Duke-Kentucky-Kansas Rank 1-2-3 in First AP Poll

(AP) — Duke is in a familiar place to open the college basketball season.

The Blue Devils are the runaway choice for No. 1 in The Associated Press preseason Top 25 on Monday. It is the eighth time Duke has held the preseason No. 1 ranking. North Carolina has the most preseason No. 1s with nine and UCLA also has eight.

Duke was also the No. 1 pick in the USA Today/Coaches’ Poll.

The Blue Devils, who return three starters from last season’s team and have what is considered one of the top recruiting classes in the nation, received 58 of the 65 first-place votes from the national media panel.

Kentucky, which had two No. 1 votes, is second, while Kansas is third. Defending national champion Villanova had four first-place votes and was fourth while Oregon, which had the other No. 1 vote, is fifth.

North Carolina, Xavier, Virginia, Wisconsin and Arizona round out the top 10.

Duke’s eight preseason AP No. 1 rankings are the second-most in the history of the poll, as are its 128 total weeks as the AP’s top-ranked team. The Blue Devils have been ranked No. 1 in the AP poll 73 times since the start of the 1997-98 season.

The program has now been ranked No. 1 in a total of 20 seasons, including 12 of the last 19 years.

Duke head coach Mike Krzyzewski has led the program to the AP’s No. 1 ranking in 17 seasons, the most all-time. Under Coach K, Duke has played more games as the nation’s top-ranked team (218) than it has as an unranked team (145).

Coach K has a record of 190-28 (.872) in the top spot of the AP poll, marking the second-most games and wins in that position.

Duke opens the 2016-17 regular season when it hosts Marist on Nov. 11 for a 7 p.m. tip.

Here’s the full poll:

1-Duke

2. Kentucky

3. Kansas

4. Villanova

5. Oregon

6. North Carolina

7. Xavier

8. Virginia

9. Wisconsin

10. Arizona

11. Indiana

12. Michigan State

13. Louisville

14. Gonzaga

15. Purdue

16. UCLA

17. St. Mary’s

18. UConn

19. Syracuse

20. West Virginia

21. Texas

22. Creighton

23. Rhode Island

24. Iowa State

25. Maryland.

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