Kentucky plummets in new college basketball rankings after nightmare week at Rupp
READ MORE
Game day: No. 17 Kentucky 109, Vanderbilt 77
Click below for more of the Herald-Leader and Kentucky.com’s coverage of Tuesday’s men’s basketball game between Kentucky and Vanderbilt at Memorial Gymnasium in Nashville, Tennessee.
Expand All
The Kentucky Wildcats are surely hoping a new week brings different results.
Their recent history on the court has been a time to forget, though the college basketball observers responsible for the national rankings gave UK a reminder of it.
The Cats dropped seven spots in the new Associated Press Top 25 poll, going from No. 10 last week to No. 17 in Monday’s updated rankings. Kentucky had spent seven consecutive weeks in the top 10 of that poll, but losses to Florida and Tennessee — both coming in Rupp Arena — led to the Wildcats’ biggest rankings drop of the 2023-24 season.
The No. 17 ranking also ties a season low in the poll for the Wildcats, who were last ranked in this spot following the first week of the season. Fourteen of the 61 AP voters had Kentucky outside of the top 20 on Monday, and three of those voters had the Cats off their ballots altogether.
UK (15-6, 5-4 SEC) has now lost three of its past four games. Two weeks ago, the Cats were ranked No. 6 nationally, but that was before a 79-62 loss at South Carolina, a 63-57 win at Arkansas and the two home defeats last week.
The AP voters weren’t the only ones to move Kentucky way down their lists.
ESPN’s power rankings were updated Monday morning, and the Wildcats dropped from No. 8 overall to outside of the top 16 altogether. (ESPN ranks just 16 teams in that weekly exercise.)
UK was the first team mentioned outside of those rankings.
“The defensive concerns are clearly legit,” ESPN’s Jeff Borzello wrote.
Indeed, Kentucky fell out of the top 100 in defensive efficiency, according to the KenPom ratings, dropping to No. 102 in that stat following the 103-92 loss to Tennessee on Saturday night. UK, which has the nation’s No. 7 offense, is now No. 27 overall in the KenPom ratings. Kentucky was at No. 16 on the KenPom list going into the game against South Carolina two weeks ago.
The Wildcats are no longer included at all on the CBS Sports’ Top 25 (and one) list, falling out of those rankings completely following their disastrous week at home.
The NCAA’s NET ratings — an important measuring tool for the NCAA Tournament selection committee — has Kentucky at No. 26 to start this week. The Cats are just 2-4 in Quad 1 games after the loss to Tennessee on Saturday night.
The Bracketville website, which regularly updates its NCAA Tournament projections, had Kentucky as a 6 seed in its new bracketology Monday morning. That’s exactly where UK was seeded in last year’s NCAA Tournament, where they ultimately lost to 3-seeded Kansas State in the second round. Baylor is the Cats’ potential 3-seed matchup in Monday’s bracket update.
Obviously, there’s still plenty of basketball to be played. Kentucky has 10 more regular-season games before the SEC Tournament and then Selection Sunday on March 17.
The Cats will travel to Vanderbilt on Tuesday night, then return home for a nonconference game against Gonzaga on Saturday afternoon. The Zags will represent another chance at a Quad 1 win, though it’s possible that will slip to a Quad 2 game by next month, especially if UK does come away with the victory. Gonzaga is currently No. 27 in the NET ratings, and only home games against top 30 teams count as Quad 1 matchups.
Kentucky also has Quad 1 games remaining against Alabama (home) and Auburn, Mississippi State and Tennessee (all on the road) before the league tournament.
Now 21 games into the regular season, the Cats still have not played at full strength. Starting point guard D.J. Wagner missed the past two games with an ankle injury — and freshman 7-footer Zvonimir Ivisic was out Saturday due to illness — but it’s possible that both players will be back on the court this week. UK is 0-3 with Wagner out of the lineup this season.
South Carolina is ranked
The SEC has five teams in the new AP Top 25 rankings.
South Carolina has been the biggest surprise in the league so far. Picked to finish 14th and last in the conference during the preseason, the Gamecocks are now 19-3 overall and 7-2 in SEC play — just one game out of first place — with victories over Kentucky and Tennessee in the past two weeks. They were ranked No. 15 in Monday’s AP poll, their first national ranking since Feb. 13, 2017. The Gamecocks were 26th in the voting last week.
Tennessee fell from No. 5 to No. 6 in the new Top 25, and the Vols were followed by No. 12 Auburn, No. 15 South Carolina, No. 16 Alabama and No. 17 Kentucky among teams in the SEC. Also mentioned in the poll was Ole Miss, which was 34th in the voting.
UConn and Purdue remained the top two teams in the national rankings, with No. 3 North Carolina, No. 4 Kansas and No. 5 Houston rounding out the top five. They were followed by No. 6 Tennessee, No. 7 Marquette, No. 8 Arizona, No. 9 Duke and No. 10 Illinois.
This story was originally published February 5, 2024 at 1:05 PM.
