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The deadline for players to take their names out of the NNA Draft has come and gone, and the news was (mostly) good for college basketball. A handful of players projected to be selected in the late first or early second rounds opted instead to return to school, which boosted the statuses of multiple teams from our first early offseason top 25.
While there’s still a bit of moving and shaking to play out, here’s an updated look at the 25 best teams in men’s college basketball (plus 10 more) heading into the 2026-27 season.
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1. Florida Gators
2025-26 Record: 27-8
2025-26 Finish: Second Round
With Rueben Chinyelu officially opting to spurn the NBA and return to school for one more year, Florida will return the same frontcourt that won a national title two seasons ago and earned a No. 1 seed in 2026. Bringing back point guard Boogie Fland — whose emergence in the second half of the season took the Gators from disappointment to legitimate national title contender — and reserve guard Urban Klavzar is enormous as well. Extremely capable two guard Denzel Aberdeen is also back after a season at Kentucky, but he’ll need a waiver to play in 2026-27.
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With or without Aberdeen, this is the best roster in college basketball at this point in the offseason, and that seems unlikely to change between now and early November.
2. Illinois Fighting Illini
2025-26 Record: 28-9
2025-26 Finish: Final Four
Outside of star freshman guard Keaton Wagler, virtually every key contributor will be back from an Illinois team that took the program to its first Final Four since 2005. Andrej Stojaković gave the fan base a little bit of a scare before officially withdrawing from the NBA Draft on deadline day.
The addition of Providence transfer Stefan Vaaks should help alleviate the losses of Wagler and fellow guard Kylan Boswell. The big question for this team will be whether or not incoming freshman Quintin Coleman is good enough to replace Wagler and run the show. The Illini are…
Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/articles/college-basketball-top-25-rankings-165322860.html
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Publish date : 2026-05-29 16:53:00
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