Kentucky makes another move in Top 25 poll. Is a bigger rankings jump coming next week?
After enjoying an unprecedented rise in the men’s college basketball rankings over the past couple of weeks, the Kentucky Wildcats found themselves with little room for improvement in the latest Associated Press Top 25 poll.
But things could change in a big way again next week.
UK moved up one spot to No. 8 in the new AP rankings, which were released Monday afternoon. The Cats beat Lipscomb and Jackson State by a combined 78 points last week, but only one team ranked ahead of them lost, with No. 6 Purdue falling 76-58 in a true road game at No. 15 Marquette.
Kansas stayed atop the new poll at No. 1, and the Jayhawks were followed by No. 2 UConn, No. 3 Gonzaga, No. 4 Auburn and No. 5 Iowa State in a top five that didn’t change at all. Rounding out the top 10 were No. 6 Houston, No. 7 Tennessee, No. 8 Kentucky, No. 9 Alabama and No. 10 Marquette.
UK passed Purdue (now 13th) and Alabama in the poll, while Tennessee jumped four spots after beating Baylor and Virginia by double digits last week, sliding by the Cats in the process.
Kentucky had moved up 10 spots last week and a total of 14 spots over the past two weeks — both program records for rises in the AP poll, which has been around since the 1948-49 season — as Mark Pope’s Cats have started his first year as UK coach with a 5-0 record, beating then-No. 6 Duke 77-72 in the Champions Classic and winning the other four games by an average of 36.8 points.
With a stacked college basketball schedule for Thanksgiving week, the Wildcats could be in for another big jump soon.
Three teams ranked ahead of Kentucky this week — UConn, Auburn and Iowa State — are playing in the loaded Maui Invitational, and the Tigers and Cyclones were scheduled for an opening-round matchup there late Monday night. No. 12 North Carolina is also in the event.
Only one of those teams can make it out of Maui with a perfect record for the week, and — while a loss to another elite squad isn’t going to hurt anyone’s ranking too badly — those who fall in the tournament could be passed up by the Wildcats in next week’s poll.
UK will play Western Kentucky on Tuesday night and Georgia State on Friday night, and the current KenPom projections have the Cats winning those games by 19 and 23 points, respectively.
Alabama and Houston — two others in the top 10 — play against each other Tuesday night, and the Crimson Tide will face previously ranked Rutgers on Wednesday. The Tuesday slate of games also features No. 1-ranked Kansas against No. 11 Duke in Las Vegas.
Next week will also bring a possibility for the Wildcats to make a move in the rankings.
Kentucky will play its first true road game — at Clemson on Dec. 3 — and then travel to Seattle to face third-ranked Gonzaga in what is expected to be another rowdy atmosphere. If the Cats can make it through the end of that week unscathed — no small task — then they’ll probably be looking at a top-five national ranking when the next poll comes out.
UK was No. 23 in the preseason Top 25.
More on the Top 25 rankings
There are now nine SEC teams in the AP Top 25 rankings.
In addition to Auburn, Tennessee, Kentucky and Alabama in the top 10, the latest poll features No. 18 Florida, No. 19 Arkansas, No. 20 Texas A&M, No. 23 Ole Miss and No. 25 Mississippi State, with the latter two teams new to the rankings this week.
Combined with the games against Gonzaga and Duke on the nonconference schedule, Kentucky will have a total of 12 matchups against teams in the current Top 25 during the regular season, and six of those games will come against teams in the top 10. (UK will play Alabama and Tennessee twice each, in addition to the Auburn and Gonzaga matchups.)
The Wildcats will also have several games against teams that received votes in the latest AP poll: Texas (28th in the voting), Ohio State (29th), Georgia (37th) and Vanderbilt (42nd). The Commodores, picked to finish 16th and last in the SEC during the preseason, are off to a 6-1 start under new head coach Mark Byington, and they’ll face UK twice during the season.
Mark Pope’s former team, BYU, was No. 26 in the voting this week. Rick Pitino and St. John’s — ranked 22nd in last week’s poll — fell to 37th in the voting after losses to Baylor and Georgia.
This story was originally published November 25, 2024 at 1:04 PM.
