Florida is not ranked in The Associated Press men’s basketball preseason poll:
The top 25 teams in The Associated Press’ preseason 2018-19 men’s college basketball poll, with first-place votes in parentheses, final 2016-17 records, total points based on 25 points for a first-place vote through one point for a 25th-place vote and last year’s final ranking:
| Record | Pts | Prv | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. Kansas (37) | 31-8 | 1581 | 4 |
| 2. Kentucky (19) | 26-11 | 1529 | 18 |
| 3. Gonzaga (1) | 32-5 | 1461 | 8 |
| 4. Duke (4) | 29-8 | 1452 | 9 |
| 5. Virginia (2) | 31-3 | 1286 | 1 |
| 6. Tennessee (1) | 26-9 | 1268 | 13 |
| 7. Nevada | 29-8 | 1230 | 24 |
| 8. North Carolina | 26-11 | 1221 | 10 |
| 9. Villanova (1) | 36-4 | 1085 | 2 |
| 10. Michigan St. | 30-5 | 1024 | 5 |
| 11. Auburn | 26-8 | 974 | 19 |
| 12. Kansas St | 25-12 | 922 | – |
| 13. West Virginia | 26-11 | 678 | 15 |
| 14. Oregon | 23-13 | 638 | – |
| 15. Virginia Tech | 21-12 | 630 | – |
| 16. Syracuse | 23-14 | 620 | – |
| 17. Florida St. | 23-12 | 530 | – |
| 18. Mississippi St. | 25-12 | 451 | – |
| 19. Michigan | 33-8 | 437 | 7 |
| 20. TCU | 21-12 | 311 | – |
| 21. UCLA | 21-12 | 297 | – |
| 22. Clemson | 25-10 | 268 | 20 |
| 23. LSU | 18-15 | 187 | – |
| 24. Purdue | 30-7 | 170 | 11 |
| 25. Washington | 21-13 | 165 | – |
Others receiving votes: Loyola of Chicago 162, Marquette 124, Indiana 98, Florida 71, Nebraska 35, Maryland 28, Wisconsin 24, Notre Dame 22, Cincinnati 21, UCF 15, Alabama 15, Arizona 14, Buffalo 14, Louisville 11, Miami 10, San Diego St. 9, Texas Tech 6, Southern Cal 6, Butler 6, Texas 5, St. John’s 3, Arizona St 3, Providence 2, Xavier 2, Davidson 1, Missouri 1, Marshall 1, NC State 1.
No Respect. Go get’em Gators.
I cannot wait until that first game!
Glad this team is unranked in pre-season polls. This team will sneak up on the ‘experts’ and other teams, hopefully. Much like the 05-06 team which was unranked in pre-season, but somehow managed to win the NCAA championship. You can easily predict the teams the ‘experts’ will pick in pre-season: Duke, North Carolina, Kansas, Kentucky and Gonzaga. Duh! I have not looked at ANY preseason poll deliberately just so I could see how far off I was. I am now looking at the AP poll. Well, I got 4 of the top 5. Only Virginia (No. 5) escaped. How much of an ‘expert’ do you have to be to fill out a pre-season poll? Here’s hoping the Gators will be ignored until they start winning big games (Like first game vs. FSU).
Doesn’t surprise me…..it shows more of the respect that Cheese had. I think this team is deeper, especially on the front court, which was they’re weakness last year
I think we can be better than last year if the young pg ( Nembhard) can develop. Doesn’t have to score a lot but get the ball to Kevaughn, Jalen and the rest and play good D.
GOOD! Now show them that it is big mistake fellas. Including the 5th place SEC ranking….
I believe Jalen is going have a huge year and K. Allen will not have 2 years in a row of poor shooting.
What a stupid oversight by people who get paid to cover college basketball. Fuel for our fire!
I think the Gators have a chance to be a good team, but Hudson and Allen are going to have to be more consistent scorers than they were last year and somebody is going to have to step up and become the team leader since Cheese is gone. He was always the go to guy in the close games when the game was on the line. I think Hudson has the skill set but he has to become more of a take charge guy. Front court is still a big question mark. Hopefully Hayes has gotten better on the offensive end and some of the freshman from last year and this year can step up and make an impact. Gators were just too perimeter based last year. Shoot good and you win, shoot bad and they lose. Needs to have more balance in the offense with some type of low post game. I am hoping Stone has continued to improve. Preseason rankings are really meaningless. All that matters is your record at the end of the year and what you do in the tournament. I look forward to this year with anticipation to see what Coach White can mold this team into. Personally I think they are a bit under rated.
Win games and the ranking take care of themselves! Let’s go T Town and win, we’ll be ranked in the next poll. White is a great coach, I know there have been plenty of naysayers? But we’ll have depth on the boards this year, and if Allen plays consistent, along with Hudson? And play some “D”, like coach expects? We should be fine, we have some great young talent too…We should win 22-25 games and be a 3-4 seed come NCAA Tournament time…
Considering there are five SEC teams ranked in the top 25 teams, I’m a little bit surprised Florida is picked to finish fifth in SEC and not ranked at the same time. Also a little bit surprised that there are five ranked SEC teams in the preseason poll. Not terribly surprised Florida’s not ranked though. They came 29th in voting, not an unrealistic preseason expectation for a team with a new point guard, unproven depth at the big positions, but strength at the 2 and 3 position.
When it comes to Tenn./Aub./Miss. St/ and LSU, it’s a lot about hyping them up from they’re surprising seasons last year, and who they’ve brought back. It won’t hurt the conference, and the Gators if they finish top 2-3 in the conference, when it comes to tourney time.