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College basketball rankings: Arizona a preseason No. 2 behind Kentucky

The Arizona basketball team is No. 2 behind Kentucky.

Richard Mackson-USA TODAY Sports

Sean Miller's Arizona Wildcats will begin the 2014-15 season ranked No. 2 in the country by his fellow coaches, unsurprisingly behind a two-deep Kentucky Wildcats team.

Arizona earned three first-place votes and 746 total points, while UK gathered 24 first-place votes and 785 points. Duke, Wisconsin and Kansas round out the top-5 schools.

As for top-25 schools on the Wildcats' schedule next year, there's not much to work with. San Diego State, ranked 17th, could meet UA for another showdown, this time in the Maui Invitational. No. 13 Gonzaga comes to McKale Center on Dec. 6 a week before No. 23 Michigan visits on Dec. 13. The Pac-12 doesn't have another ranked team, though Stanford is two spots outside the top-25 and Utah is ranked 30th. UCLA (33rd), Oregon (35th) and Colorado (37th) are also not far out of the picture.

So in a fitting sort of way since this Reddit user snapped a picture of the basketball team bowling, the Wildcats will be expected to bowl over the competition. But things could change, obviously, if those second-tier Pac-12 schools do some solid work in the nonconference schedule.

Preseason College Basketball Coaches Poll

RANK TEAM RECORD POINTS 1ST PLACE VOTES
1 Kentucky 29-11 785 24
2 Arizona 33-5 746 3
3 Duke 26-9 715 2
4 Wisconsin 30-8 706 3
5 Kansas 25-10 654 0
6 North Carolina 24-10 598 0
7 Florida 36-3 568 0
8 Virginia 30-7 519 0
9 Louisville 31-6 507 0
10 Texas 24-11 479 0
11 Wichita State 35-1 471 0
12 Villanova 29-5 439 0
13 Gonzaga 29-7 423 0
14 Iowa St. 28-8 323 0
15 Connecticut 32-8 292 0
16 Virginia Commonwealth 26-9 259 0
17 San Diego State 31-5 251 0
18 Michigan State 29-9 241 0
19 Oklahoma 23-10 237 0
20 Ohio State 25-10 223 0
21 Nebraska 19-13 156 0
22 Southern Methodist Univ. 27-10 149 0
23 Michigan 28-9 139 0
24 Syracuse 28-6 128 0
25 Iowa 20-13 56 0

Others receiving votes: Harvard 47; Stanford 47; Kansas State 37; Pittsburgh 36; Utah 26; Memphis 25; Minnesota 18; UCLA 15; New Mexico 11; Oregon 9; Louisiana Tech 8; Colorado 8; Arkansas 8; Dayton 6; Providence 5; Notre Dame 5; Massachusetts 4; Georgetown 4; Illinois 4; Texas-El Paso 4; Florida State 3; Baylor 2; George Washington 1; Miami (Fla.) 1; Toledo 1; Saint Mary?s 1.