The 2023-24 college basketball season is rapidly approaching with only three weeks until tip off. To further signal how close college basketball season is, the AP Poll released their preseason top 25 rankings for the upcoming season.

The usual suspects are near the top: Kansas is number one, Duke is number two. Kentucky is in the top 25. So is North Carolina, as are Gonzaga, Arizona, and Michigan State. The reigning national champions, the UConn Huskies, are sixth in the poll. That seems low.

If that seems low, that means there are teams that are ranked ahead of them that shouldn't be. These preseason polls are hardly scientific, but it does seem odd that the national champs, who have multiple players returning from last year's squad and have a top-three recruiting class, would rank only sixth in the AP preseason college basketball poll. There are some teams ranked ahead of them that shouldn't be. Who are they?

Kansas Jayhawks

Kansas' season ended last season at the hands of the Arkansas Razorbacks in the second round of the NCAA Tournament. Their two leading scorers from a year ago, Jalen Wilson and Gradey Dick, are off to the NBA after being drafted by the Brooklyn Nets and Toronto Raptors in the summer. They also lost players like Joseph Yesufu and MJ Rice in the transfer portal.

To be fair, Kansas did make some big additions to their team. They added Hunter Dickinson and Nicolas Timberlake in the transfer portal out of Michigan and Towson, respectively. The Jayhawks also got commitments from two four-star prospects in Elmarko Jackson (who ranks 26th in ESPN's Top 100 rankings of the 2023 recruiting class) and Jamari McDowell.

Those are nice additions, but it isn't exactly a massive overhaul and overall upgrade in the talent department. Jackson and McDowell will have to prove themselves at the college level, and they likely will prove to be very quality players. But Hunter Dickinson is a massive work in progress on the defensive end  of the floor that contributed to many of the defensive problems the Michigan Wolverines had the last couple of seasons more than he resolved them.

Bill Self always figures things out, but there are a lot of questions about this Kansas team. More than a typical number one ranked preseason team with 46 first place votes typically has.

Purdue Boilermakers

The last time the world saw Purdue take the basketball floor, they became the second number one seed to get upset by a 16 seed in the first round of the NCAA Tournament. The entire team was flustered by Fairleigh Dickinson's constant ball pressure and swarming help defense on Zach Edey. They essentially dared anybody not named Edey to beat them, and no one else on Purdue was up for the challenge.

So why is Purdue ranked third in the preseason AP Poll? Yes, Zach Edey, the reigning Neismith Player of the Year, returns and is still an absolute load to deal with. But so does basically everybody else on last year's team. The only additions Purdue made this offseason has come in the form of four-star recruit Myles Colvin and Southern Illinois transfer Lance Jones.

Jones shot 36.8% from the field last season and 41.3% for his career and has more assists than turnovers four seasons. Jones can create his own shot and Purdue badly needs somebody other than Edey who can do that. But Jaden Ivey could also do that and Purdue still lost to No. 15 seed Saint Peter's in the 2022 NCAA Tournament

Purdue has lost the benefit of the doubt. Their being ranked third in the country doesn't make much sense.

Marquette Golden Eagles

Marquette was great in the regular season in the 2022-23 season. They were 10th in Kenpom entering the NCAA Tournament. But they got stifled by the Michigan State Spartans and were upset in the second round of the tournament. After that, they saw one of their best players in Olivier Maxence-Prosper get drafted in the first round of the NBA Draft by the Dallas Mavericks.

The Golden Eagles do return Tyler Kolek and Oso Ighodoro and bring in three four-star prospects to their team this season. They will be a tough out yet again. But them being ranked fifth in the country after losing Prosper seems a bit too high.