The Associated Press released its preseason men’s basketball rankings on Monday, and despite Duke head coach Jon Scheyer pulling in the best recruiting class in the country, the Blue Devils didn’t crack the top five.
The voters left Duke seventh, only three points behind the Gonzaga Bulldogs in sixth.
Top-ranked freshman [autotag]Cooper Flagg[/autotag] and recent Olympian [autotag]Khaman Maluach[/autotag] lead a freshman class featuring four five-star talents, but Scheyer lost 10 players from last year’s roster. Even with veteran transfers like Tulane’s Sion James, Purdue’s Mason Gillis, and Syracuse’s Maliq Brown, there have been national questions about Duke’s reliance on first-year talent. The team’s spot in the rankings indicates that several voters buy into those concerns.
Despite Scheyer’s team coming in lower than expected, Duke still finished higher than any other team in the ACC. The North Carolina Tar Heels, last year’s conference champion, will start the year in ninth, and no other team from the conference made the top 25 (The Wake Forest Demon Deacons, Miami Hurricanes, the Clemson Tigers, and Louisville Cardinals all received votes).
The Kansas Jayhawks, Alabama Crimson Tide, Connecticut Huskies, Houston Cougars, and Iowa State Cyclones took the top five spots in order.