LOS ANGELES – The UCLA men’s basketball team will open the 2025-26 season ranked No. 12 in the preseason Associated Press poll, as announced on Monday. The Bruins, who went 23-11 overall last season, will return four key contributors from last season’s team and have welcomed five transfer students this summer.
 
The top five teams in the preseason poll include No. 1 Purdue, No. 2 Houston, No. 3 Florida, No. 4 UConn and No. 5 St. John’s.
 
The Bruins are one of six programs in the Big Ten Conference to have been ranked among the AP’s top 25 teams. Also in the top 25 poll from the Big Ten are No. 7 Michigan, No. 17 Illinois, No. 22 Michigan State and No. 24 Wisconsin. Conference foes Indiana, Iowa, Ohio State, Oregon, USC and Washington have received votes in the preseason poll.
 
This marks UCLA’s highest preseason ranking (AP poll) since the 2022-23 season, when the Bruins opened at No. 8 in the AP poll.
 
UCLA will play a pair of exhibition games this month, including this Friday night’s exhibition contest at San Diego State (7 p.m., PT, at Viejas Arena at SDSU). UCLA’s showdown this Friday will include a radio broadcast on AM 790, the Bruins’ flagship station. The Bruins will host one exhibition game against UC Irvine on Tuesday, Oct. 28, before opening their regular-season schedule against Eastern Washington on Monday, Nov. 3. The season-opening game against Eastern Washington is scheduled to begin at 7:30 p.m. inside Pauley Pavilion presented by Wescom Financial.
 
Glancing at the preseason AP poll, UCLA will play seven regular-season games against teams that have been ranked in the poll. That includes matchups with Arizona, Gonzaga, Illinois, Michigan, Michigan State, Purdue and Wisconsin.

AP Preseason Poll (Men’s Basketball)




Rank
Team
Points
Last Season




1
Purdue
1485
24-12


2
Houston
1459
35-5


3
Florida
1382
36-4


4
UConn
1299
24-11


5
St. John’s
1203
31-5


6
Duke
1123
35-4


7
Michigan
1084
27-10


8
BYU
1078
26-10


9
Kentucky
1056
24-12


10
Texas Tech
1015
28-9


11
Louisville
966
27-8


12
UCLA
741
23-11


13
Arizona
715
24-13


14
Arkansas
695
22-14


15
Alabama
620
28-9


16
Iowa State
616
25-10


17
Illinois
567
22-13


18
Tennessee
462
30-8


19
Kansas
453
21-13


20
Auburn
424
32-6


21
Gonzaga
387
26-9


22
Michigan State
188
30-7


23
Creighton
158
25-11


24
Wisconsin
136
27-10


25
North Carolina
104
23-14