UConn men ranked sixth in AP preseason basketball poll
Oct. 16—The target on the defending national champion UConn men's basketball team grew even bigger on Monday.
The Huskies checked in at No. 6 in the Associated Press Top 25 poll, the program's highest preseason ranking since opening at No. 4 before the 2011-12 season. They received two first-place votes.
The preseason poll was released three weeks before UConn hosts Northern Arizona in the season opener on Nov. 6 at Gampel Pavilion in Storrs.
Kansas resides in the No. 1 spot, earning 46 first-place votes, followed by Duke (11 first-place votes), Purdue (three) and Michigan State (one) in the top four.
UConn is one of four Big East teams in the rankings, joining No. 5 Marquette, No. 8 Creighton and No. 22 Villanova.
The AP preseason poll reinforces the difficulty of UConn's overall schedule. Three of UConn's non-conference foes cracked the top 25 and there's a possibility of a fourth.
The Huskies will visit No. 1 Kansas on Dec. 1. They'll face No. 19 North Carolina in the Jimmy V Classic on Dec. 5 at Madison Square Garden in New York and play No. 11 Gonzaga in Seattle on Dec. 15.
There's also a chance that they'll face No. 18 Texas in the Empire Classic at MSG. On Nov. 19, they'll play Indiana and Texas will take on Louisville, with the winners and losers meeting on Nov. 20.
UConn entered last season unranked, climbed to No. 2 in late December and ended the regular season at No. 10.
The Huskies, who were also ranked fifth in the USA Today Top 25 preseason coaches' poll, captured the program's fifth national title in April in Houston.
