Hoosiers Now

Indiana Barely Misses Out on First Associated Press Top-25 Basketball Poll

The Associated Press preseason college basketball poll came out on Monday, and Indiana just barely missed out on being ranked. Five teams are in the top-25, and Indiana would be No. 27.

Tom Brew

Indiana Barely Misses Out on First Associated Press Top-25 Basketball Poll
Indiana Barely Misses Out on First Associated Press Top-25 Basketball Poll /

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. — Indiana isn't in the Associated Press top-25 poll to start the season, and now the watch is on to see how soon they can crack the list.

The Hoosiers received a total of 41 votes, and would be ranked No. 27 overall. Michigan State is one slot ahead of them. There were five Big Ten teams in the top-25, led by Michigan at No. 6 and Purdue at No. 7.

Illinois is 11th, Ohio State is No. 17 and Maryland checks in at No. 21. Rutgers also received votes.

The Hoosiers open the season on Nov. 9 at home against Eastern Michigan, the first game of the Mike Woodson era. He's replacing Archie Miller, who spent four years at Indiana and had a ranked team for only six weeks of his career in Bloomington. 

His second team, the 2018-19 squad, was ranked from Dec. 10, 2018 through Jan. 14, 2019. The highest they were ever ranked was No. 21. The fell out of the rankings at the start of a stretch of games where they lost 12 of 13 games.

Indiana plays Purdue, Maryland and Ohio State twice, and Michigan once. Their other 23 games are against unranked teams.

Here is the complete Associated Press top-25 preseason college basketball poll, with total votes, first-place votes in parentheses and Big Ten teams in bold:

  1. Gonzaga (55) — 1,562
  2. UCLA (8) — 1,459
  3. Kansas — 1,427
  4. Villanova — 1,332
  5. Texas — 1,315
  6. Michigan — 1,255
  7. Purdue — 1,213
  8. Baylor — 992
  9. Duke — 963
  10. Kentucky — 894
  11. Illinois — 861
  12. Memphis — 831
  13. Oregon — 775
  14. Alabama — 713
  15. Houston — 694
  16. Arkansas — 673
  17. Ohio State — 581
  18. Tennessee — 563
  19. North Carolina — 547
  20. Florida State — 381
  21. Maryland — 294
  22. Auburn — 267
  23. St. Bonaventure — 238
  24. Connecticut — 161
  25. Virginia — 125

OTHERS RECEIVING VOTES: Michigan State 87, Indiana 41, USC 30, Arizona 26, Virginia Tech 25, Oklahoma State 25, Xavier 22, Texas Tech 17, Richmond 13, Rutgers 11, Colorado State 11, Belmont 7, LSU 7, St. John's 5, Mississippi State 5, Syracuse 5, San Diego State 5, Drake 4, Colorado 4, BYU 3, Louisville 3, Notre Dame 3

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Tom Brew
TOM BREW

Tom Brew is an award-winning journalist who has worked at some of America's finest newspapers as a reporter and editor, including the Tampa Bay (Fla.) Times, the Indianapolis Star and the South Florida Sun-Sentinel. He has covered college sports in the digital platform for the past six years, including the last five years as publisher of HoosiersNow on the FanNation/Sports Illustrated network.

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