Florida basketball is the consensus No. 1 team in the country. The Gators 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 atop CBS Sports’ preseason Top 25 And 1, a clean sweep of the major preseason rankings released this week.
CBS Sports writer Gary Parrish put Florida first in his Top 25 And 1, ahead of Duke, Illinois, UConn and Kansas. The ranking, released Oct. 22, reflects what the Gators bring back: six of their top seven scorers from a 27-8 team that reached the second round of the 2026 NCAA Tournament.
Why Florida basketball starts at No. 1
The case for Florida basketball is simple: experience and continuity. The returning core includes Thomas Haugh, Alex Condon, Boogie Fland, Reuben Chinyelu, Urban Klavsar and Isaiah Brown, a group that won 27 games last season.
That core will be joined by a recruiting class highlighted by Kentucky transfer Denzel Aberdeen and 7-foot center Jones Lay. Aberdeen is expected to pick up the slack where Xaivian Lee fell short last season, while Klavzar was an instrumental 3-point shooter off the bench in 2025-26.
Few teams in the country can match that combination of returning production and incoming talent. Duke sits second in the CBS rankings as the nearest challenger to the Gators, followed by Illinois, UConn and Kansas.
Haugh, Condon, Fland, Chinyelu, Klavsar and Brown all played major roles on last season’s 27-8 team, and the 7-foot Lay gives the Gators another big body inside. Few teams in the country can match that combination of returning production and incoming talent.
An exhibition loss raises early questions
The rankings did not come without a blemish. Florida basketball dropped its first preseason exhibition game to Baylor, 82-76, in overtime, the day before the two major polls were released.
The loss came the day before the two major polls were released, but the voters were not swayed. The Gators put up a high volume of shots but were grossly inefficient, shooting just 25-for-72 (34.7 percent) overall with a brutal 4-for-29 (13.8 percent) mark from 3-point range, plus a lackluster 22-for-35 (62.9 percent) effort from the free-throw line.
The primary offenders from the floor were Aberdeen (0-for-10) and Klavzar (0-for-5), who both blanked from beyond the arc. It was an ugly shooting night for two players the Gators will lean on this season.
Head coach Todd Golden was not worried. “Those 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.”
Golden 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.”
Golden expects Aberdeen and Klavzar to start making those shots, and Florida basketball will keep giving its proven shooters the same looks until they do.
Florida basketball faces Stetson next
The Gators get another tune-up soon. Florida basketball plays 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+.
The rest of the CBS top 10 behind Florida and Duke includes Illinois, UConn, Kansas, Texas, Arizona, Michigan State, Louisville and Virginia. Arkansas, Iowa State, Gonzaga, St. John’s and Houston round out the top 15, followed by Tennessee, Michigan, Miami, Kentucky and UCLA in the top 20. Alabama, USC, Missouri, BYU and Purdue complete the top 25, with Indiana sitting 26th.
Preseason rankings do not win games in March, and the Baylor loss showed Florida basketball has things to fix. But with six of seven top scorers back and a coach who trusts his shooters, Florida basketball opens the season exactly where it wants to be: on top.