What did Kentucky’s win at Auburn mean for the national rankings? Here’s the new poll.
Kentucky’s biggest win of the college basketball season resulted in a rise in the rankings.
The new Associated Press Top 25 poll was released Monday afternoon, and the Wildcats jumped five spots to the No. 17 position nationally. UK ended up at No. 22 in last week’s poll, the Cats’ lowest ranking of the season and one that came just three weeks after they had risen to the No. 6 spot in the country.
Kentucky (18-7, 8-4 SEC) is coming off its first 2-0 week in a month, beating Ole Miss 75-63 last Tuesday night to break a three-game home losing streak, then going to Auburn and upsetting the Tigers 70-59 in Neville Arena, the team’s biggest win of the season so far.
The Wildcats’ showing was lauded nationally. ESPN’s weekly power rankings named Kentucky the “team of the week” — though that site kept UK just outside of its top 16 list nationally. USA Today also recognized Kentucky as the biggest “winner” of the week in college basketball.
The Cats’ five-spot rise was the largest gain of any previously ranked team in the Top 25 this week.
Last week, 28 of the 61 AP voters didn’t include Kentucky on their Top 25 ballots at all. This time around, only two of 62 voters kept the Wildcats off their lists. Six voters had UK at No. 13 in the rankings — the highest anyone ranked the Cats this week — and a total of 20 voters placed Kentucky somewhere inside the top 15.
The Cats’ much-maligned defense jumped up more than 20 spots to No. 81 nationally — according to the KenPom efficiency ratings — following the performance at Auburn, and that number is more than 40 spots better than it was to start last week, a promising trajectory for a team that already has a potent offense. (UK is No. 7 nationally in offensive efficiency.)
Kentucky will have another interesting week coming up, with a road trip to LSU on Wednesday (9 p.m. on ESPN) and then a huge home game against SEC leader Alabama in Rupp Arena on Saturday (4 p.m. on CBS). KenPom is projecting a close game in Baton Rouge — an 84-80 UK win — and an even closer one this weekend in Lexington: a 91-89 victory for Alabama, which is rated No. 1 in the country in offensive efficiency.
Two wins this week would put the Cats in a good position to finish the season strong and lock up a double bye in the SEC Tournament, and beating Bama would give Kentucky a realistic shot at the SEC regular-season title.
New Top 25 rankings
UConn (24-2, 14-1 Big East) remained in the No. 1 spot in the AP rankings following another dominant week that included an 81-53 win over then-No. 4 Marquette on Saturday. The defending NCAA champion Huskies have now won 14 straight games, and they picked up all 62 first-place votes in this week’s poll, making them the first unanimous No. 1 team of the season.
Rounding out the top five: No. 2 Houston, No. 3 Purdue, No. 4 Arizona and No. 5 Tennessee, and those teams were followed by No. 6 Iowa State, No. 7 Marquette, No. 8 Duke, No. 9 Kansas and No. 10 North Carolina.
In addition to Tennessee and Kentucky, the SEC has four other teams in this week’s rankings: No. 13 Alabama, No. 14 Auburn, No. 20 South Carolina and No. 24 Florida. The Gators were one of five new teams in the weekly rankings, and Florida Atlantic, Indiana State, Oklahoma, Virginia and Wisconsin all dropped out.
South Carolina fell the furthest in the new rankings following a 101-61 loss at Auburn and a 64-63 defeat to LSU in Columbia last week. The Gamecocks had moved to No. 11 in the previous poll after being unranked just two weeks earlier.
The Big 12 joined the SEC with six teams in the new AP poll. No other conference has more than three teams in the Top 25.
This story was originally published February 19, 2024 at 1:08 PM.
