How much did Kentucky move in the new Top 25 rankings after a wild week on the road?

The Kentucky Wildcats suffered their first loss of the Mark Pope era last week.

The defeat didn’t do much to downgrade their position in the national rankings.

UK came in at No. 5 in the latest Associated Press Top 25 poll Monday afternoon, dropping just one spot after an eventful week on the road. The Cats endured their first loss of the 2024-25 season last Tuesday night — a 70-66 defeat at Clemson — before traveling across the country to Seattle and completing an 18-point comeback with a 90-89 overtime victory over Gonzaga, which was ranked No. 7 in the country going into that game.

The Cats will take an 8-1 record into this week, and they’ll get to stay home in Rupp Arena for both games: Colgate on Wednesday (8 p.m. on ESPN2) and the annual rivalry matchup with Louisville on Saturday (5:15 p.m. on ESPN). UK will play those games without backup point guard Kerr Kriisa, who’s expected to miss several weeks with a foot injury.

The conference schedule is getting closer for Kentucky — the SEC slate begins Jan. 4 — and it’s looking even more difficult now than it did in the preseason, when nine teams from the league were included in the initial Top 25 poll.

This week’s rankings feature nine SEC teams, too, with Tennessee leading the way at No. 1, replacing Kansas after an 8-0 start to the season, with all of its wins coming by double digits.

Rounding out the top five this week were No. 2 Auburn, No. 3 Iowa State, No. 4 Duke and No. 5 Kentucky. The rest of the top 10 consisted of No. 6 Marquette, No. 7 Alabama, No. 8 Gonzaga, No. 9 Florida and No. 10 Kansas.

Beyond Tennessee, Auburn, UK, Bama and Florida in the top 10, the SEC landed Oklahoma at No. 13, Texas A&M at No. 17, Ole Miss at No. 19 and Mississippi State at No. 25. Also receiving votes in the new poll were Missouri (29th), Arkansas (31st), Georgia (43rd) and Texas (45th).

The leaguewide gains in the poll came after the conference dominated the SEC/ACC Challenge last week, winning 14 of 16 games in the interleague showcase. To start this week, 13 of the SEC’s 16 teams are rated in the top 50 nationally by KenPom, and South Carolina is the lowest in those rankings — at No. 68 in the country.

Kentucky’s first SEC game will be Jan. 4 against ninth-ranked Florida in Rupp Arena.

It was another week with a lot of losses at the top of the rankings.

Kansas was the preseason No. 1 team in the AP poll and stayed in that position in each of the first four regular-season polls, starting off with a 7-0 record that included victories over North Carolina, Michigan State and Duke.

Last week, the Jayhawks lost to two unranked teams — Creighton and Missouri — and moved down nine spots in Monday’s poll as a result.

Auburn, which was No. 2 last week, lost at Duke in the SEC/ACC Challenge for its first defeat of the season. Kentucky, which was previously No. 4, lost at Clemson in the same event, and then-No. 5 Marquette suffered its first loss — at Iowa State — on Wednesday night. Gonzaga and Purdue — the No. 7 and No. 8 teams last week, respectively — also lost games.

This story was originally published December 9, 2024 at 1:09 PM.

Ben Roberts

Lexington Herald-Leader

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Ben Roberts is the University of Kentucky men’s basketball beat writer for the Lexington Herald-Leader. He has previously specialized in UK basketball recruiting coverage and created and maintained the Next Cats blog. He is a Franklin County native and first joined the Herald-Leader in 2006. Support my work with a digital subscription