UConn beat out for No. 1 in way-too-early college basketball Top 25

It's certainly a bit too early to determine who the winner of March Madness 2024 will be, but that hasn't stopped CBS Sports from coming up with an early Top 25 looking ahead to next season.

Yes, we're still a summer plus a football season away from anyone even realizing that college basketball is a thing, but with the players entering the NBA Draft locked in and most transfer players having picked their new homes, we do have enough information to make a few educated guesses.

That's what Gary Parrish at CBS Sports has done, and it's more than noteworthy to see that he has predicted that there's one squad that could be better than the defending champion UConn Huskies heading into next year.

That team is Kansas.

"This ranking is based on the Jayhawks returning two starters—Dajuan Harris and K.J. Adams—from a team that won the Big 12 regular-season title before securing a No. 1 seed in the 2023 NCAA Tournament," Parrish wrote. "Bill Self has reshaped the roster with a top-10 recruiting class highlighted by former Michigan All-American Hunter Dickinson, former Towson sharpshooter Nick Timberlake, former McDonald's All-American Arterio Morris and five-star freshman Elmarko Jackson."

Dickinson is certainly a massive addition for Kansas, but UConn did just roll through the NCAA Tournament and the Huskies are returning four of their top six scorers next season. Yes, UConn is losing Jordan Hawkins (16.2 points, 3.8 rebounds per game) and Adama Sanogo (17.2 points, 7.7 rebounds per game) to the NBA Draft, but it is still a bit jarring to see the Huskies enter this offseason as anything but No. 1.

To be fair, Parrish did say that UConn is a "real contender" to win it all in back-to-back fashion, but for now, it looks like the Jayhawks are his favorite to earn that final big "one shining moment."