Duke and Maryland were 1-2 Monday in The Associated Press' preseason college basketball poll, just the second time two teams from the same conference have held the top spots.

The other time also involved two schools from the Atlantic Coast Conference, when Georgia Tech and North Carolina were 1-2 before the 1985-86 season.

Duke, the defending national champion, was the runaway No. 1 choice by the national media panel. The Blue Devils, who return three starters from the team that went 35-4, received 61 first-place votes and 1,787 points.

Maryland, which lost to Duke in its first Final Four appearance last season, had six first-place votes and 1,634 points to match the school's highest ranking ever.

Duke and Maryland are scheduled to play twice during the regular season -- at Duke on Jan. 17, and a month later at Maryland.

The preseason No. 1 ranking is the fifth for Duke and first since before the 1998-99 season. The Blue Devils, who were No. 2 in last year's preseason poll, have been ranked in the top 10 before each of the last 12 seasons, except for 1995-96. Since the preseason poll began for the 1961-62 season, Duke has been ranked in the top 10 23 times.

"It's always an honor and very nice to be ranked No. 1," Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski said, playing down the preseason ranking for a team that lost consensus national player of the year Shane Battier and fifth-year senior Nate James. "Experience means so much. Fortunately, this group has that."

Illinois, which received two first-place votes, was third and was followed by Kentucky, which was No. 1 on three ballots. The rest of the Top 10 was UCLA, Florida, Kansas, Missouri, Iowa and Saint Joseph's.

Virginia, another member of the ACC, led the second 10 and was followed by Memphis, Stanford, Georgetown, Michigan State, Temple, Boston College, Oklahoma State, North Carolina and Southern California.

The last five teams in the preseason poll were Syracuse, Indiana, Texas, Alabama and Oklahoma.

The preseason Top 25 came from eight conferences, with the Big 12 leading the way with five teams -- Kansas, Missouri, Oklahoma State, Texas and Oklahoma. The ACC, which also had North Carolina, and the Big Ten -- Illinois, Iowa, Michigan State and Indiana -- were next with four teams each.

This is third straight preseason poll and fourth in the last five that has two teams from the same conference in the top five.

The ACC did it last season with Duke and No. 5 Maryland, and so did the Pac-10 with No. 1 Arizona and No. 4 Stanford.

Arizona, which lost to Duke in last season's national championship game, returns only guard Jason Gardner from its starting lineup. The Wildcats were not in the preseason Top 25, snapping the longest current consecutive streak of poll appearances.

Arizona had been in every Top 25 since the preseason poll of the 1995-96 season, a run of 108 consecutive polls. The longest run now belongs to Duke and Stanford, which have been in each poll since the preseason poll of the 1996-97, a run of 91 consecutive polls.

Eight teams in last year's preseason poll weren't in the final Top 25, including Tennessee and Seton Hall, which were Nos. 9 and 10, respectively, in the preseason voting.

Duke was No. 1 in the final poll last season for the third straight year matching UCLA's record set from 1971-73.