Kentucky passes two fellow blue bloods in new Top 25 college basketball rankings
The result of a memorable week for Kentucky basketball — highlighted by the debut of freshman recruit Zvonimir Ivisic — was a rise in the national rankings Monday afternoon.
The Wildcats (14-3, 4-1 SEC) moved up two spots to No. 6 in the Associated Press Top 25 poll, jumping over fellow blue bloods Kansas and Duke following two victories in Rupp Arena last week.
UK defeated Mississippi State 90-77 on Wednesday night and notched a 105-96 win over Georgia on Saturday, the latter game featuring the debut of Ivisic, a 7-foot-2 newcomer from Croatia who made a lasting impression in his first college basketball appearance. “Big Z” tallied 13 points, five rebounds, two assists, three blocked shots and two steals against the Bulldogs.
This is the sixth consecutive week that Kentucky has been ranked in the top 10 nationally. Kansas, ranked No. 3 last week, lost 91-85 at West Virginia on Saturday, and Duke, the No. 7 team in last week’s poll, lost 80-76 at home to Pittsburgh on Saturday.
Defending national champion UConn (17-2, 7-1 Big East) remained in the No. 1 spot for the second straight week, followed by No. 2 Purdue, No. 3 North Carolina, No. 4 Houston and No. 5 Tennessee.
Kentucky was next at No. 6, followed by the Jayhawks at No. 7, with No. 8 Auburn, No. 9 Arizona and No. 10 Illinois coming next. Duke dropped five spots to No. 12, with Memphis suffering the biggest slide in the new poll, going from No. 10 to No. 19 following narrow losses to Tulane and South Florida last week.
The Auburn Tigers (16-2, 5-0) remain the only undefeated team in SEC play this season. They’ll get what could be a couple of difficult tests this week: road games against Alabama and Mississippi State.
Kentucky is also hitting the road for both of its games this week: South Carolina on Tuesday night and Arkansas for a Saturday evening matchup.
While Tennessee, Kentucky and Auburn are all ranked in the top 10 this week — no other conference has three teams in that range — that trio represents the SEC’s only programs in the new Top 25, with Ole Miss going from No. 22 to unranked after losses at LSU and Auburn last week.
Alabama is 29th in the voting despite a 91-71 loss at Tennessee over the weekend. Ole Miss dropped to 31st in the voting, with Florida at 36th. No other SEC team received a vote in this week’s poll. UK’s only remaining nonconference opponent in the regular season, Gonzaga, ended up tied with Florida at No. 36 in the voting.
UK starts the week in the No. 16 spot in the KenPom ratings, which have the Wildcats at No. 4 nationally in offensive efficiency, though their defensive efficiency standing has dropped to No. 73 in the country. Kentucky has the nation’s No. 1 scoring offense — 91.6 points per game — but the Cats are giving up 77.2 points per game (No. 312 in Division I basketball).
The NCAA’s NET ratings — an important tool for the tournament committee on Selection Sunday — place UK at No. 18 in the country, with a 2-2 record in Quad 1 games.
The game at South Carolina on Tuesday night will count as a Quad 1 opportunity, according to the current rankings. The Gamecocks (15-3, 3-2) have been one of the biggest surprises in the league so far this season. They were picked to finish 14th and last in the preseason media poll but go into this week with early victories over Mississippi State, Missouri and Arkansas, just one win shy of matching their conference total from last season, when they finished 4-14 in the SEC.
South Carolina is projected to be one of the last four teams in the 2024 NCAA Tournament field, according to Monday’s update to the Bracketville website. KenPom is projecting an 80-77 victory for the Cats on Tuesday night.
This story was originally published January 22, 2024 at 1:07 PM.
