We’re about a month away from the start of the 2022-23 college basketball season and the preseason polls have started trickling in.
This week, ESPN’s Jeff Borzello decided to release his official preseason top 25 ranking ahead of the new season starting. There are plenty of blue bloods in the top 10, though the reigning national champion didn’t even crack the top five.
North Carolina leads the way as the No. 1 team in the nation, followed by Gonzaga, Houston and Kentucky. Duke, set to begin a new era of basketball under Jon Scheyer, came in fifth while defending national champion Kansas got relegated to sixth in Borzello’s ranking.
Here are the top 10 teams in ESPN’s preseason top 25. The rest of the list is here.
- North Carolina
- Gonzaga
- Houston
- Kentucky
- Duke
- Kansas
- Creighton
- Baylor
- Arkansas
- UCLA
My Preseason Top 25:
1. North Carolina
2. Gonzaga
3. Houston
4. Kentucky
5. Duke
6. Kansas
7. Creighton
8. Baylor
9. Arkansas
10. UCLA11-25 ⬇️https://t.co/HFqy1jIM8R
— Jeff Borzello (@jeffborzello) October 6, 2022
Four of the five Power Five conferences made up seven of the schools in the top 10. The Big Ten was the lone exception and ESPN chose an interesting pick for the top school in that conference.
Indiana emerged as the highest-ranked Big Ten school, coming in at 14. Borzello attributed that to Indiana bringing back the most starters from last year’s season and suspects they might be the early season favorites to win the conference title.
But the Associated Press rankings aren’t out yet and that one is likely to be a lot more impactful early on in the season.
Do you think ESPN’s top 25 will match the AP’s?