DURHAM, N.C. – The Duke men’s basketball team was ranked No. 1 in the Preseason Associated Press poll released on Wednesday, marking the ninth time in program history – and second year in a row – that the Blue Devils have claimed the top spot in the preseason rankings.

Duke’s nine preseason AP No. 1 rankings are the second-most in the history of the poll, as are its 129 total weeks as the AP’s top-ranked team. The Blue Devils have been ranked No. 1 in the AP poll 74 times since the start of the 1997-98 season, far and away the most in the nation. The program has now been ranked No. 1 in a total of 21 seasons, including 13 of the last 20 years.

“It is an honor to be picked number one in your sport,” said Duke head coach Mike Krzyzewski. “At this time of the year, it truly is a prediction, so you haven’t earned number one yet. More than likely, past teams that have played at Duke have put this team in a position where people might say, ‘How is that team going to do?’ or ‘They have a lot of talent’ and all of the sudden, you’re number one. Certainly, it’s an honor and we’ll look forward to trying to achieve and earn that ranking at some time during the season, hopefully at the end.”

Entering the 2017-18 season, Krzyzewski has led the program to the AP’s No. 1 ranking in 18 seasons, the most all-time. Under Coach K, Duke has played more games as the nation’s top-ranked team (223) than it has as an unranked team (145).

Coach K has a record of 194-29 (.870) in the top spot of the AP poll, marking the second-most games and wins in that position. Krzyzewski is just five games shy of John Wooden’s all-time record of 228 games coached as the No. 1 team in the country.

The Blue Devils also debuted at No. 1 in the preseason USA TODAY Coaches Poll released on Oct. 19.

Duke returns seven letterwinners from last year’s squad and features one senior in guard Grayson Allen, who was recently named first team preseason All-American by Blue Ribbon.

Following its final exhibition game on Saturday vs. Bowie State at 1:00 p.m. in Cameron Indoor Stadium, Duke opens the 2017-18 regular season when it hosts Elon on Nov. 10 for a 7:00 p.m. tip. Ryan Craig, Gerald Henderson and Chris Spatola will make the call for ACC Network Extra, which is an Atlantic Coast Conference-dedicated live-events digital network available to authenticated subscribers of ESPN3 available on WatchESPN and the ESPN app. Additionally, the Blue Devil IMG Sports Network will have the radio broadcast.