College basketball rankings: Florida, Duke are clearly top two teams, could be headed for undefeated showdown
The Gators and Blue Devils lead the Top 25 And 1 and it's not too early to start thinking about their game next month
• 1 min read
I was on CBS Sports HQ the other night, talking college basketball with the great Adam Schein, and, at some point, he asked if I believed Florida and Duke -- the two schools sitting first and second in the Associated Press Top 25 poll, the Coaches Poll, KenPom.com, BartTorvik.com and every edition of the Top 25 And 1 for months -- are clearly the two best teams in the sport.
At this point, I said, yes. And nothing that happened Thursday pushed me in another direction.
Florida, the team sitting at No. 1 in Friday morning's updated CBS Sports Top 25 And 1 daily college basketball rankings, beat Jacksonville 88-57. Duke, the team right behind the Gators in the Top 25 And 1, beat Coastal Carolina 113-52.
Both teams are now 2-0. Both now have net-ratings at KenPom above 34.03. Nobody else has a KenPom net-rating above +31.57.
So who is better right now -- Florida or Duke? That's the first question I asked Matt Norlander on Friday's episode of the Eye On College Basketball Podcast. Who is better right now? And the best part is that, no matter what any of us believe, we're less than a month from watching them compete against each other.
Date: Dec. 1
Location: Stephen C. O'Connell Center in Gainesville
It'll be Florida-Duke, in a true home-road environment, on the first day of Santa's month, when both are projected to be undefeated.
Florida should be 6-0. Duke should be 7-0.
Credit where credit is due, the ACC-SEC Challenge got this right by prioritizing the reigning conference champions and matching them against each other. It's a great coaching matchup, too. Florida's Todd Golden is 41 years-old, less than two years removed from a national championship, and among the favorites to win another in 2027. Meanwhile, Duke's Jon Scheyer is 39 years-old and literally the winningest Division I men's basketball coach in history through his first four years as a head coach.
Scheyer won 124 games in his first four years at Duke.
That's a record.
At this point, Golden and Scheyer both seem headed to the Naismith Memorial Hall of Fame. Either way, they're the two best Under-45 coaches in college basketball right now, according to the Candid Coaches series Norlander and I do annually. They've both proven worthy of the jobs they hold and will coach against each other again three weeks from Tuesday.
Top 25 And 1 rankings
Rk | Teams | Chg | Rcrd | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  | Rueben Chinyelu finished with 21 points and eight rebounds in Thursday's 88-57 win over Jacksonville. The Gators' next game is Tuesday at Florida State. | -- | 2-0 |
| 2 |  | Patrick Ngongba II finished with 28 points and nine rebounds in Thursday's 113-52 win over Coastal Carolina. The Blue Devils' next game is Tuesday against Michigan State. | -- | 2-0 |
| 3 |  | Andrej Stojakovic finished with 25 points and five rebounds in Thursday's 112-70 win over Penn. The Illini's next game is Tuesday at Texas Tech. | -- | 2-0 |
| 4 |  | Braylon Mullins finished with 20 points and two steals in Monday's 86-46 win over Gardner-Webb. The Huskies' next game is Friday against Michigan. | -- | 1-0 |
| 5 |  | Tre White finished with 22 points and five rebounds in Monday's 95-65 win over Fordham. The Jayhawks' next game is Friday against Middle Tennessee. | -- | 1-0 |
| 6 |  | Matas Mokietaitis finished with 16 points and seven rebounds in Thursday's 98-50 win over Gardner-Webb. The Longhorns' next game is Monday against Grambling State. | -- | 2-0 |
| 7 |  | Jasiah Jervis finished with 16 points and five rebounds in Thursday's 91-61 win over Toledo. The Spartans' next game is Tuesday against Duke. | -- | 2-0 |
| 8 |  | Flory Bidunga finished with 16 points and nine rebounds in Monday's 84-70 win over Chattanooga. The Cardinals' next game is Saturday against Morehead State. | -- | 1-0 |
| 9 |  | Sam Lewis finished with 20 points and three assists in Tuesday's 89-60 win over Drexel. The Cavaliers' next game is Friday against Northeastern. | -- | 1-0 |
| 10 |  | Jeremiah Wilkinson finished with 23 points and six rebounds in Tuesday's 106-61 win over Arkansas-Pine Bluff. The Razorbacks' next game is Sunday against Virginia. | -- | 1-0 |
| 11 |  | Davis Fogle finished with 22 points and five rebounds in Monday's 78-72 win over Purdue. The Zags' next game is Saturday against New Mexico State. | -- | 1-0 |
| 12 |  | Keyshawn Hall finished with 26 points and nine rebounds in Monday's 78-63 win over Monmouth. The Red Storm's next game is Sunday against Iona. | -- | 1-0 |
| 13 |  | Dedan Thomas Jr. finished with 16 points and five assists in Monday's 94-55 win over La Salle. The Cougars' next game is Sunday against Cal. | -- | 1-0 |
| 14 |  | Trent Perry finished with 21 points and five assists in Monday's 84-75 win over Arizona. The Bruins' next game is Friday against North Florida. | -- | 1-0 |
| 15 |  | Motiejus Krivas finished with 30 points and eight rebounds in Thursday's 104-84 win over Cal Poly. The Wildcats' next game is Tuesday against Northern Arizona. | -- | 1-1 |
| 16 |  | DeWayne Brown II finished with 17 points and 17 rebounds in Tuesday's 90-59 win over Wofford. The Vols' next game is Monday against Radford. | -- | 1-0 |
| 17 |  | Dra Gibbs-Lawhorn finished with 25 points and three rebounds in Thursday's 76-58 win over Bethune-Cookman. The Red Raiders' next game is Tuesday against Illinois. | -- | 2-0 |
| 18 |  | Trey McKenney finished with 17 points and four rebounds in Monday's 84-68 win over Oakland. The Wolverines' next game is Friday against UConn. | -- | 1-0 |
| 19 |  | Shelton Henderson missed 11 of the 13 shots he attempted in Monday's 77-67 loss to Florida. The Hurricanes' next game is Friday against Wagner. | -- | 0-1 |
| 20 |  | Milan Momcilovic finished with 24 points and five rebounds in Tuesday's 85-57 win over Manhattan. The Wildcats' next game is Friday against James Madison. | -- | 1-0 |
| 21 |  | Drew Fielder finished with 15 points and six rebounds in Tuesday's 96-74 win over Sam Houston. The Crimson Tide's next game is Friday against Arkansas State. | -- | 1-0 |
| 22 |  | Adonis Ratliff finished with 25 points and six rebounds in Monday's 95-63 win over Milwaukee. The Trojans' next game is Sunday against Wichita State. | -- | 1-0 |
| 23 |  | Jason Crowe Jr. finished with 23 points and two assists in Tuesday's 111-50 win over Cleveland State. The Tigers' next game is Friday against Saint Louis. | -- | 1-0 |
| 24 |  | Robert Wright III finished with 33 points and five assists in Monday's 94-83 win over Ohio State. The Cougar' next game is Friday against Nebraska Omaha. | -- | 1-0 |
| 25 |  | Tyler Tanner finished with 17 points and 10 rebounds in Thursday's 74-51 win over Wake Forest. The Commodores' next game is Tuesday against Memphis. | -- | 2-0 |
| 26 |  | Omer Mayer missed nine of the 11 shots he attempted in Monday's 78-72 loss to Gonzaga. The Boilermakers' next game is Friday against Valparaiso. | -- | 0-1 |
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