For now eighteen straight AP Polls, Gonzaga finds itself as the top team in the country after they received 55 of 63 available first-place votes in the 2021-22 preseason men’s college basketball rankings on Monday.
The remaining eight votes went to UCLA, who finds themselves ranked No. 2 and with 1,459 points. This separates the Bruins from No. 3 Kansas (1,427 points) by just 32 points. Rounding out the top five is No. 4 Villanova and No. 5 Texas, the latter of which is led by newly minted head coach Chris Beard.
Gonzaga entered the 2020-21 season ranked as the No. 1 team in the country and stayed atop the pedestal all the way until the final poll was released in week 17. The Bulldogs almost ran the table last season, entering the national title game 31-0 before being throttled by eventual champions Baylor. Head coach Mark Few returns AP All-American Second Team member junior Drew Timme and brings in top 2021 high school recruit center Chet Holmgren.
The Bears enter this season ranked No. 8 in the quest to defend their title. They return juniors Adam Flagler and Jonathan “Everyday John” Tchamwa Tchatchoua, as well as senior Matthew Mayer.
Winning back-to-back titles is no easy feat, as no team has done so since Florida repeated in 2006 and 2007 under Billy Donovan. After losing three major contributers Jared Butler, Davion Mitchell and MaCio Teague, Baylor and head coach Scott Drew have their work cut out for them.
The remainder of the top ten includes staples in the collegiate hoops world, including No. 6 Michigan, No. 7 Purdue, No. 9 Duke and No. 10 Kentucky.
This marks the best preseason ranking for the Boilermakers since 2009, when they entered that season No. 7 as well. They return the highest percentage of returning possession minutes in the top-30 of Barttorvik’s 2022 T-Ranks.
While Michigan and Purdue posted successful years during the pandemic-laden season, Duke and Kentucky found themselves not included in the NCAA Tournament field whatsoever. It marked the first time the Blue Devils missed the Big Dance since 1995 and the worst overall season for the Wildcats since the 1920’s, after finishing with an abysmal 9-16 record.
Memphis was one of the biggest stories of the offseason and is ranked No. 11 as a result. After a successful recruiting cycle, the Tigers brought in the top two recruits from the class of 2022 Emoni Bates and Jalen Duren. After finishing their high school coursework, the pair of five-stars graduated and enrolled with the school for the 2021-22 season.
While the top spot in both the first edition of the weekly AP Poll and the daily KenPom rankings are the same, they do not share much else in common. The only other team slated in the same spot on both metrics is Kansas, who was No. 3. Two top-ten teams in the AP Poll, No. 5 Texas and No. 10 Kentucky, fall outside the line on the KenPom ratings, with the schools at No. 14 and No. 17 respectively.
Rounding out the remainder of the top-20 is No. 11 Illinois (861), No. 12 Memphis (831), No. 13 Oregon (775), No. 14 Alabama (713), No. 15 Houston (694), No. 16 Arkansas (673), No. 17 Ohio State (581), No. 18 Tennessee (563), No. 19 North Carolina (547) and No. 20 Florida State (381).
The last five spots in the 25 were awarded to No. 21 Maryland (294), No. 22 Auburn (267), No. 23 St. Bonaventure (238), No. 24 Connecticut (161) and No. 25 Virginia (125).
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