After week of carnage in college basketball, where did Kentucky land in the new rankings?
Few of the top teams in the college basketball rankings were safe last week.
No. 6 Kentucky suffered a 97-92 overtime loss at unranked Texas A&M on Saturday, but the Wildcats had plenty of company in the losing column. Nine of the top 11 teams from last week’s Associated Press Top 25 poll lost games — and each of them was defeated by an unranked opponent. In total, 15 teams from last week’s Top 25 suffered at least one loss.
That obviously led to quite a bit of movement in the new poll.
Kentucky ended up at No. 8 — a drop of two spots — when this week’s rankings were released Monday afternoon. The Wildcats (12-3, 2-1 SEC) beat Missouri 90-77 earlier in the week, before the loss in College Station.
UK has two home games this week. The Cats will host Mississippi State (12-4, 1-2) — a team that upset then-No. 5 Tennessee in Starkville last week — on Wednesday night before playing Georgia (12-4, 2-1) in Rupp Arena on Saturday evening. The Bulldogs had won 10 games in a row before nearly knocking off the Volunteers over the weekend.
Tennessee dropped from No. 5 to No. 6 following its shaky week. Red-hot Auburn, which has won 14 of its past 15 games, moved from No. 16 to No. 13 in the new poll. Ole Miss jumped back into the rankings at No. 22 this week. Alabama, the only team other than Auburn that’s undefeated in SEC play, went from 40th in the voting last week to 29th in Monday’s poll.
Two other SEC teams also received votes in this week’s Top 25: Mississippi State (41st in the voting) and South Carolina (43rd).
More on the Top 25
The list of losers at the top of the rankings last week was a long one: No. 1 Purdue, No. 2 Houston, No. 3 Kansas, No. 5 Tennessee, No. 6 Kentucky, No. 8 Arizona, No. 9 Oklahoma, No. 10 Illinois and No. 11 Marquette all suffered losses to unranked teams. Houston, the nation’s only undefeated team heading into last week, lost twice to unranked opponents (Iowa State and TCU), and Oklahoma also dropped both of its games.
UConn and North Carolina — No. 4 and No. 7 last week, respectively — were the only top 10 teams to get through unscathed.
The new top 10: No. 1 UConn, No. 2 Purdue, No. 3 Kansas, No. 4 North Carolina, No. 5 Houston, No. 6 Tennessee, No. 7 Duke, No. 8 Kentucky, No. 9 Baylor and No. 10 Memphis.
Kentucky’s biggest win so far this season is last month’s 87-83 victory over North Carolina in Atlanta. The Wildcats’ only remaining nonconference opponent is Gonzaga, which was No. 23 in last week’s poll but got beat 77-76 at Santa Clara to fall out of the Top 25 for the first time since 2017, snapping the nation’s longest such streak at 143 weeks. The Cats will host Gonzaga (11-5) on Feb. 10.
UK started this week at No. 18 in the NET ratings — an important sorting tool for the NCAA Tournament selection committee — and the Wildcats now have a 2-2 record in Quad 1 games this season. Kentucky has six more of those games remaining on its schedule, according to the latest ratings, with the next opportunity coming Jan. 23 at South Carolina.
This week’s games against Mississippi State and Georgia will be considered Quad 2 and 3 matchups, respectively.
The latest bracketology update from the Bracketville website Monday morning placed Kentucky as a 3 seed, starting the NCAA Tournament in Pittsburgh — with Rick Pitino and St. John’s as a possible second-round opponent — and in the Detroit regional.
Tough times at the top
A complete list of the teams that were ranked in the Top 25 last week and lost to unranked opponents:
▪ Nebraska 88, No. 1 Purdue 72.
▪ Iowa State 57, No. 2 Houston 53.
▪ TCU 68, No. 2 Houston 67.
▪ UCF 63, No. 3 Kansas 60.
▪ Mississippi State 77, No. 5 Tennessee 72.
▪ Texas A&M 97, No. 6 Kentucky 92.
▪ Washington State 73, No. 8 Arizona 70.
▪ TCU 80, No. 9 Oklahoma 71.
▪ Maryland 76, No. 10 Illinois 67.
▪ Butler 69, No. 11 Marquette 62.
▪ Boise State 65, No. 17 Colorado State 58.
▪ New Mexico 88, No. 19 San Diego State 70.
▪ Virginia Tech 87, No. 21 Clemson 72.
▪ Santa Clara 77, No. 23 Gonzaga 76.
▪ West Virginia 76, No. 25 Texas 73.
This story was originally published January 15, 2024 at 1:07 PM.
