Miami basketball enters new era under Jai Lucas with No. 14 AP preseason poll ranking

Miami is ranked No. 14 in the preseason Associated Press Top 25 released Monday, a placement that carries major historical weight for the Hurricanes.

This is only the fifth time in program history that Miami has entered a season ranked in the preseason AP poll. Before Monday, the Hurricanes had been preseason-ranked just four times: No. 25 in 1999-2000, No. 17 in 2008-09, No. 13 in 2017-18 and No. 13 in 2023-24.

The No. 14 ranking for 2026-27 marks the program’s first preseason appearance in three years, and only the two teams that opened at No. 13 began a season ranked higher than Miami will this year.

Miami basketball comes in at No. 14 in AP Preseason Poll

The 1999-2000 team started at No. 25, finished at No. 23 and reached the Sweet 16. The 2008-09 Hurricanes opened at No. 17 but finished 19-13 and ended the season unranked. The 2017-18 squad began at No. 13, climbed as high as No. 6, finished at No. 22 and lost to eventual Final Four team Loyola Chicago in the first round of the NCAA Tournament. The 2023-24 team also started at No. 13 and rose to No. 8 before collapsing to a 15-17 record and finishing unranked.

This is also the first preseason AP ranking of the Jai Lucas era and the speed of the ascent has been remarkable. The Hurricanes entered Lucas' first season unranked and did not crack the AP Top 25 until March 2, when they debuted at No. 22. They finished the season 26-9 and No. 24 in the final AP poll.

Conference breakdown

• The SEC leads all conferences with seven ranked teams: Florida (No. 1), Texas (No. 7), Tennessee (No. 8), Arkansas (No. 12), Alabama (No. 20), Kentucky (No. 23) and Vanderbilt (No. 24).
• The ACC has four teams: Duke (No. 2), Virginia (No. 9), Louisville (No. 11) and Miami (No. 14).
• The Big Ten has five teams: Illinois (No. 3), Michigan State (No. 6), Michigan (No. 16), USC (No. 21) and UCLA (No. 22).
• The Big 12 has six teams: Arizona (No. 5), Houston (No. 10), Kansas (No. 17), Iowa State (No. 18) and Texas Tech (No. 19) and BYU (No. 25)
• The Big East has two teams: UConn (No. 4) and St. John's (No. 13).
• The Pac-12 has one team: Gonzaga (No. 15).

Others receiving votes

Missouri led the way with 167 points, followed by Nebraska (70), Purdue (53), Ohio State (39), North Carolina (20), TCU (17), Saint Louis (13), VCU (12), Iowa (12), Virginia Tech (10), Indiana (8), Texas A&M (6), Villanova (6), Auburn (4), Marquette (3), Nevada (2), Grand Canyon (2), Utah State (2) and Santa Clara (1).

Opening matchup against No. 1 Florida

Miami opens the season against No. 1 Florida on Nov. 2 in Tampa at 6 p.m. on ESPN2. Florida received 47 of the 59 first-place votes while Duke collected 10 and Illinois received the remaining two. The Gators were actually ranked No. 3 entering last season, fell out of the poll during the season, recovered to win the SEC regular-season title and earned a No. 1 NCAA Tournament seed before losing to Iowa in the second round.

More facts about AP preseason poll

• The defending national champion, Michigan Wolverines, begin the season ranked No. 16.
• Illinois at No. 3 has its highest preseason ranking since 2001. The Illini are coming off their first Final Four appearance in two decades and return five of their top eight scorers.
• Kentucky's No. 23 ranking represents the program's 998th appearance in the AP poll. Two more ranked weeks would make Kentucky the first program to reach 1,000.
• Vanderbilt is preseason-ranked for the first time since 2015, checking in at No. 24.
• Purdue's absence ends one of the longest active streaks in the country. The Boilermakers had appeared in 79 consecutive AP polls, the second-longest active streak behind Houston, which has now been ranked for 127 consecutive polls and starts this season at No. 10.

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