and claimed the Southland Convention common season and match championships. The Cowboys have by no means seemed within the Lead 25 ratings. — Williams

CJ Moore’s poll

The Athletic’s CJ Moore is a voter within the AP Lead 25 this season.

Right here’s how his poll when compared:

1. Alabama (fresh: Negative. 2)
2. Gonzaga (fresh: Negative. 6)
3. Houston (fresh: Negative. 4)
4. Kansas (fresh: Negative. 1)
5. Iowa Circumstance (fresh: Negative. 5)
6. Duke (fresh: Negative. 7)
7. UConn (fresh: Negative. 3)
8. Tennessee (fresh: Negative. 12)
9. Baylor (fresh: Negative. 8)
10. Arizona (fresh: Negative. 10)
11. Auburn (fresh: Negative. 11)
12. Texas A&M (fresh: Negative. 12)
13. North Carolina (fresh: Negative. 9)
14. Purdue (fresh: Negative. 14)
15. Marquette (fresh: Negative. 18)
16. Florida (fresh: Negative. 21)
17. Texas Tech (fresh: NR)
18. Michigan (fresh: NR)
19. Indiana (fresh: Negative. 17)
20. Illinois (fresh: NR)
21. Cincinnati (fresh: Negative. 20)
22. Xavier (fresh: NR)
23. Kentucky (fresh: Negative. 23)
24. St. John’s (fresh: NR)
25. UCLA (fresh: 22)

(Photograph: Chris Gardner / Getty Pictures)