The men’s basketball preseason USA Today Coaches Poll was released Thursday and while Florida State was nowhere to be found in the top 25, the Seminoles managed to garner three votes.
Florida State finished 22-14 last season. The Seminoles narrowly missed playing in the NCAA Tournament for a fifth time in six years and wound up falling in overtime to Minnesota in the semifinals of the NIT. Florida State will have a number of key players returning for the 2014-15 season, but will lose two of its top three scorers from last season — one of whom led the team in rebounding.
Topping the preseason poll was last year’s runner-up Kentucky, who took home 24 of a possible 32 first place votes. Kentucky was followed by another group of Wildcats, Arizona. Duke, the top ACC team in the poll, was third.
Wisconsin and Kansas rounded out the top 5, but three of the next five teams were from the ACC. North Carolina will start the year ranked sixth, Virginia is eighth and conference newcomer, Louisville is ninth.
Florida State’s arch-rival Florida begins the season ranked seventh and Texas rounds out the top 10.
