The Iowa men’s basketball season ended just six days ago, and experts are already picking the Black and Gold hoopsters to make a strong push to be among the nation’s top 25 teams during the 2013-14 season.

The day after the 2013 NCAA title game, in which Louisville topped Michigan, 82-76, college basketball experts and news outlets across the country were priming their audiences with next season’s “way-too-early” preseason rankings — and many included Iowa in their selections.

The Hawkeyes’ placement in the way-too-early rankings ranged anywhere from just outside the top-25 to one college basketball expert naming Iowa a top-five team. The most common spot for Fran McCaffery’s crew was in the 20-25 spots.

Jason King, a college basketball writer for ESPN.com, slated Iowa at No. 25 in his Very early Top 25 for 2013-14. King says the Hawkeyes are rapidly improving and that “every key player will return from a team that went 25-13 overall.”

Yahoo! Sports’ Jeff Eisenberg threw the Hawkeyes into the “Fifteen others to watch” category after providing his top-10 teams in Yahoo’s A way-too-early look at college basketball’s best teams for the 2013-14 season.

USA Today Sports’ Scott Gleeson pegged Iowa at No. 16. Gleeson wrote the returning experience of Devyn Marble, Mike Gesell, and Aaron White would allow Iowa to close out the big games needed to make next year’s dance in his Forecasting the NCAA basketball top 25 in 2013-14.

Perhaps the biggest surprise came from former Wake Forest basketball coach Dino Gaudio, who named Iowa one of his top-five teams for next season, behind Duke, Florida, Georgetown, and Kentucky.