College basketball rankings: Gonzaga No. 1 in preseason AP Top 25 poll ahead of No. 2 UCLA, No. 3 Kansas

Gonzaga is the preseason No. 1 for a second consecutive year

By Kyle Boone

Oct 18, 2021 at 12:13 pm ET • 1 min read

USATSI

With only a few weeks until the start of the college basketball season, the preseason AP Top 25 was released on Monday with a familiar face sitting atop the rankings. The Gonzaga Bulldogs earned 55 first-place votes to wear the badge as the preseason No. 1 team for a second consecutive season, edging a handful of college bluebloods at the top.

Gonzaga was the preseason No. 1 a year ago and retained that ranking throughout the entire season, including the final rankings, which came before its eventual loss to Baylor in the national championship game. It is coming off a near-perfect season in which it went 31-1. The Bulldogs lost two stars to the NBA Draft's first round -- Corey Kispert and Jalen Suggs -- but return potential preseason player of the year Drew Timme and enrolled consensus No. 1 overall prospect Chet Holmgren to reload ahead of this season.

UCLA, Kansas, Villanova and Texas round out the preseason poll's top five. Reigning national champion Baylor comes in at No. 8 in the preseason rankings behind Michigan and Purdue and ahead of Duke and Kentucky, which rounds out the top 10.

RANK	TEAM	RECORD	POINTS	PREVIOUS
1	Gonzaga (55)	0-0	1,562	1
2	UCLA (8)	0-0	1,459	NR
3	Kansas	0-0	1,427	12
4	Villanova	0-0	1,332	18
5	Texas	0-0	1,315	9
6	Michigan	0-0	1,255	4
7	Purdue	0-0	1,213	20
8	Baylor	0-0	992	3
9	Duke	0-0	963	NR
10	Kentucky	0-0	894	NR
11	Illinois	0-0	861	2
12	Memphis	0-0	831	NR
13	Oregon	0-0	775	NR
14	Alabama	0-0	713	5
15	Houston	0-0	694	6
16	Arkansas	0-0	673	10
17	Ohio State	0-0	581	7
18	Tennessee	0-0	563	NR
19	North Carolina	0-0	547	NR
20	Florida State	0-0	381	14
21	Maryland	0-0	294	NR
22	Auburn	0-0	267	NR
23	St. Bonaventure	0-0	238	NR
24	UConn	0-0	161	NR
25	Virginia	0-0	125	15