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College Basketball Rankings: Arizona opens the season at No. 11 in USA Today Top 25

The Arizona Wildcats are back at the top of the college basketball world to begin the year.

Jayne Kamin-Oncea-US PRESSWIRE - Presswire

The Arizona Wildcats are ranked No. 11 in the USA Today Top 25 to start the 2012-13 season. The Wildcats are the highest ranked Pac-12 team.

Arizona finished with a 23-12 record and 12 conference wins last season, but it wasn't enough to make the NCAA tournament in a down year for the league. The Wildcats return plenty of talent from that squad, including senior Solomon Hill and sophomore Nick Johnson. Their non-conference schedule will being at Nov. 11 against Charleston Southern in Tuscon.

UCLA is the only other Pac-12 team in the poll, and they are ranked at No. 13. The Bruins also missed the NCAA tournament despite a 11-7 league record.

The Pac-12's two most storied programs look to battle for the conference title this year. They meet twice, with the first game coming on Jan. 24.

Keeping with the theme of historically dominant programs returning to prominence, the Indiana Hoosiers will open the year at No. 1. Rival programs Louisville and Kentucky are at Nos. 2 and 3, while Big Ten rivals Ohio State and Michigan round out the top five.

Full top 25 rankings:

1 Indiana

2 Louisville

3 Kentucky

4 Ohio State

5 Michigan

6 North Carolina State

7 Kansas

8 Duke

9 Syracuse

10 Florida

11 Arizona

12 North Carolina

13 UCLA

14 Michigan State

15 Creighton

16 Memphis

17 Missouri

18 Baylor

19 UNLV

20 San Diego State

21 Wisconsin

22 Gonzaga

23 Notre Dame

24 (tie) Florida State

24 (tie) Texas