Men's Basketball Ranked 23rd in Preseason AP Poll

OMAHA, Neb. -- The Creighton men's basketball team is ranked 23rd in the Associated Press Preseason Top 25 poll, the fourth straight season the Bluejays have been ranked among the nation's best in the preseason.

This year's announcement marks the eighth time in program history the writers have voted CU to the top-25 in the preseason, joining 2006-07 (No. 19), 2012-13 (No. 16) and 2016-17 (No. 22), 2020-21 (No. 11), 2022-23 (No. 9), 2023-24 (No. 8) and 2024-25 (No. 15). All seven of those teams would end up in the NCAA Tournament, with three of the four most recent squads making the Sweet 16.

Creighton's best ranking in program history is seventh, done five times (Jan. 16, 2017, March 10, 2020, March 18, 2020, Jan. 7, 2021 and Nov. 28, 2022).

Including this year's preseason ranking, Creighton has now been ranked 148 times in program history, with 120 of those under the direction of McDermott. Creighton is 180-78 all-time as a ranked team, including a 146-66 mark under Greg McDermott. Creighton has now been ranked at least one week in 12 of McDermott's 16 seasons on The Hilltop after doing it just five different seasons in program history before his 2010 arrival.

Creighton is one of 11 schools ranked in the Top 25 of the Preseason AP poll each of the last four years, joining Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Duke, Gonzaga, Houston, Kansas, Kentucky, North Carolina and Tennessee.

Creighton is one of three BIG EAST Conference schools in this year's preseason poll, joining No. 4 Connecticut and No. 5 St. John's.

Among Creighton's certain non-conference opponents in the poll are No. 21 Gonzaga and No. 16 Iowa State.

The preseason USA Today Coaches poll is expected to be released next week.

Creighton hosts No. 16 Iowa State on Friday at 7:30 p.m. in its exhibition opener.

Associated Press Top 25
Oct. 13, 2025 (Preseason Poll)
Rk School W-L PTS
1 Purdue (35) 0-0 1485
2 Houston (16) 0-0 1459
3 Florida (8) 0-0 1382
4 Connecticut (2) 0-0 1299
5 St. John's 0-0 1203
6 Duke 0-0 1123
7 Michigan 0-0 1084
8 BYU 0-0 1078
9 Kentucky 0-0 1056
10 Texas Tech 0-0 1015
11 Louisville 0-0 966
12 UCLA 0-0 741
13 Arizona 0-0 715
14 Arkansas 0-0 695
15 Alabama 0-0 620
16 Iowa State 0-0 616
17 Illinois 0-0 567
18 Tennessee 0-0 462
19 Kansas 0-0 453
20 Auburn 0-0 424
21 Gonzaga 0-0 387
22 Michigan State 0-0 188
23 Creighton 0-0 158
24 Wisconsin 0-0 136
25 North Carolina 0-0 104
Others receiving votes: NC State 101, Oregon 98, San Diego State 74, Texas 35, Ohio State 23, Kansas State 13, Mississippi 11, Southern Cal 10, Missouri 8, Washington 7, Vanderbilt 7, Iowa 6, Boise State 4, Mississippi State 3, VCU 2, Virginia 2, Saint Mary's 2, Indiana 1, Oklahoma 1, Baylor 1.

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