The North Carolina Tar Heels earned a second No. 1 ranking in the preseason college basketball polls by topping the preseason AP Top 25 poll. The Tar Heels received 62 of 65 first-place votes. Kentucky came in at No. 2 while receiving no first-place votes. Third-placed Ohio State took home one first-place vote, and defending national champions, the Connecticut Huskies, had the other two as the No. 4 team.
No Colorado schools made it, as expected. But Colorado, Colorado State and Air Force do face teams that made the top 25 or at least received votes in the poll. The Buffs play Nos. 16 and 17, Arizona and UCLA, as well as No. 24 California and Washington (which received a few votes). The Rams take on No. 6 Duke on Dec. 7 and have conference games against New Mexico, San Diego State and UNLV, all of which received a smattering of votes. The Falcons face No. 23 Gonzaga in a non-conference game on Dec. 22 as well as the other three teams the Rams play.
Here's the full poll:
| No. | School | Record | Points | Prev | |
| 1 | North Carolina (62) | 0-0 | 1620 | 0 | |
| 2 | Kentucky | 0-0 | 1501 | 0 | |
| 3 | Ohio State (1) | 0-0 | 1482 | 0 | |
| 4 | Connecticut (2) | 0-0 | 1433 | 0 | |
| 5 | Syracuse | 0-0 | 1338 | 0 | |
| 6 | Duke | 0-0 | 1301 | 0 | |
| 7 | Vanderbilt | 0-0 | 1120 | 0 | |
| 8 | Florida | 0-0 | 1086 | 0 | |
| 9 | Louisville | 0-0 | 1055 | 0 | |
| 10 | Pittsburgh | 0-0 | 1027 | 0 | |
| 11 | Memphis | 0-0 | 997 | 0 | |
| 12 | Baylor | 0-0 | 892 | 0 | |
| 13 | Kansas | 0-0 | 755 | 0 | |
| 14 | Xavier | 0-0 | 747 | 0 | |
| 15 | Wisconsin | 0-0 | 720 | 0 | |
| 16 | Arizona | 0-0 | 616 | 0 | |
| 17 | UCLA | 0-0 | 404 | 0 | |
| 18 | Michigan | 0-0 | 401 | 0 | |
| 19 | Alabama | 0-0 | 395 | 0 | |
| 20 | Texas A&M | 0-0 | 357 | 0 | |
| 21 | Cincinnati | 0-0 | 353 | 0 | |
| 22 | Marquette | 0-0 | 335 | 0 | |
| 23 | Gonzaga | 0-0 | 283 | 0 | |
| 24 | California | 0-0 | 230 | 0 | |
| 25 | Missouri | 0-0 | 139 | 0 | |
| Others Receiving Votes: Florida State(0-0) 131; Michigan State(0-0) 128; Temple(0-0) 69; Washington(0-0) 44; New Mexico(0-0) 33; Butler(0-0) 25; Texas(0-0) 21; Villanova(0-0) 14; Creighton(0-0) 12; Purdue(0-0) 10; Belmont(0-0) 8; Drexel(0-0) 8; UNLV(0-0) 7; St. Mary's(0-0) 6; George Mason(0-0) 5; West Virginia(0-0) 4; Long Beach State(0-0) 3; Miami (Fla.)(0-0) 3; Harvard(0-0) 2; Illinois(0-0) 2; Marshall(0-0) 1; Minnesota(0-0) 1; San Diego State(0-0) 1 | |||||
For more college basketball, check out SB Nation NCAA Basketball.