We're just a few weeks away from the tip off the College Basketball season.

With that anticipation comes the preseason prognostication. As of Monday, we have the preseason AP Top 25 to break down.

The Iowa State Cyclones are the only immediate-area team in the initial set of rankings, with few other area programs receiving votes.

TJ Otzelberger's team at Iowa State is #18 in the preseason poll after a 29-8 finish to last season.

Per ESPN.com:

Florida will start the men's college basketball season where it ended it two seasons ago: No. 1.

The Gators were the overwhelming pick to top the preseason AP Top 25 on Monday, receiving 47 of the 59 first-place votes from a panel of national media. It is the first time that coach Todd Golden's bunch has resided on top since the final poll in 2025, after it had beaten Houston to deliver the school its third national championship.

"It's cool," Golden said of the ranking, "but like, we've been No. 1 before. We won a national championship before. That's what I want our program to expect. That's what we want to kind of go into every season at."

Duke received 10 first-place votes and was second in the preseason poll. Illinois received the other two and was third.

The Gators started last season at No. 3 but crashed out of the poll entirely by early January. They rallied to win the Southeastern Conference regular-season championship, only to get stunned by Iowa as a No. 1 seed in the second round of the NCAA tournament.

"We're more prepared this year for early-season expectations than we were last year," Golden said. "We were kind of gathering ourselves, figuring [things] out for the first time, where this year we can use last year's experience to learn from."

Others receiving votes: Missouri 167, Nebraska 70, Purdue 53, Ohio State 39, North Carolina 20, TCU 17, Saint Louis 13, VCU 12, Iowa 12, Virginia Tech 10, Indiana 8, Texas A&M 6, Villanova 6, Auburn 4, Marquette 3, Nevada 2, Grand Canyon 2, Utah State 2, Santa Clara 1

Source: Florida No. 1 in preseason AP Top 25 men's basketball poll - ESPN

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