Florida tops CBS Sports' preseason men's college basketball rankings

Florida basketball landed in the top spot of both preseason editions of the USA TODAY Coaches Poll and AP Top 25 on Monday. The Gators also sit at No. 1 in CBS Sports writer Gary Parrish's preseason Top 25 And 1 rankings as well.

"This ranking is based on the Gators returning six of the top seven scorers — specifically Thomas Haugh, Alex Condon, Boogie Fland, Reuben Chinyelu, Urban Klavsar and Isaiah Brown — from a team that finished 27-8 and advanced to the second round of the 2026 NCAA Tournament. That core will be joined by a recruiting class highlighted by Kentucky transfer Denzel Aberdeen and 7-foot center Jones Lay."

The Gators sit ahead of second-ranked Duke, as well as Illinois, UConn and Kansas, respectively, among the top five.

Todd Golden's gang dropped its first preseason exhibition game against the Baylor, 82-76, in overtime the day before the two major polls were released. Florida put up a high volume of shots but were grossly inefficient, shooting just 25-for-72 (34.7%) overall with a brutal 4-for-29 (13.8%) mark from 3-point range, plus a lackluster 22-for-35 (62.9%) effort from the charity stripe.

The primary offenders from the floor were Denzel Aberdeen (0-for-10) and Urban Klavžar (0-for-5), who both blanked from beyond the arc. The former is expected to pick up the slack where Xaivian Lee had fallen short last season, while the latter was an instrumental 3-point shooter for the team off the bench in 2025-26.

"(T)hose two guys have a long track record of being good shooters," Golden said at his press conference on Wednesday. "When we get those two guys that volume of 3s up like that — if we do that and we lose, we got to live with it. It’s not like we’re getting unproven or non-shooting guys those attempts."

The head coach further added, "I’m going to trust those guys to step up and make shots. I think they will. They’ve proven to do it before."

Florida will play its second exhibition game of the preseason against Stetson on Oct. 27 inside the O'Connell Center. Tipoff is slated for 7 p.m. ET and the game will be broadcast on the SEC Network+.