By JAMES MADDEN
Florida, Purdue and Houston all topped Blue Ribbon’s preseason Top 25 poll released on Friday.
The defending National Champion Florida Gators are returning many key pieces from last season’s NCAA Championship team, including Thomas Haugh, Alex Condon and Ruben Chinyelu. The Gators also added Arkansas transfer Boogie Fland and Princeton transfer Xaivian Lee. This will be head coach Todd Golden’s fourth season with the program.
Right behind the Gators in the poll at the defending runner-ups: The Houston Cougars. Houston is set to return many players from a team that was seconds away from winning the national championship a season ago. Houston head coach Kelvin Sampson is entering his 12th season with the program and is still chasing his first national championship as a coach.
The remainder of the top 25 is listed below:
| Rank | Team |
| 1. | Florida |
| 2. | Purdue |
| 3. | Houston |
| 4. | Duke |
| 5. | Connecticut |
| 6. | St. John’s |
| 7. | Tennessee |
| 8. | Kentucky |
| 9. | Michigan |
| 10. | Louisville |
| 11. | Alabama |
| 12. | UCLA |
| 13. | Auburn |
| 14. | Texas Tech |
| 15. | Arkansas |
| 16. | BYU |
| 17. | Iowa State |
| 18. | Kansas |
| 19. | Creighton |
| 20. | Illinois |
| 21. | Wisconsin |
| 22. | Arizona |
| 23. | Gonzaga |
| 24. | Texas |
| 25. | North Carolina |
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