USA Today’s preseason basketball poll is out. Unsurprisingly, defending national champion Florida, which returns all five of its starters, is #1. North Carolina is #2, Kansas is #3, Ohio State is #4 and Pittsburgh and UCLA are tied for #5. Gonzaga finished just outside the Top 25, coming in at #26 (or #1 in the “others receiving votes” category).

Notre Dame received no votes. Ranked (or almost-ranked) teams on ND’s home schedule are: #12 Alabama (Dec. 7), #28 Louisville (Jan. 3), #32 Villanova (Jan. 27), #40 DePaul (Feb. 20) and #17 Marquette (Feb. 24). Aside from Marquette, the Big East’s other Top 25 teams either don’t play the Irish this year (#5 Pitt, #18 UConn) or else they host us (#8 Georgetown, #20 Syracuse). Not the most exciting home schedule ever, but also perhaps a bit of an easier conference road than last year’s. We’ll see. Non-conference road games of note include #39 Maryland (Dec. 3) and possible NIT showdowns with #43 Indiana in Indy and, if the Irish win that one, probably some combination of #2 North Carolina, #24 Tennessee and #26 Gonzaga at Madison Square Garden.

As for USC… they also received no votes. Their first game against a ranked team is a doozie: Dec. 4 at #3 Kansas. After that, they travel to #45 George Washington on Dec. 9. They may play #27 Wichita State on Dec. 23, depending on how the first-round games in the Las Vegas Classic go. Ranked conference foes are #5 UCLA, #10 Arizona and #16 Washington. The pollsters apparently expect a “down” year in the Pac-10, as those three are the only conference teams that received any votes at all.