After an impressive run to the Sweet Sixteen in last year's NCAA Tournament and with a handful of new faces on the roster, the Michigan basketball program is entering the season ranked.

According to the AP preseason poll, the Wolverines are heading into the year ranked No. 22, one spot ahead of Illinois.

The Wolverines are one of three Big Ten programs to make the preseason poll, with Indiana coming in at No. 13.

Despite Juwan Howard having a relatively young team again this season, Howard told reporters during U-M's Media Day that the team had an excellent bonding experience during its overseas trip this summer.

We had one of the best trips over the summer. I don't know if you had a chance to witness it on social media or read it in the newspaper. But that trip, being able to go to Paris and also Athens, Greece and Mykonos was some of the best—talk about being able to bring a team that's very new. Have one returning starter, three juniors two grad transfers, five new freshmen, and two guys that were, excuse me, three, Kobe Bufkin, Isaiah, and Will, who were on the team last year, but Kobe played more than Isaiah and Will. That was the most important time for us this past summer is getting away. That really helped our team in a lot of ways of forming that brotherhood and chemistry that we always talk about, you know, it's easy to say, hey, that's my brother, or it's my family. But there's nothing like when you're away from your family and the 10 days where you have no cell phones, cell phone usage, if you use your cell phone, it's very expensive and charges a lot of money. They have to be forced to talk and hang out and they couldn't go anywhere. Like to see each others faces every day, see my face every day, it was awesome. So that's what really brought us all together. I think from that trip, we've learned a lot about one another and hopefully, it will carry over to this season and continue with our culture.

The full poll is as follows:

1. North Carolina

2. Gonzaga

3. Houston

4. Kentucky

5. Baylor

6. Kansas

7. Duke

8. UCLA

9. Creighton

10. Arkansas

11. Tennessee

12. Texas

13. Indiana

14. TCU

15. Auburn

16. Villanova

17. Arizona

18. Virginia

19. San Diego State

20. Alabama

21. Oregon

22. Michigan

23. Illinois

24. Dayton

25. Texas Tech