Miami basketball is stepping into a new season with an old kind of attention.
The Hurricanes landed at No. 14 in Monday’s preseason Associated Press Top 25, a spot that gives the program a rare place in the national conversation before a game has even been played. It’s only the fifth time Miami has opened a season in the preseason AP poll, and just the third time the Hurricanes have started higher than they do this year.
Before this release, Miami had been preseason-ranked only four times: No. 25 in 1999-2000, No. 17 in 2008-09, No. 13 in 2017-18 and No. 13 in 2023-24. The 2026-27 ranking is Miami’s first preseason appearance in three years, and only the two teams that started at No. 13 were slotted ahead of the Hurricanes among those previous preseason entries.
The program’s earlier preseason rankings have brought a wide range of results. The 1999-2000 team opened at No. 25, finished No. 23 and made the Sweet 16.
The 2008-09 group began at No. 17, went 19-13 and ended unranked. The 2017-18 team climbed as high as No. 6, wrapped up at No. 22 and lost to eventual Final Four participant Loyola Chicago in the first round of the NCAA Tournament.
The 2023-24 Hurricanes started at No. 13, reached No. 8 and then stumbled to a 15-17 finish outside the rankings.
For Jai Lucas, this is the first preseason AP ranking of his era, and the rise has been quick. Miami started his first season unranked, didn’t crack the Top 25 until March 2 when it debuted at No. 22, and closed the year 26-9 at No. 24 in the final AP poll.
The Hurricanes’ next big spotlight is already lined up. Miami opens against No.
1 Florida on Nov. 2 in Tampa at 6 p.m. on ESPN2. Florida earned 47 of the 59 first-place votes, with Duke getting 10 and Illinois taking the other two.
The Gators entered last season at No. 3, dropped out of the poll during the year, recovered to win the SEC regular-season title and earned a No. 1 NCAA Tournament seed before losing to Iowa in the second round.
The rest of the preseason poll is packed with familiar heavyweights. The SEC leads the way with seven ranked teams: Florida, Texas, Tennessee, Arkansas, Alabama, Kentucky and Vanderbilt. The ACC follows with four: Duke, Virginia, Louisville and Miami.
The Big Ten has five ranked teams: Illinois, Michigan State, Michigan, USC and UCLA. The Big 12 checks in with six: Arizona, Houston, Kansas, Iowa State, Texas Tech and BYU.
The Big East has UConn and St. John’s, while Gonzaga is the lone ranked team from the Pac-12.
Among the rest of the teams drawing votes, Missouri led the group with 167 points. Nebraska followed with 70, then Purdue with 53, Ohio State with 39, North Carolina with 20, TCU with 17, Saint Louis with 13, VCU and Iowa with 12 each, Virginia Tech with 10, Indiana with 8, Texas A&M and Villanova with 6 each, Auburn with 4, Marquette with 3, Nevada and Grand Canyon with 2 each, and Utah State and Santa Clara with 2 and 1 respectively.
A few other notes from the poll stand out. Defending national champion Michigan begins at No.
- Illinois at No. 3 owns its highest preseason ranking since 2001 and returns five of its top eight scorers after reaching its first Final Four in two decades.
Kentucky’s No. 23 ranking is its 998th appearance in the AP poll, with 1,000 within reach if it stays ranked two more weeks. Vanderbilt is back in the preseason poll for the first time since 2015 at No.
And Purdue’s absence snaps one of the longest active streaks in the country. The Boilermakers had appeared in 79 straight AP polls, the second-longest active run behind Houston. The Cougars remain ranked, now at No. 10, and their streak stands at 127 consecutive polls.
In Other News...
Miami Is 6-0 But One Midseason Concern Won't Go Away
Miami has kept rolling to a 6-0 start and stays firmly in the national conversation, but the unbeaten record has not erased every concern around this team. Even with quarterback Darian Mensah and receiver Malachi Toney delivering standout play, the Hurricanes have had to navigate injuries and uneven stretches that have kept the week-to-week picture from feeling entirely settled.
The biggest issue continues to hover around the offensive front and the running back group, both of which have been affected by injuries and in turn put more pressure on the rest of the offense. On defense, Miami has been sturdy against the run, but the challenge has been clear against mobile quarterbacks and in pass protection, which leaves a real midseason question for a team with bigger goals than just staying undefeated. [Read more 🡒]
Miamis Florida State Win Exposed Who Carried The Canes
Miamis win over Florida State offered a pretty clear snapshot of which Hurricanes players drove the result and which ones left some questions behind. The breakdown leaned on both eye test and Pro Football Focus grades, giving a fuller view of who stacked up in the matchup and who struggled to match the moment in a game that had plenty of physical play and a few injury concerns along the way.
The comparison also surfaced some interesting gaps between what stood out live and what showed up in the grading. A handful of players landed near the top of both lists, while others were viewed much less favorably once the film and the numbers were lined up, leaving a useful if imperfect picture of how Miami got through one of its biggest games and which performances helped carry the Canes. [Read more 🡒]
Miami Can End Notre Dame's Playoff Dream With One More Loss
Miamis rise to No. 1 in the latest AP Top 25 poll has only sharpened the spotlight on what comes next, and Notre Dame is walking into that matchup with plenty on the line. The Irish were already dealing with the sting of a close loss to BYU, a game that ended amid controversy and prompted the Atlantic Coast Conference to announce a review of the officiating at the finish.
Now the schedule has put Notre Dame in a spot where another loss could make its College Football Playoff path far more complicated, even with the expanded 12-team field. For Miami, it is another chance to reinforce its place at the top. For Notre Dame, it is the kind of game that can either steady a season or push the margin for error almost to nothing. [Read more 🡒]