The first major college basketball poll is out. See where Kentucky is ranked.

Kentucky comes into 2018-2019 as the No. 2 team in the nation according media voters in the Associated Press Top 25 poll released Monday.

UK received 19 first-place votes to No. 1 Kansas’ 37 with Gonzaga, Duke and Virginia rounding out the top five.

Kentucky earned its eighth straight top-five ranking in the AP preseason poll.

Kentucky has fared better in some other major outlets’ prognostications ahead of the start of the season.

Kentucky ranks first in Andy Katz’s NCAA.com preseason “Power 36,” ahead of Kansas, Gonzaga, Duke and North Carolina.

In major preseason publications, Kentucky ranks first in the Blue Ribbon College Basketball Yearbook, second by Athlon Sports and fifth in Street & Smith’s.

But in ESPN’s preseason power rankings, Kentucky also ranks second behind Kansas with Gonzaga third, followed by Nevada and Duke.

The Cats return three talented sophomores in PJ Washington, Quade Green and Nick Richards, who will combine with another loaded freshman class that includes Tyler Herro, Ashton Hagans, Keldon Johnson, Immanuel Quickley and EJ Montgomery. And they’re bolstered by graduate transfer Reid Travis, a first-team preseason All-SEC selection.

Kansas took the top spot despite losing three starters. It is Kansas’ third preseason No. 1 ranking in program history.

“Obviously we lost a lot off last year’s team with Devonte’, Svi (Mykhailiuk) and Malik (Newman), so I’m a little surprised that the writers put us there this preseason,” Self said in a statement to the AP. “It’s definitely a spot we welcome and certainly know the goal is to be playing to that ranking by when it counts the most.”

The Jayhawks return veteran starters in junior 7-footer Udoka Azubuike and senior Lagerald Vick from a team that reached its first Final Four since 2012. They’re also adding transfer help from Memphis twins Dedric and K.J. Lawson as well as California’s Charlie Moore — all double-digit scorers on their previous teams.

The ranking comes as the program finds itself entangled in the federal corruption case tied to payments used to steer recruits to certain schools. Testimony during the recent first trials included references to Self and sophomore forward Silvio De Sousa, though Self isn’t charged with wrongdoing and it’s unclear if De Sousa’s status will be affected.

The ACC had the most teams ranked of any conference: Duke, Virginia, No. 8 North Carolina, No. 15 Virginia Tech (its highest spot since the 1995-96 season), No. 16 Syracuse, No. 17 Florida State and No. 22 Clemson.

The Southeastern Conference was next up with five teams: Kentucky, No. 6 Tennessee, No. 11 Auburn (the program’s highest ranking since 2000), No. 18 Mississippi State and No. 23 LSU.

The Big 12 had four (Kansas, No. 12 Kansas State, No. 13 West Virginia and No. 20 TCU), while the Big Ten and Pac-12 each had three, led by No. 10 Michigan State and No. 14 Oregon, respectively.

Kentucky is one of seven schools in the preseason Top 25 that are also ranked in this week’s AP college football poll. The others are Clemson, LSU, Michigan, Oregon Washington and West Virginia

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

The Top 25

The top 25 teams in The Associated Press’ preseason 2018-19 men’s college basketball poll, with first-place votes in parentheses, final 2017-18 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:

This story was originally published October 22, 2018 at 12:55 PM.