Purdue claimed the No. 1 spot in the Associated Press Top 25 men’s preseason college basketball for the first time on Monday.
Coach Matt Painter’s Boilermakers, who ranked No. 1 at some point during three of the past four regular seasons, received 35 of 61 first-place votes.
Following Purdue are last year’s NCAA Tournament runner-up Houston (16 votes) and defending national champion Florida (eight). UConn ranks No. 4 and received the other two votes.
“We are obviously excited to get the season going and being ranked No. 1 in the preseason is a great indicator of what we feel this team can accomplish,” Painter said, per the AP. “But the goal is to be No. 1 at the end of the year. We’re thrilled that people think this highly of our team, but there is a long ways to go and a lot of work to do to reach that goal in April.”
Purdue, which finished 24-12 and lost to Houston on a last-second basket in the Sweet 16 round of the NCAA Tournament in March, opens the season against Evansville on Nov. 4 in West Lafayette, Ind.
Starting with No. 5 St. John’s, the rest of the Top 10 consists of Duke, Michigan, BYU, Kentucky and Texas Tech.
The Big Ten, Southeastern Conference and Big 12 each have six teams ranked in the Top 25, followed by the Atlantic Coast Conference and Big East with three each.
The rest of the preseason Top 25:
11. Louisville
12. UCLA
13. Arizona
14. Arkansas
15. Alabama
16. Iowa State
17. Illinois
18. Tennessee
19. Kansas
20. Auburn
21. Gonzaga
22. Michigan State
23. Creighton
24. Wisconsin
25. North Carolina
