The 2024-25 men’s basketball campaign is still a long way away but CBS Sports’ Gary Parrish has already been busy publishing his weekly rankings in a top-25-plus-1 format. The Florida Gators have been among the group stretching back to the end of last season and once again remain in the upper tier of the collegiate sport.
In his update last week, Parrish had the Orange and Blue ranked No. 22 overall thanks to the acquisition of Sam Alexis via the transfer portal. This week, he ranked Todd Golden’s gang a notch higher at No. 21 — between the No. 20 Miami Hurricanes and No. 22 Seton Hall Pirates.
Parrish did not update his blurb for this week’s entry, but this is what he had to offer last week.
“This ranking is based on Todd Golden’s Gators returning six of the top nine scorers — everybody besides Zyon Pullin, Tyrese Samuel and Riley Kugel — from a team that secured a No. 7 seed in the 2024 NCAA Tournament,” Parrish said. “The addition of Sam Alexis gives Florida a 6-9 forward who averaged 10.8 points and 9.1 rebounds at Chattanooga as a sophomore.”
Not mentioned was the acquisition of center Rueben Chinyelu on Thursday, a 6-foot-11-inch, 245-pound transfer from the Washington State Cougars. He will ostensibly fill the role that Micah Handlogten — who will need some time to recover from a severe leg fracture — had in the rotation.
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