For the 14th straight season, I will vote in the AP Top 25 men’s basketball poll, which is a major responsibility I take seriously. I just wish the deadline to submit my poll each week wasn’t Monday at 7 a.m., which means I start my work week off with a 5 a.m. wakeup call. West Coast voters want sleep, too! Those early wake-up calls start in a couple of weeks with the season kicking off Nov. 3, which is less than a month away. The preseason Top 25 poll comes out Monday. Below are five trends to track entering the season, plus my preseason Top 25 ballot.

* Purdue at No. 1: The Boilermakers top my ballot with Houston the only other team I considered. The Boilermakers return veteran PG Braden Smith, who could be the nation’s best player, in addition to a 20-point scorer (Trey Kaufman-Renn) and a nice big-man transfer (Oscar Cluff, who played at Nevada’s Lawlor Events Center last year with South Dakota State). Purdue’s offense will be elite. The Boilermakers’ national title hopes hinge on a defense that ranked 53rd in KenPom last year.

* Will SEC still be king? The SEC earned 14 bids into last year’s NCAA Tournament with the Big Ten a distant second with eight berths. The SEC had seven teams in the Sweet 16, four in the Elite 8, two in the Final Four and the eventual national champion in Florida. The 14 overall bids, eight teams advancing to the second round and seven Sweet 16 appearances were all single-season conference records. I have six SEC teams on my preseason Top 25, which may end up being light.

* Kentucky or BYU? Kentucky stole BYU’s head coach last season and both prospered. The Wildcats, led by Mark Pope, reached the Sweet 16 for the first time since 2019. The Cougars, led by Kevin Young, reached the Sweet 16 for the first time since 2011. And now both are preseason top-10 teams with BYU possessing the potential No. 1 overall draft pick AJ Dybantsa. These schools are tied together due to last year’s coaching change. Who will advance further in this year’s tournament?

* Auburn without Bruce Pearl: Pearl stepped down last month with his son, Steven, taking over as the Tigers’ head coach. If the older Pearl was still Auburn’s coach, I’d have the Tigers several spots higher. Steven has never been a head coach before, and losing an expert like Bruce Pearl this close to the start of the season is not ideal. While Steven Pearl could one day be a good head coach, asking him to lead a team that has Final Four aspirations to that level in his first year is a big ask.

* One mid-major makes cut: Only four non-Power 5 schools (we’re including the Big East as a power conference) got at-large berths into last year’s tournament with three going to the Mountain West and one to the West Coast Conference. That’s not ideal for college basketball’s national appeal but will likely continue with the transfer portal and NIL deals making it hard for so-called mid-major schools to keep their top talent. San Diego State is the only mid-major on my preseason ballot.

Preseason AP Top 25 ballot

1. Purdue

2. Houston

3. Florida

4. UConn

5. Kentucky

6. Texas Tech

7. Duke

8. BYU

9. Michigan

10. St. John’s

11. Louisville

12. Arizona

13. Arkansas

14. UCLA

15. Illinois

16. Auburn

17. Alabama

18. Gonzaga

19. Kansas

20. Creighton

21. Tennessee

22. North Carolina State

23. San Diego State

24. Iowa State

25. Wisconsin

Columnist Chris Murray provides insight on Northern Nevada sports. Contact him at crmurray@sbgtv.com or follow him on Twitter @ByChrisMurray.