BATON ROUGE — The LSU men’s basketball team received its second highest preseason ranking ever in the Associated Press poll when the media voted LSU No. 5 in the 2006-07 Top 25 announced on Monday.
LSU was ranked for the 11th time in the preseason AP poll and the first time since being ranked sixth in the 1991-92 preseason AP voting. The only time LSU was ranked higher in the preseason was the 1989-90 season when the Tigers were ranked No. 2.
Florida got 63 of the 72 first-place votes and 1,788 total points to be ranked No.1, with North Carolina getting the other nine first-place markers and 1,704 points for second. Kansas is third and Pittsburgh is in front of LSU in fourth. After LSU comes UCLA, Ohio State, Georgetown, Wisconsin and Arizona in 10th.
Other SEC teams and non-conference LSU opponents ranked in the top 25 are: Alabama (11), Texas A&M (13), Washington (17), Connecticut (18), Texas (21), Kentucky (22) and Tennessee (25). Wichita State, who comes to the Maravich Center on Nov. 25 is 26th and missed the top 25 by 22 points.
LSU opens exhibition play on Thursday at 7 p.m. against EA Sports at the Pete Maravich Assembly Center. Admission is $5 or $1 with the donation of a canned good at the arena to the Baton Rouge Food Bank. LSU opens its regular season on Nov. 17 against Nicholls State.
The Preseason Top 25
By The Associated Press
The top 25 teams in The Associated Press’ preseason college basketball poll, with first-place votes in parentheses, 2005-06 records, total points based on 25 points for a first-place vote through one point for a 25th-place vote and last year’s final ranking:
Preseason
1. Florida (63) 33-6 1,788 11
2. North Carolina (9) 23-8 1,704 10
3. Kansas 25-8 1,636 12
4. Pittsburgh 25-8 1,407 16
5. LSU 27-9 1,399 19
6. UCLA 32-7 1,394 t7
7. Ohio St. 26-6 1,391 6
8. Georgetown 23-10 1,271 23
9. Wisconsin 19-12 1,197 NR
10. Arizona 20-13 1,157 NR
11. Alabama 18-13 1,106 NR
12. Duke 32-4 1,051 1
13. Texas A&M 22-9 868 NR
14. Memphis 33-4 811 4
15. Boston College 28-8 772 t7
16. Marquette 20-11 554 NR
17. Washington 26-7 487 17
18. Connecticut 30-4 399 2
19. Creighton 20-10 384 NR
20. Syracuse 23-12 367 21
21. Texas 30-7 366 9
22. Kentucky 22-13 332 NR
23. Georgia Tech 11-17 262 NR
24. Nevada 27-6 212 20
25. Tennessee 22-8 203 18
Others receiving votes: Wichita St. 181, S. Illinois 131, Gonzaga 129, Xavier 99, Florida St. 65, Louisville 62, Villanova 37, Illinois 31, Hofstra 24, Arkansas 20, San Diego St. 19, DePaul 16, Indiana 16, Oklahoma St. 13, Virginia Tech 8, Bucknell 6, Michigan 6, Houston 5, Southern Cal 5, Kansas St. 4, Akron 1, BYU 1, George Mason 1, Missouri St. 1, Oregon 1.