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College basketball rankings: Kyle Filipowski's return bumps Duke into top five of never-too-early Top 25 And 1 – CBS Sports
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Kyle Filipowski was a projected first-round pick — arguably a possible lottery pick — of the 2023 NBA Draft after one season at Duke, where he was the best freshman in the country not named Brandon Miller. For that reason alone, he’s been listed as a departing player in the first three versions of the 2023-24 CBS Sports preseason Top 25 And 1. But the 6-foot-11 forward announced Tuesday that he’s actually returning for his sophomore season, so the Blue Devils have moved into the top five of the Top 25 And 1 based on the idea that they’re going to bring back the top four scorers from a team that went 10-1 in its final 11 games and pair that core with a top-two recruiting class featuring four five-star prospects.
Duke is now No. 4 in the Top 25 And 1.
Is there a case to be made for Duke to be No. 1? Yes — especially if you believe a couple of the five-star freshmen will be great right from the jump. But my current projections still have UConn returning five of the top six scorers from a team that won the national championship — i.e., everybody except Jordan Hawkins — and adding a top-five recruiting class, so I’m keeping the Huskies No. 1 in Version 4.0 of the Top 25 And 1. Behind UConn, I still have Purdue and Marquette at No. 2 and No. 3, respectively, based on projections that have the Boilermakers returning six of the top seven scorers — including CBS Sports National Player of the Year Zach Edey — from a team that won the Big Ten before securing a No. 1 seed in the 2023 NCAA Tournament, and the Golden Eagles returning every relevant player from a team that won the Big East before securing a No. 2 seed in the 2023 NCAA Tournament.
If any of those roster projections change in a meaningful way, so will these rankings. But, for now, UConn, Purdue, Marquette, Duke and Miami represent the top five in the Top 25 And 1.
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