Kentucky’s No. 8 in latest poll, but ESPN’s not as high on the Cats

Kentucky’s riding a six-game winning streak that has it ranked eighth in the Associated Press Top 25 poll released Monday afternoon.

That’s up from 10th last week and it’s the highest the Cats have been ranked since they were sixth in the Week 7 poll on Dec. 16, 2019.

However, UK’s recent run of success wasn’t enough to keep it from dropping from a 3-seed to a 4-seed in ESPN’s Bracketology update posted earlier Monday.

Teams ahead of UK in Joe Lunardi’s NCAA Tournament field projections included No. 1 seeds Kansas, Baylor, San Diego State and Gonzaga; No. 2 seeds Dayton, Maryland, Duke and Florida State; and No. 3 seeds Louisville, Villanova, Seton Hall and Creighton.

Also, ESPN’s College Basketball Power Index, which has Duke at No. 1 followed by Kansas, Gonzaga, Michigan State and Baylor, has the Cats way off the pace at No. 23. Ranking 60th in strength of schedule in that evaluation isn’t helping UK’s case.

Back to the AP poll, Kansas (24-3) moved up to No. 1 while Baylor (24-2) and Gonzaga (27-2) slid a spot to second and third, respectively, after losses this past week. Louisville (23-5) held firm at No. 11.

The Cats (22-5, 12-2 Southeastern Conference) are coming off a week that included a 79-76 victory at LSU and a 65-59 defeat of Florida in Rupp Arena.

This week, UK travels to play Texas A&M on Tuesday and then hosts Auburn on Saturday.

BYU, coached by former Kentucky star Mark Pope, surged six spots to 17th after Saturday’s upset of then-No. 2 Gonzaga.

It was the eighth straight win for the Cougars (23-7, 12-3 West Coast Conference), and it was Pope’s 100th career victory.

▪ This week’s USA Today coaches’ poll had Kansas at No. 1, followed by Baylor, Dayton, Gonzaga and San Diego State. UK and Louisville both moved up a spot to ninth and 10th, respectively. Pope’s BYU squad went from unranked to 18th.

Women’s poll

The UK women’s team fell one spot to 15th after splitting its week.

The Cats (20-6, 9-5 SEC) crushed Mississippi 94-52 on the road Thursday before losing 67-58 to No. 1 South Carolina in Memorial Coliseum on Sunday.

The Gamecocks, with 27 of 30 first-place votes, held on to the top ranking ahead of Baylor, Oregon, Stanford and Louisville.

AP men’s top 25

The top 25 teams in The Associated Press’ men’s college basketball poll, with first-place votes in parentheses, records through Feb. 23, total points based on 25 points for a first-place vote through one point for a 25th-place vote and last week’s ranking:

Others receiving votes: Arizona St 95, Illinois 82, Arizona 71, Butler 51, Virginia 50, Marquette 41, Stephen F Austin 29, LSU 24, ETSU 13, Utah St. 9, Florida 8, Wisconsin 7, New Mexico St. 2, N. Iowa 2, Liberty 2, UCLA 1.

AP women’s top 25

The top 25 teams in The Associated Press’ women’s college basketball poll, with first-place votes in parentheses, records through Feb. 23, total points based on 25 points for a first-place vote through one point for a 25th-place vote and last week’s ranking:

Others receiving votes: Arkansas 44, Florida Gulf Coast 21, Cent Michigan 6, Duke 1.

This story was originally published February 24, 2020 at 12:14 PM.

Dennis Varney

Lexington Herald-Leader

Dennis Varney is a former journalist for the Herald-Leader